Every man dies, not every man really lives... Wild Child
24-10-2007
We have seen Turkey upside down, inside out and discovered all it's beauty................
Hellooooowwww,
we meet again today, some are waitıng for this and others just enjoy the way it goes.
So, a few weeks ago we were in Antalya for a short visit, but the town isn't as nice as we thought, so let's get the .... out of here.
Back on the road to explore thıs big country. Many people told us about Cappadocie and that was the next target to head for. On the way up we passed by Termessos, some ancient Roman village on top of a mountain with a spectacular vieuw from the theater. A must see for dreamers.... In the night we were visited by some wild piggs and mmmmhhhh do i smell bacon around???....hehe
Back on track and a short visit to a cave, inhabited for more than 25000 years made us feel like neanderthalers again and İ explaıned Carla how they got married then. Just pick one out and head for a dark corner...... no further details.....
Back in my flinstones-jeep and let's drive a bit...... to a big lake. Nice spot to relax and the morning after we stepped the gas and made it to Eskil, a place not so far away from the biggest salt lake on the planet, Tuz Golu, above Konya city.
We tried to find it but where the ....is this lake now. Only dust and a vieuw going nowhere, but the surroundings where great. A nice sundown made it all complete and the morning after i got stuck in the mud.... So there is some kind of water after all???? hehe Digging our way out we left and got to Aksaray city to fınd a good map of cappadocie. Turkey and maps???? You'll see when you get here.... İn the backdrop i saw this great mountain, and hehey nothing could stop me anymore. We drove to the closest town and then a bit up the hill we slept. Hmmmm sleep? Not really, heavy winds and a storm came later, forcing us to get inside the jeep before my rooftent was almost blown away..... But the morning after, great sky and let's get up this big dude. A heavy path, it wasn't really a path, but we made it after struggeling over loose rocks and steep steep climbs all the way to 3268m. once on top we realised that the ''path'' we took was the hardest way up but we came down the normal way... hehe . So we spent the night again at the start of the Hasan Dagi, and head out for magnifıcient Cappadocia. First we visited Ihlara valley, a rivervalley full of churches carved out of the rockside. A nice site and a good walk that day after Hasan Dagi.... Hole houses are carved out of the rock, man, this must have taken ages to do????
Further away the world famous underground cities were waiting for us. We took our headlamp and explored a few of these. Can you imagine whole cities being underground with everything you can think of. Churches, rooms, hamams,dark halls going for hundreds of meters and ending in rooms again. A nice place to explore and fantacise around every corner. Somewhere between these towns we were again invited for thee at the locals. They all are very friendly and Cay or thee is the national favorite. On the road again i heard a strange noise at my front wheels after driving in a few very deep pitts in the road. Yeah, these roads can sometimes be very bad and dusty. Mmhh, after searching for hours it was just a little piece of metal from the chassis making this heavy noise and oeffff, nothing bad......
I gave my dear jeep some new oil to roll and you could see the smile on his face, saying let's roll my friend....
So with a new start we came to these magnificient hills and towns lying between them which give cappadocia it's name. Waaaaawwww, it's incredible and we feel like walking straight into a cartoon. Mushrooms chaped hills, houses built into them, colours pink,red and white being mixed into a wonderfull surrounding...... It's hard to explain it, but imagine the flinstones and a bunch of dwarfs living together in fairy chimneys.......
We spent a few days walking around and really enjoyed this place.
On our way out we passed by a caravanserai, an old trading place, and i booked for a night of ' Derwish dancers'. So we came by later in the evening and in this very nice old castle we had a great evening looking at these dancers. They get into some kind of spiritual trance by songs and then they keep on turning and turning and turning until the people looking at them get delirious of it. i felt like falling down and flying up all the time, hehey, no we didn't take any kind of druggs.....
Passing by Kayseri, big town, we got into this area with much Jandarma control town after town and someone explained us they have problems with the PKK or some kind of extremists. Mmmhh, we drove carefully further and at a bridge over the Euphrat-river we were hold and said to turn back. Shit after this hole way to get here, it was my birthday afterall. So we explained and someone took us into the next town and invited us into his restaurant. Waaaaw we were served like royals and i had the best fish in years. And it was so cheap??? ( 2 big beers, a big salad with hot sauce, bread, freshly grilled fish, watermellon and to finish some thee for together 15 YTL or mmhh 8 euro....... in your face Belgium..... On the way back i asked to sleep at the jandarma place but no no no tooo dangerous. This guy came showing up in a tank, 5 times the size of my jeep and explained to follow him out the village. Hey, I never followed a tank in my life??? Step on the gas.... Bye the bridge we could sleep nearbye another jandarma control and this night wasn't like all the rest. Having all this security around us ??? But after all we really think that all this security is a bit too much, the locals don't have any problem when you ask them and it has been quiet for a long time now. The turkish way of showing off????
We drove up to Mount Emrut, a long drive past many controlls again and ended up at the summit a bit before sundown, the best time to visit. There are these giant heads on top of the mountain making it into a spectacular vieuw. We enjoyed this place and met some friends we saw at the coast a few weeks ago. Time to chat and share stories about Turkey over a couple of beers. There were also french people with a look-a-like jeep who make the same travel as us just till south Iran. Hehey, we are not alone outhere....
All the way down again the day after, we took an old ferry crossing the Tigris-river and went for a swin. The rest we spent driving up north towards Erzurum, where I can pick up my parts i ordered in Antalya for the jeep. Along way with bad roads and abandoned hills and mountains. But so fresh and green, nothing like dried up Cappadocia and the salk lake. Finally after a few 100 km we ended up in Erzurum.But at Mitsubishi they didn't have the parts yet, like I thought it would be.......
So, let's head out for the Georgian Valleys and Kackar mountains north of Erzurum. On the way some old monsteries and churches in old towns, life aslike 100 years ago. Somewhere in the middle is tortum Lake and some very wild and big waterfalls. The temperatures were risıng again, morning being 25, noon 35 and afternoon the needle was above 40.......... hot enough for you???
The surroundings being wild and adventurous we got to Yusufeli, a well known town for Rafting....mmhh... rafting sounds great. The book said : only experienced rafters can go..... but you know the Turks by now, everything is possible... So the next morning we loaded a professional boat on the roof, drove about 15 km upstreams and were launched into the very wild Coruh river for some real adventure. With 5 people we floated down this wild river and sometimes i thought we were going to capsize..... and a few meters further away carla was thrown out of the boat, I quess she wanted to swim..... but we fished her out off the overtaking water and were safe again. Downstream you could see remains of many bridges being collapsed from the heavy current of this river. Hey this was fun....
Being fully reloaded and having the good news of my parts being arrived we are back in Erzurum. Tomorrow I have some work to do... Working???? Yep ....
So, summer must be coming to your homes too, enjoy the time of holidays and get out of town....
turn your steering wheel corner after corner and get delirious .....
Haai my dear friends,
time is running and as i speak we have already made it till Bulgaria, Plovdiv better. Since the last story we went to busy Split and caught a ferry to Brac, an island in front of Croatia. It was marvellous and exiting. Sunshine and plenty of places to camp wild, right next to the shore. It was hot and a good time to get aclimatised for the heat we are going to meet on our trip.
We spent a good 4 days of island-adventure and it was time to get pajero( my jeep) seaborne again.
We made it as far as Mostar and here we got silenced by the many destroyed buildings from the past war , really completely ruined buildings like librairies and schools more then 200 years old. The bridge of mostar is hope for these people and it must stay like that!!! How to describe the sense of this town???? We could sleep next to a house in the fields and the next city was Sarajevo......We entered along snipers alley...... boehoooo
Again the leftovers from many nice buildings , but this town is recovering very fast and it feels like walking around in brussels,relax but with a certain mood. When I came back to the car, somebody had tried to break into it , but we were lucky, some other cars had smashed windows.... But this event gave us some time to think about a better safe parking and hiding everything in the back when entering cities. We ended up for a picknick at a house outside town, and there i could repair my lock. We were friendly invited and quickly food and beer were served. What a hospitality. Even when we went for a walk, we got invited by people along the road and soon our heads filled up with booze and food. What a hospitality.....
The road goes on and we made our way through 10000 bends and bumps in the road to Durmitor national park. But these people know shit about waste handling and just throw everything into rivers and forests. No good hey!!! The weather was less good and we ended up in a countyhouse with friendly people, again serving this some kind of 'rhum', hot stuff... But the next morning was even better. First strong coffee, mixed with this rhum, then a few 2 liter bottles of beer served with smoked beef and porc, finishing with a self-made movie of the nat. Park. we had to say goodbye or .... you know...
A short visit to the park and then we went into the mountains with the jeep and after a few hours we passed 2 meter thick snow and a vieuw like endless. Again invited at a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, and here we tasted fresh made goatcheese and of course the rhum.. .. ... ..
So, you see, come and taste it..
On the road again, I made a big mistake, probabely because of the booze the last days, and we got to the border with Albania by mistake. Should i do this country???? Why not, we'll be carefull.Hup and into Albania, bad dusty roads and very poor people. The cities remind me off Marocco and the landscape was wunderfull. We had a good 150 km ahead of bad, bumpy roads and in the middle we stopped at a house for sleeping in the garden and later on the evening champagne was served, can you imagine that???? So no more worries...
Albania was over and in front lies Kosovo. We had to buy a seperate insurance of 50 euro's for the car and we made a big deal of it at the border, but nothing to do about it, it's the fool on top of this country to blaim.... moneyman
Into kosovo and lookes like montenegro again, full of industry and wellness.But on the road many army soldiers , tanks and military bases. But a safe feeling.
On to Macedonia, a cheap country for fresh fruit and vegetables, incredible. ex. 1/2 kil fresh strawberries from the field: 0,5 euro.....mhhhhh.....
Driving Through it is hard, roadworks, bad roads and 1001 bends..... pffff but we have made it again to the border with Bulgarije.
We visited Rila Monastery in the mountains, really worth to see and the next day we tried to climb Maljovitza 2729m high and I made it to the top. A good 1500 m rise and with my feet in the snow on top. Today we explore Plovdiv city and the next story will be from sunny Turkey.
The taste of the road is on my mind and we've already had a great experience .. ... The journey started in the ardennes in Belgium and quick we wanted to head for Germany.
There i met an old friend i met in La Palma years ago and the spirit was great. He had a story about sailing around timeless seas and far away countries. The mood for travelling became even more great. We spent a nice night in a old castle on a hill and were turning time a few hundred years back .
Back on the road and past Munchen on to Austria. Once the mountains came closer, a undesireable feeling to climb some came and a day later we started turning the heads to a mountain-top i had been focussing on. We made it till 1945 m but because off thick snow I had to return and leave this enormous top behind. Sometimes its better to be precautious and dont risk too much.
We drove through incredible landscapes and clean rivers. South is the main direction and for the fun we passed one hour in Italie and drove to Slovenie.
This is stepping back 50 years into time and the hills are so green and full of life. Small towns full of farmers and pretty narrow roads for my way to big Pajero, funny sight...
We met some very nice older people were we could spend the night on there peace of land .
Almost immediately they served very nice coffee and the local brewed alcohol, weeeew hot stuff, but a warm feeling when you wake up and 5 min later served . So, slovenian people know hospitality very well.
We are very happy to experience all this and the next country was Croatie. Here we spent our second night on a camping, yeah, we try to go wild camping or at farms as much as possible,saves great money... But the biggest surprise was that it was a naturist campsite, hehe, old naked people running around and staring at us, little dressed people... no comment.....
Yesterday evening, after looking for a peace of ground we ended up at a farm where we got pancakes, yeah, delicious pancakes.......nice people really..... Before we went to Plittvice waterfalls and waaaaaawwww, this is a must see for anybody who comes to Croatie.
But on the way to these, we drove through some forests full of mines, from the war, some years ago and it gave us a sudden feeling of freedom being destroyed for all these people. And when we looked better around you can still see many houses full of holes,because of being shot at, destoyed and abandoned afterwards..... something to think about..... Even when we got coffee from on old lady you could still see tears in her eyes because of loosing much family in this stupid war.
Today is one of our first days of rain and till now we have had sun every day and sometimes even hot....something is wrong with nature, beleave me........but till now it was in our favor..
So, the spirit is good and the road ahead is nice. Next days we go to Split by the sea and take a ferry to one of the islands in front of the coast. Pajero on the boat, hehe.. He has been on a train also, somewhere in Austria by the way, funny way of transport over there.
>Then on to Mostar and its nice bridge and sarajevo for a visit.
I'm starting to construct this weblog and soon the whole story will be visible. Have some patience. For the people who now me: It's great to be back in Belgium and to enjoy this freedom daily. This site will have all my travels inside and outside.
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