Turkish delight with extra cheese

As we sit here in the sun, beer in hand, the high melt-water river rushing past our camp, we contemplate the last couple of days, which have seen us leave central Turkey via mountain passes to the Black Sea Coast.

The morning we left Goreme we were treated at breakfast to a balloon filled sky, with the sun shining at last.  A welcome relief after a few days living like Troglodytes underground.   Leaving the weird and wonderful rock formations for the last time we quickly exchanged them for mystery and mist.  We also left Betsy behind, oops! Not to worry as she has popped home as planned for a friends wedding and will hook up with us again in Georgia. Our drive took us past the base of the jagged snow capped peaks of Kurmaz Dagi, towering above us.  Once clear of the low-lying blanket of fog we spent the morning rolling along through the undulating hills of the Turkish countryside.  As we climbed higher the snow line crept ever closer to the edge of the road.

Calypso's first glimpse of snow for the year

Minarets piercing the sky

Dark clouds loomed ahead so we scanned the lakeside for a place to camp.  Rounding a corner, it suddenly appeared, a gentle slope inviting us down to the water’s edge, a most serene spot.  To our surprise the skies cleared, revealing a beautiful sunset followed by a star filled night sky.  We are lucky to have a holistic therapist on the trip, Shelagh’s reflexology is a real treat and Laura was the lucky recipient this time.  After a delicious stir-fry, the evening was wiled away around the campfire, enjoying a dram or two of whisky.

Stunning bushcamp next to the lake

Setting up camp

Reflexology

Rogs, Ryan, Gareth, Julia and Jim contemplating life

The condensation dripping on our faces in the tent the next morning did nothing to dampen our spirits.  Cat Stevens “Morning Has Broken” rang out from the truck as the mist rose from the lake and the heat from the sun intensified, warming our souls.   Reluctantly we returned to the road and started to climb into the red earthen hills, leaving the green valleys behind.  We stopped briefly round the bend after spotting some local lumberjacks chopping wood.  The wood rack was filled and Laura is now banned from throwing logs after nearly killing Kev and injuring Rogan, she definitely didn’t play netball at school.  For love nor money they wouldn’t take our money, so we gave them a case of beer instead.  The Turkish hospitality continued into the evening at our camp for the next couple of nights.  Some local diners at the restaurant whose garden we are camping in presented us with a 2ltr bottle of Georgian wine as a gift!

Not a bad view to wake up to

Bushcamp breakfast

Friendly wood choppers

Loading up the wood locker

Calypso’s first challenge was to take us from the lowlands to our first 2,200m mountain pass, a mere molehill in comparison to what lies ahead.  We stopped briefly for photos on the way and threw a few snowballs.  The rest of the morning was spent winding our way down the mountain with sheer drops and recent rock falls keeping us on our toes.  Minarets pierced the skyline and mosques dazzled in the sunlight with their silver domed roofs.   Comparatively modern compared to the castles we saw perched on rocky outcrops standing sentinel over the towns below.  After 6 hours covering only 150km through the mountains we hit the Black Sea coastal highway and steamed on to the pretty harbour town of Tirebolu.  The group had time to wander the sea front and some were lucky enough to see dolphins playing in the waters around the local fishing boats.  Dolphins, in Turkey?  Back on the road and in land to camp, a night earlier than planned, was it the road or was it the brilliant drivers, we’ll go for the latter.

Chris, Kev and Mikkel comparing altimeters

Stunning drive, northern Turkey

Tirebolu lunch stop

This morning we woke to choruses of Happy Birthday, the 3^rd of the trip, today it is Nick’s; our gadget man.  With various contraptions, one in particular involving tupperware, an egg timer and a time-lapse camera, we have suggested he change his name to Heath Robinson.  Nick is also responsible for the Spot Tracker which you can click through to from the blog.  He sends a signal to a satellite every time we arrive at a night stop enabling friends and family to follow exactly where we are.  It is worth mentioning the lines drawn between the night stops are not the actual routes driven, the Roman’s didn’t build too many straight roads here during their time.  We’ll be celebrating his birthday properly this evening.

Birthday boy Nick

Today we had a chance to explore the Byzantine Monastery called Sumela, or Meryama (Mother Mary), as The Virgin Mary was said to have been seen here in around AD500 and the monastery founded.  Restored in recent times.  We’re not teachers, we’ll let the photos do the talking.  It really is clinging to a rock face and very pretty.   A stunning sight to visit and a challenging climb to reach from the car park, rather than get the minibus up like the lazy tourists…

First glimpse of Sumela high up on a cliff

Di, Ryan and Rogs

We’d better leave you now, some of this has sounded rather cheesy but a lot of the places we’ve been to it’s hard to get across in words, the main ones that spring to mind are wow, wow, wow and if we carried on saying that you’d get bored.  Have the crew lost their mind already, after 3 weeks?  Answers on a postcard please to the big blue truck.

Crew thinking (and working) hard