Dave and Kath's Campervan Travels

All creatures great and small (part 2)....

Wednesday 12 June 2013

We've had a lovely couple of days out and about visiting some of the towns and villages on the peninsula including Bodrum and Gumusluk but if the truth be known we have mainly been lazily 'hanging out' at our friends house which is in the middle of nowhere - a really beautiful place and quite remote. Once a day the peace is broken when a 'Jeep-Safari' or 'Quadbike-Safari' passes on a forestry track nearby. For around £35 you can eat the dust kicked up by the vehicle in front of you as part of your 'fun' day out.

We're not quite sure what, if any, wild creatures they are expecting to see on their 'safari' but around here we've seen squirrels, tortoises, lizards, various bugs, bats, and today - a scorpion!

Last week, on or travels here, we also saw a number of other creatures - some familiar ones, others not so familiar!

Cutest of all the creatures we've 'seen' though has to be the big fluff ball that is Jake!

Market day in Mumcular

Sunday 9 June 2013

We have slowed down, almost to a standstill, here in sleepy Kurudere, the small village where our friends live. One week on and the van still hasn't moved and we are enjoying some naughty lie-ins although we are trying to do our bit around the house!

The 'boys' got the pool ready and I cleaned the sun-loungers!

So at 11am we were a bit late arriving at the market in Mumcular which starts early and is wrapped up just after lunchtime. Annie normally organises the shopping I gather, but Teo was in charge of filling up the fridge and cupboards with fresh produce today. The small town has grown since we were first here about 5 years ago but still retains a nice feel to it and the streets are closed as the market spills out in all directions each Sunday morning.

Great opportunity for taking photographs of the huge range of items on sale including fruit and vegetables, herbs and spices, fabrics, tools, household goods, clothes and sunglasses (spot the fakes!) ....

With a large outlying population it's a busy place and mainly used by locals so the prices are affordable. We came back with bags full of bread, simits, tomatoes, cucumber, potatoes, onions, courgettes, aubergine, lettuce, spring onions, cheese, olive oil, cherries, melon, peaches, figs, fresh parsley and dill - and all that came to about £18. Not bad eh....

Other than the diesel, which is the most expensive we have paid to date, our other major expense in Turkey is alcohol. A 500ml bottle of Efes costs about £1.20, comparable to UK prices but over twice what we've paid in most European countries to date. Dave's having to cut back.......a little!

"Tut-tut, it looks like rain"

Saturday 8 June 2013

It rained yesterday! Only a few drops mind - unlike the deluge that fell on central Europe last week ending Dave's mums boat trip on the Danube which became unnavigable - see link to the news story here.

As Eeyore said "The nicest thing about rain is that it always stops. Eventually" - and today the blue skies are back and the sun is shining again. Phew.....

"I'm just a little black rain cloud"

The van is having a well earned rest parked up in the shade of the oleander trees and hasn't moved since we arrived here on Monday.

Dave has been helping Teo around the house, getting the pool ready for use, fitting a plant watering irrigation system and just tatting about. Jake has been supervising.

And I have been feeding and watering them at the appropriate times finding my way around Annie's kitchen in her absence. After 3 months of 'cooking' on a tiny hob and grill with limited food supplies my culinary skills are a little rusty. Haven't forgotten how to make cakes though!

Welsh cakes in a Turkish kitchen!

"Hoş geldiniz’"

Wednesday 5 June 2013

"Hoş geldiniz’"– means "Welcome" in Turkish and is a customary greeting used by almost everyone you meet.

Patriotic bunting flying above Edirne's main street

From our first encounter the welcome has been as warm and genuine as we have always found in Turkey. Driving through Edirne, having only just crossed the border, a refuse collector hanging off the back of his lorry quizzed Dave in Turkish about our travel plans when the vehicles drew up level at the traffic lights on red. We weren't expecting to have to have a conversation in Turkish so soon but Dave managed to speak enough to satisfy his curiosity about the travellers in the van with the steering wheel on the wrong side.

Glasses of Turkish çay (tea)

On a 12km stretch of sandy beach called Panamos north of Kuşadasi we drank çay with the café / shack owner and an enterprising chap who owned a 4WD jeep fitted with a sturdy winch ready to pull the locals cars out of the sand every half an hour for 10TL, about £3, a go. We also whiled away another hour drinking more çay with a day trip ‘captain’ in Sarsala Bay who asked Dave to search the sea bed for his missing oar as he snorkeled around his boat watching the colourful fish. Filling up with diesel on Monday the attendant chatted away asking where we had been and where we were going. When he found out we had been in Akyaka the previous evening his face lit up – a popular spot with Turks visiting its sandy beach, buzzing estuary front and the cold clear river with overhanging fish restaurants. He recounted his recent day trip there which included diving off the little bridge into the chilly water and drinking a few too many rakis by the sound of it. He wanted us to stay and talk more over yet more çay but we really needed to get on.

Akyaka

Turkey has always held a special place in our hearts and we love driving around this vast country. In the past we have travelled right out to the eastern border, along the Black Sea coast, through the central regions, all along its southern Mediterranean coast and out towards the borders with Syria and Iran. This time though, in our gas-guzzling van which eats up the rather expensive diesel at an alarming rate, we decided to limit our travels to the western coast revisiting places we have been before but also hoping to discover new places at a slower pace.

Another country - another transport museum! Train Museum at Camlik

We have been coming here since the mid 80’s and it feels that while we have been growing old Turkey has become more youthful and modern. The improvement in the roads (although not always the driving standards) is amazing with smooth dual carriageways making long journeys so much easier and there are now a bewildering number of supermarkets with all kinds of goods available on the shelves. Some things haven’t changed though – Dave was in his element driving around the automotive area of the industrial estate in Muǧla negotiating an air filter change for the van! Half an hour later and £11 lighter we were on our way again with a new filter fitted as well as a ‘complimentary’ engine check.

Safer and speedier dual carriageways everywhere

Our trip so far has brought us across the border to Edirne from where we drove down through Galipoli crossing the straights to Çanakkale before heading south and then east towards Edremit. We stopped near Ayvalik before driving through sprawling Izmir then south towards Selçuk and a quick dash to Fethiye. We then spent a week slowly ‘bimbling’ back towards Mumcular spending time in the coastal area around Dalaman and popping into numerous coves and harbours around Marmaris and Datça. At the head of the Gulf of Gökova we ‘found’ delightful Akyaka – a place we must have whizzed past many times before but never stopped at. Slowing down and limiting the miles has allowed us to discover many 'new' places.

Beautiful Sarsala bay (spot the van top left hand side under a tree!)

Turkey is currently hitting the headlines as peaceful protests have been turning nasty after the use of excessive force to disperse the crowds by the authorities. We’ve seen nothing of this on our travels here so far, we still feel extremely safe and in response to the ubiquitous ‘Hoş geldiniz’ greeting we always reply ‘Hoş bulduk’ meaning ‘Happy to be here’ – and we really are…..