Every man dies, not every man really lives... Wild Child
24-10-2007
Haai to all the people waiting for summertime,,
we have ended our story in turkey at erzurum the last time. mmmhhh, erzurum.... there i fixed my brakes after the good news of my parts being arrived at the shop. I parked somewhere in the open plains next to a dusty village. Soon people came running to us with lots of food and thee. Man, it never stops.... hospitality like nowhere else.....,
So, pajeeken is fixed and we rolled down to dogubayazit, the last town before the border and with the backdrop of Mount Ararat, rising more then 5100 meters..... Somewhere in between we stopped at some famous hot springs for a dip..... hot i tell you.... Refreshed and clean, hehe sometimes it takes a few days or weeks. So somewhere at the big mountain we slept and went for a walk the next day after thee from the locals. But the temperature being hothot it didn't take very long before we came back and again were invited for dinner and thee..... Turkey on its best.... In dogubayazit lies the great palace of Ishak Pasha, on a hilltop overlooking the city and mountains. A must see .
Our last night in Turkey we spent with a family in a tiny village at the slopes of mount Ararat, after a windy sandstorm forced us to search a house to sleep. We didn't expect to sleep in their big bed, but there was no way out, the ground was reserved for them..... we were lucky again..
So, bye bye turkey and we strolled through the border after visiting maybe 10 offices , getting the carnet de passage filled in correct and being helped by a turkish family to find the way of bordercrossing in this labyrinth of people and customs, thank you very much friends!!!!!!
I bought a seperate insurance, strangely it's not obligatory to drive here, but the stories of other travellers didn't make me hesitate much..
Everything ok, we rolled down into Iran and at first site the traffic is a cruel hell. When there are 2 lanes, most of the time 4 cars are driving next to each other, racing to be first. If someone overtakes you, they don't look first.... they just go and see what happens, with sometimes funny and scary circumstances. think of a big truck passing you while another big truck is coming at you from the other direction, crazy i tell you, and most of the time hitting the brakes is best..... we've seen strange things, like peolpe on the 3 lane highway, foto's being taken from us while driving 100km/u next to a little motorcycle with 2 people on it shouting out hellloooooowww, how are you, where are you froooooommmm........ hehe, we sometimes feel like a circus driving around....
So, after experiencing traffic i looked for a spot to spend the night and found a place in a orchard. Soon many people came looking at us , bringing fresh picked fruit in big buckets, we were being loaded with maybe 5 kg of delicious fresh iranian fruit, mmmmhhhh.
A bit further away in the orchard we were invited for thee and there was no way out, but we had to sleep at their place. So we drove into a town , and experienced our first evening in style with a friendly family. But one off the guys took me for a ride on one off these small motorbikes into town and sometimes you better close your eyes and don't think too much. He bought a big melon and quess who had to carry it .... but he saw i still had one hand free and went for some milk also.......now me being in the back of the bike and no hands to hold on .... mmmhh, but we all had a juicy piece of melon ....
The next morning, the same guy wanted me to shown my jeep to the hole village, so we drove in every possible little street, sometimes driving backwards because the street is too small at the end, and visiting his family at several places, with food all the time being served.... He also wanted to show me a water source in the mountains and it was the worst track since i left belgium, driving through riverbeddings and many streams.... I was getting enough of it after feeling concrete under my car and drove straight to the house again. And quess what, carla was so happy to see me, because she was also being shown around the whole village and family, come on eat eat they told her all the time..... so after dinner at the house we left and thanked everybody for the hospitality.
Let's head down to Tabriz, the first big town, and further on to Osku and Kandovan, somewhat the same towns like cappadocia in Turkey.
Hehe, i even was '' ghostdriving '' on the highway following somebody who showed us the way, man here's everything possible....
Kandovan left behind it was time to search a fuelpomp. We heard some stories about feul-limits for cars and had to check it out. The first 3 stations didn't serve diesel but had super. Diesel yok they say, meaning no diesel here.Try to explain all the time that my car drives on diesel and not super, but they just don't nderstand it and would love to fill it with super, nooooooo way guys, ...
At a intersection there was a traffic jam full ao big trucks and hehey, they are all waiing at a fuel station for diesel it seams!!!!!!! allright, we could go first before all the big trucks and filled up the tank till the border. and quess what, it was only 2 dollar for the hole tank..... yeehaaahhhhhhh, this is great!!!!!!
somehow i wanted to see the Caspian sea and we drove to Ardabil and further on to Astara, lying at the border with Azerbaijan. In Ardabil we had a first glimpse of palaces and nicely decorated mosques. But once on the street everybody is turning around to see us, 100 eyes looking at us every minut.... the attraction off the day .
Once the coast came closer, leaving astara, we drove right up next to the sea, with water flowing under the car. You can't get closer than this . Spending the night here, the next day we cruised down the coast and headed for Masuleh, a nice steep town in the mountains. The roof of the house beneath is the footpath of the one above, funny and lovely town. On the way down again it was evening already and all the picknick spots with cafes on it ,were lighted with these bright colored lamps we only use for houses of pleasure.... what a sight. Mmh, i saw a good spot next to the road to sleep, but as soon as we stepped out of the car 2 policeman arrived on a motorbike. can I see your passport??? I sead no way , because i knew they were only curious to see us and we didn't do anything wrong, and besides that i didn't rust them, so no it was and after Carla raised her voice they simpely drove off!!!! One for belgium, zero iran....... haha.
Once again on the road the next day, we drove down to Soltaniye through one of the nicest landscapes weve seen yet. On the way driving through this landscape again many peolpe were damn curious, passing you on the road, slowing down again to look at you and overtaking us again, driving in circles around us, waving and shouting things???? hehey, we've had fun .....Stopping at a cafe , some young guys wanted to swap cd's . so i gave them a good ' admiral freebee cd, which i had double and soon Admiral was played very loud at the cafe, cool ha.!!!!
afetr a short visit in soltaniye and sleeping in the fields we drove down to Qazvin, a town on the road to Tehran. a hole day we wandered around this nice place. visiting shrines they seem to decorate with a million mirrors, incredible sight. The cleaning girl didn't look so happy with that...... imagine....
Again escaping the busy streets of town and after sleeping at a power plant we drove through tehran. This is the worst place to drive on earth..... with almost no signs on the highway and every possible driving device on the road.... traffic and smoke as nowhere.
Glad we got through and on the way to Mount Damavand we were both thinking of not returning there. So, here we were, on the side of the biggest mountain of Iran, an actve vulcano rising 5671 m above sealevel. It looks big i tell you people. After some explanation of an experienced climber from Polur we drove to basecamp no 1 called Goosfand sara. When we arrived we were surprised by the 50 dollars we had to pay for permission to climb it. stupid ha, and i didn't trust it at all, untill a friendly guide with a austrian guy explained the situatio about this. Oke, we understand, but at least it should be possible to have water here, but no, nothing besides a hut with no windows, Sober and scarce situation. We packed our backpack and slept the night here to acclimatise to height. together with 2 turkisch guys we went the next morning to basecamp no 2, lying at 4200 m, taking about a 4 hour climb. It went well and the hope to reach the summit increased. We spent the night here and some light head pain came because of the height. So acclimatizing a few hundred meters higher, it felt better after taying there some time and returning to the camp. Almost not sleeping the night at 3 we woke up and at 4 am we left to climb. Let's go all the way... In the beginning it went good, slowly steady, but the higher you get the more intensive every step you take feels, like a marathon never ending. It took about 6 hours to get to a point where the summit was in reach but sulfer gasses were heavy tobreath and making the hole climb even more difficult This is tthe place where Carla stranded, at about 5500 m and me and Alper, the turkish guy went to the top, taking about half an hour for maybe 150 meters, being the worst of the whole climb, through the crater and reaching the summit. Very happy and feeling like a hero we were standing here at 5671m, the highest point of Iran. What a feeling. Not staying here too long i started going down, but felt a bit overtaken by the gasses and was becoming very week. Holding on every minut and going down it became better after a few hundred meters. All the way down was hard and after some 5 hours we were in reach of the basecamp. finally ending there , we felt very good and nothing was going to stand in the way anymore. we did it !!!!!!!!!!
The guide from basecamp no1 made food for most of the climbers of today and cousy we were all eating in a little tent, sharing our story of the climb and iran. vey tired we slept our last night at the mountain in a shelter and got down to the car by noon the day after. Goodbye Mount Damavand!!!! It was a great experience!!!!
Driving down to the hot springs nearbye was a good idea and there we relaxed the day away in the hot pools. Yesterday morning we left there and drove to Polur again and were preparing for another adventure. Driving through the desert of Iran. Filling up water supplies, fuel tank and food supplies we ended up having left 20000 rials, being 2 dollars in the wallet. Damn, a problem we didn't see coming. After checking several banks, maybe 10, we didn't find anybody to change the strong dollar into countless rials, how is it possible. Giving up hope almost some business man speaking french helped us by changing 100 $. He went to the bank with me, being closed now, called some security guy, opening the doors, the same guy refusing me to change money looked surprised to see me again. The Friendly business man took about 1000000 rials out of his account and changed the 100$ with me, thank you very much. He even invited us into his house, a villa a bit out of town in a green garden and ordered food for us. It was delicious!!! This guy even had a house in brussels, somewhere on Louizalaan, a whealty expensive region. We left there very happy and today ended up right next to the desert in the town of Semnan. The temperatures are rising and being about 45 degrees now we are lucky to be in an airconditioned internet cafe.
Let's head down into the desert when we leave and reaching Esfahan in about a week from now
I hope you all enjoy the stories and I'll send some hot desert air to Belgium soon........
where were we ??? pushing the jeep over the border!! We made it, İran, byebye.....!!!!!
A few seconds later a guy from the Turkisch douane asked us to open the backdoor. The cheap dieselfeul from İran was soon taken out and damn you, do you need anythıng else??? We didn't think about hıdıng ıt and so we lost it...pfff diesel is expensive here.
From one desk to another and back in order to get a visa and again there were problems wıth the carnet..... again???? but it seemed to be his computer being slow, glad it was only that and after about 2 hours we were free to ride, or better to push my jeep.... yepp
A few hundred meters away there was a parking area, still in the borderzone and it seemed to be the best optıon now, let's camp here. We are now awake almost 40 hours..... and looking to each other we didn't recognize each other nomore.... in need for sleep. some guy gave us permission to camp and soon we did. On the other side of the wire there were at least 100 big trucks waiting to enter İran, patience my friend, in İran everything goes slow, especially paperwork....
During the night they sometimes all start to move a few meters.... noisy
Ahhhh, the next morning some sunshine woke us and i was thinkıng about trying to fix my engine by putting it back together and hope to be able to drive on 3 cilinders.... just a tryout.
So, lets get this thing back together. Easier said than done.... with the few keys i have here and i was glad to have some silicone with me to fix the cilinderhead onto the engine, the most ımportant thing!!! İ got some keys from one of the guys waitıng behind the wire and so i managed to get it back together. What a job and an English overlander passing by saıd... nnyeahhhh, you have a fucking big problem my friend nnyeahhhhh shit... it didn't help me much ...
Turning the ignition key in the late afternoon, nothing happened??? yeah shit.... but after a quıck look i saw that one battery was flat and changed to the second one, turning the ignition again........... wvvvrrroooommmm prut prut wrooommmnnn pruttt ppfff wrrrovmm..... it went for like one minute and after some time it even sounded better than back over in Tehran when i tried it first!!! yeahhah İ did it!!!!
Let't wait until tomorrow morning, then the silicone is also hard and we have a whole day to get to Dogubayazit.
İ used a trashbin from the parkingarea to dump my old engine-oil and put in some good fresh oil, another positive thing to do.
A night passed by on our special camping and turning the key in the morning we drove off. my speed limit got reduced to 30 km/u and it surprised me. There must be more damaged then just one cilinder.... but we are driving now, minimally slow.
İ never saw a landscape better then now and turtally slow we moved on, counting every km.
My feeling was a bit nervous now, how long can we keep the engine going on like this.....?????
Bit by bit we came closer and saw the famous ishak palace rising above Dogubayazit. We made it again!!!! But trying to get uphill to the camping was less easy. İn low 4x4 gear we moved ultra minimally slow. a turtle goes even faster when it's going after a female one....
All together we made it to the camping!!! happy happy, now we can relax a bit!!!! and think about how to get further into turkey....
We took a day off in dogubayazit and in the evening i checked the engine and valves again. We want to try to get as far as Erzurum tomorrow, some 265 km of road. we already visited the original Mitsubishi garage there for my brake discs before going to İran,
So, our next goal after discussing much the risk of a broken engine and the whole operation, we finally don't give up and will try to drive to Erzurum. We had a nice evening talking to a few other overlanders and our hope grew instantly......
Getting up early the next day, checking everything again, fixing a feultank in front of the car to catch the feul being spilled by cilinder 1, we drove off. at first very easy rolling down the hill but again on flat road not more then 30 km/u. This will be a long slow ride. Our patience being tested every mountain we conquered, again in low 4x4 gear uphill and sometimes speeds up to 110 km/u going down ın neutral....
passing cars and trucks who passed us uphill, funny sıght.....
km by km coming closer to erzurum.... very slow...... slow......
But again after not giving up we managed to get to our goal and drove up the Mitsubishi garage. You could here my jeep crying, yess i did it on 3 cilinders.....
Now we were in good hands. We showed some pictures of the broken parts to the mecanics and veryone was surprised that we could still drive and yess as far as 300 km from the border....
İt was late and let's take a look at it tomorrow. We asked to sleep into the garage and it was no problem!!! This is great!!! Try this in Belgium and they will kick you out..
The guardıan brought thee and accompanied us that evening. fun..
İt has to happen here, a complete change to our life we had until we were kidnapped some 3 months ago.Somehow positive things are waiting to happen, but when???? tomorrow???? only a dream to us....
The next morning we opened the engine together and they think that it can be saved...!!! Repairing the cilinderhead( heavily damaged),valves,turbo, putting in a new piston and fixing the surface of the cilinder.
The turbo was damaged also, ahhhh that's why we could only drive 30 on 3 cilinders??
yowww, first a price please, because this will be a big job !! Surprisingly they were only talking about 700 to 800 euro's???? heyyy, are you serious??? Yep.. the labour was included also??? really???
They even found another cilinderhead in good condition and some vital parts for the valves. Even a new piston in stock and much more small parts..
Talking about positive things to happen... Okey guys, make this happen and at least 4 guys were hanging on , crawling under or lying around my jeep.
Everything was working out good and İ saw good progress later that evening.
A few more hours of work the next monday and it will be done. Sunday was again a day of , visisting Erzurum for the 3rd time, hehe...
Monday,monday..... a good day for once and we started the engine about noon, bıg clouds of smoke hang in the garage and heyhey sounds good.... Happyhappy... we went for a testdrive and made some last adjustments.
Paying our cost for the repair (770 euro in total) and treating everybody on tasty patissery, we left erzurum in the best mood since months.
Our patience and courage being paıd off at the end and we really did make this happen. We are free again, totally free, the world lies open in front of us.... What challenge will we adventure now?? What way will we choose, what experience lies around the next corner..
İ think that somehow we deserve this now.....
Happy ends always come after a struggle in which you don't give up on........................
Iran in a few words: desert, motorbikes, dust, hot, hospitality, perfect roads..
Haai everybody,
get in front of your screen, relax, let this story flow through and enjoy your imagination........
So, around half july we ended somewhere in Semnan, just before this enormous Dasht-e-Kavir desert. Temperatures were going above 40 and reaching 45 a bit later, mmmhhh....... Don`t go to 50 please, because some things are melting already.......
We hit a road leading to Mo`alleman, the last small town before everything becomes flat and very sandy, and drove through some very nice mountains and hills in the most different colours you can think off. The way I hoped it to be, but the story wasn`t lasting.... a big roadsign, MILITARY AREA was standing there in the middle of nowhere???? Nothing to see and we drove on a bit , but finally after about 20 km we had to turn back, definately now, no way through.... damn... these guys have the nicest stretch of desert to shoot their toys.... So, back to semnan before the night. After about some 100 km more east the next day, another road leading to Mo`alleman, and this time it was a good one, no hassle, just a road going nowhere and much sandy playground to make a big sandcastle..... It`s incredible, that even in the desert the roads are perfect...and so we made it beyond the last town and dived into the great barren plains of dasht-e-kavir.The horizon looks like never ending and sometimes fades away because of the heat. We camped about 10 km away from the road, really in the middle of nowhere, and slept the night outside on the ground, with the stars on tv.........
We awoke and again realised that this is a special place, magical hot desert. Some watermelon for breakfast and before it got too hot we went for a drive. There is really no end to see here and it`s best to follow the tracks back, eat some dust and go to the road we came from. So we continued the way down and around noon we met a whole bunch of camels while we had dinner. A nice sight outhere, makes it all complete. After about a few hundred km we came to a little oasis and had a good rest under a palmtree in this dusty desert town. How do these people survive here, it`s so hot and barren .........strong race.. We continued to Na`in, the first somewhat civilized town and got into a hotel. Hehe, the 2nd one on the hole trip from belgium to here.Some guy from a shop showed us around in his town and explained a bit the watersupply-system and this is how it works: Very big and deep pits they can walk into are connected to several km of narrow canals collecting the water. Above is a natural cooling system with badgirs, high windtowers collecting the slightest windbreeze and cooling the water beneath it. It`s a weird site because the all the towns are full of these high badgirs. Thanks for the guiding and tomorrow we continue to the most attractive town of Iran, Esfahan.
After about 200 km we entered the city and came to a parking, right in the middle of the centre and this is a great spot to camp. Only 2$ for 24 hours of parking. It`s a deal!! We got a good base now to explore and the next day we did a whole trip in Esfahan, visiting several palaces set around green gardens and pools, the very nice Imam square with the nicest mosques till now, tiled with mosaic paterns making it all very colourfull and a bazaar to get lost into. A maze of narrow streets, with lots of craftsmen at work and everybody looses the way here...... After spending about 3 days wondering around in Esfahan we packed the jeep and went west, because we had a great attraction lying there, called Choqa Zanbil which we didn`t want to miss. The s-curved road took us over hundreds of mountains and into old villages such as Izeh, where a local took us to some ancient sites in the mountains, full of rock carved images dating back some thousand years. No tourist ever comes here!!! After dinner at his place we continued the day after, passed Masjed-e-soleiman to Shustar. In between it is full of little oil companies, each with a big flame and the mountains are filled with pipelines. But we were being watched all the time by security people.....hehe.... In shustar there are some famous watermills in town and it`s here that we were invited again for dinner and warned about people stealing cars here like they smoke a sigaret.... so we were very carefull after this. The man invited us into his house, where the airco was running fulltime because quess what, outside the temperatures were rising above 50 and we even had 54 degrees while driving the car with all windows down........ do you feel the sweat flowing on your back already??? We were happy to have 35 during the night..... Thanks for the meal, and we drove out of town to reach Choqa zanbil in the evening. And yess, this is a great place.
We parked beside the quards with a vieuw onto the site. It`s like a big brick piramid set into the desert and the hole project is several square kilometers wide. A short visit in the morning, when it was still durable because of the heat and went to another site like this and a good museum about the history of it. It`s there that I took a refreshing bath in one off the fountains at the museum, hehe, they were looking strange.... It didn`t take long too before I was dry and we rolled down to the Perzian Gulf, a bit before Bandar Deylam and ended up at a factory where the caretaker invited us to sleep in his cabbin with airco and he slept outside. The hospitality of these people is incredible.......... thankx again !!! The morning after we visited Bandar deylam at the perzian Gulf and went for a walk on the beach, but not without hassle. The religious police saw us and soon were complaining about our clothes and weren`t friendly at all. Fools.... I ignored them and they drove away, like they usually do. They don`t have authority at all, hehe.. The harbour was a nice sight, full of wooden boats waiting for the current to lift them up , so they can go fishing in the night while the rest is waiting at sea to flow into the harbour. We shopped some supplies and drove a bit out of town to search a deserted spot beside the gulf. No hassle here for sure. But while I drove on the beach, my jeep got stuck in wet sand, even 4 wheel drive didn`t help anymore... damn and I didn`t know when the current was coming. Slowly he sunck to his bottom and now I was happy to have all this extra material with me to start digging us out. But nothing worked really and I think it was about 2 hours later that at one time, it was my last chance, there was some movement and slowly we drove out of this scary situation towards the solid sand. Man, I was happy then... and we installed us here, much safer and far away from any current. A dip into the sea was now very welcome and we were a bit surprised about the very hot water. It`s like a big hot spring... No religious police to see so no clothes to wear also, hehe miracle in Iran. We stayed here another full day at the beach, relaxing, swimming and reading the day away. We left relaxed and headed direction shiraz the day after, another attrative city. On the map there were signs about Margoon waterfalls and this we would first go to. Byebye Perzian Gulf and after a flat piece of road we came into a canyonlike landscape, really amazing scenery. Enjoying it, we cruised through and took a narrow road towards Sepidan. On the way a fresh dip in a wild river refreshed us once again. But the road soon changed into a very dusty piste between the mountains and this would last for about 50 km. Finding the way was quessing. On a plateau, inhabited by numerous nomads we camped the night away and were invited the morning after for thee. They live really basic here and were so happy to see us. Living from sheep and goats they try to keep life alive. We tasted their way of living a bit and continued to Margoon, once we left the piste and a short walk into sepidan, we drove their, another 50 km further and were surprised about the amount of people there. Ohjee, it`s thursday, thats the reason why. Thursday means sunday for them...... The waterfalls themselves are breathtaking and the surroundings great to explore. we got back passed sepidan and camped next to a farm. Again very friendly people and they gave us a whole bucket of fresh made yoghurt, a whole bucket????? man, we were eating yoghurt all day long...... tooo much..... After this detour to margoon we ended up in Shiraz, another jewel of Iran and one of the oldest cities here. Because carla`s birthday is tomorrow we searched a good hotel. But it was very difficult to find one with a parking where my jeep would fit into. They all drive these flat Paykans so only one choice left, the Sadra Hotel. But it was nice to be there. We celebrated carla`s birthday by eating out at several restaurants and enjoying a day in shiraz. Bye the way, she was very happy with her surprise I bought some time ago in turkey....... Shiraz is the place to visit gardens with palaces and many more exiting places. One thing is just frustrating : the price for us was 10 times the price for an iranian tourist??? Heyhey, I can read your numbers and every time it is like that, we let them know and usually they understand the difference and let us in at the normal price. But sometimes we have to be very hard. I`m not a walking one million dollar bill????? We spent together 3 days and left for Persepolis after. Also one of the must-see sites of Iran. An ancient city were kings came to celebrate new year in old times. The site remained in some parts perfectly preserved and you get a good glimpse of how it used to be over there in old ages. We camped on the parking between some other overlanders and the night was very noisy, many young people come here to picknick and joyride their car. Dizzy we woke up and visited a nearbye site with 4 rockcut tombes raising about 30 meters high on a steep mountainhill, a nice site. On the road again and slowly moving towars Yazd, but tiredness overtook us and we found a spot in the desert, a fairytale landscape and relaxed the day away. This was a good idea and we woke up refreshed and got to Yazd the day after, again driving through several 100 km of plain desert. Yazd?? A wonderfull created town where the old city takes you back some hundreds of years. Fully made out of mudbrick, it is a great place to wonder around and get lost into the winding lanes. We slept the night in the silk road hotel and this is one of the best places we stayed yet, completey restored like it used to be. Even the restaurants are good, cheap and very romantic places to spend the evening after a few km of sightseeing Yazd. It`s here that we met so many travellers going all kinds of directions, each with their own idea of Iran. Another night on the parking of the hotel and we drove to the silent towers, just out of town. It`s an old burial place where they used to leave the dead people in a sitting position, and after the vultures had picked them clean, the bones were left behind. A priest would sit their and watch the vultures eat and see which eye they first took and according to this, the soul would face a good future or otherwise a grim one. In accordance with Zoroastrian beliefs. We slept the night at the cemetary and drove to Keram, our current place. Here the situation is changing a bit and people are different. We are planning now to not hurry to the border with Pakistan, but just enjoy the rest of Iran.
So, the next story will be from Pakistan. Wish us luck on the hardest part of the travel. Driving from the border at Taftan to Quetta, a rough track. Hope you all enjoyed it and let us know your story also.
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.
