Güle Güle Turkey

6fartsinacart
Jun 19, 2017
3 min read

16 June 2017, Friday: I literally leap out of bed when glancing at my watch at 8.30pm. Soon after everyone is awake and up. Emile, Genève, Dad and I all have a swim this morning in the lovely blue sea. We share our watermelon with the 5 Turks and 12pm we head off again. We have to cross the Istanbul Channel and decide to take the newly built motorway. We struggle finding the junction that takes us onto the motorway as it is a new road and very badly marked. The fact that we can’t read or speak Turkish also doesn’t help (SAT-NAV also in the dark). Eventually we find it and drive among many big trucks, mostly trucks using this motorway. We leave the motorway, pay the toll fee and stop next to the road at 3.45pm for a late lunch. We continue to a beach at Ormanli, but move on 10km further to another beach at the Blue… oops Black Sea. We stop on a small cliff over-looking the beach and have a peaceful evening. 17 June 2017, Saturday: We tidy up and leave at 9.45am taking a less travelled road towards Bulgaria. Today we are crossing the border which is approximately 100km away. While on this small and untarred road, Dad allows Emile to drive. Emile safely takes us over bumpy rocks and scary hills till we finally reach the tarred road again. Blessie, our Land-Cruiser, would have been envious of these 4X4 roads which we take Merzy on. We stop for lunch at 1.30pm and try to get as much of the blog done while the sun is still shining and until our Turkish data runs out. Not soon after it starts raining and we are back on the road again. We reach the border at 4.50pm. This is one of the most difficult border crossings we’ve had so far. We have to show our passports at least 4 times, Merzy is sent through a X-ray scan to make sure she isn’t carrying anything illegal, we have to pay for Merzy to be disinfected with some or other spray (which involves looking for cash in Euro's and not cents, since they won’t accept our small change) and buying a Vignette/road tax. 5.45pm and mentally exhausted we finally exit customs on the Bulgarian side. A few kilometres away from the border we turn off onto a side road and stop in the woods for the night. The birds singing in the trees are so lovely and peaceful that it takes our minds away from the tough afternoon we’ve had. 10.30pm we are all blissfully asleep. 18 June 2017, Sunday: We have decided that sleeping and leaving late is not a good habit, so we have set our watches for 6.30am to have enough time for our own quiet time and to get ready to leave at a reasonable time. The alarm has just been switched off when we hear a vehicle ride up and stop next to Merzy. Oh dear. Border patrol. Dad greets the border police at the door and shows our passports that are requested. We are all lying anxiously in bed hoping that we won’t get into trouble for sleeping here last night. After checking our passports, Dad says we will be leaving shortly and the man says it’s no problem. We let out a sigh of relief. Getting up early seems to work (still early days), because we are gone by 9am. At 12pm we pull up at a beach at Pomerie. We get the blog up to date, have lunch and enjoy the scenery for the rest of the day. Emile is the only one to brave the wind and waters to go for a swim. In the evening we park Merzy on a concrete slab right next to the sea and Dad cooks chicken kebabs over the gas BBQ. While Dad is skyping Grandpa, we get the shock of our lives. A camper reverses and goes over the edge of the parking area, about a 1.5 meter drop. The whole back-end is solidly lodged on the rocks needing more that physical strength to dislodge and lift the vehicle. Everyone, except Dad, goes to bed slightly rattled.