Hacibektas and Lake Seyfe

13/08/25

We moved early from the Roman site before the guardian arrived to close by for breakfast.

We stopped at Ortahisar, billed as an up and coming rock (not 🎸) village, with another vertical rock castle. Coffee and biscuits, but the town was singularly lack lustre.

Destination was the No. 1 tourist attraction … Goreme Open Air Museum. We had planned to visit a few days ago but waited until J better. As we got close we joined a queue of cars and coaches. A quick conversation, that even when we managed to park, the site itself would be rammed with visitors, most into inconvenient tour groups. Our window to visit had closed. Shame as today was our last day the area. Hindsight, we should have driven here for opening time.

We drove northward stopping in Hacibektas, home to another Dervish guru and sect. Just been reading that Haci Bektas Veli started the Bektasi sect who were responsible for training the Janissaries … selecting Christian boys, converting them to Islam and training them in military and administrative skills. Not sure how that sits with the original precepts of love and tolerance. J sat outside the museum / Dervish lodge with Corrie, and I had a quick scoot around.

Bonus that we finally found a street market. We took the larger back pack that I filled. I asked one hardware stall holder for 2 x CR 3032 batteries. Come back in 10 mins … he’d fetched them for us. He and his parents made a fuss of Corrie and introduced us to their elderly blind pooch asleep under the table.

We checked out a couple of park ups, including a deserted Sulfi centre. It wasn’t deserted at all. As I did a 5 pt turn, J was handed a cube of crystallised salt (symbol of hospitality, friendship and mutual protection) and a small square of green cloth (nature, life and renewal). Feel I should keep them in Jez along with a crystal angel for safe travel a friend gave me when we set off in 2015.

Our eventual park up was dried up Lake Seyfe. Apparently this is normal. Super shallow with a silver salt sheen. Parked by an observation tower.

Lake Tuz

14/08

With such a quiet peaceful, almost surreal, spot at Lake Seyfe, we lingered. Exercised. Fed the stray. Hair / fur chop for Corrie and J.

Tuz was a little out of the way, but we had the time before our appointment in Ankara to drop Jez in for repairs and we fly to Dublin. It is the second largest lake and the largest Tr salt factory is on its banks. I read it is one of the mostly salty lakes in the world.

We parked up at a closed restaurant / picnic area. A few quads set off to burn salt on the lake, but otherwise quiet. The ‘secretariat’, who was obviously in charge of maintenance, pressed us with tea.

Tuz Causeway

15/08

I had spotted the causeway leading from the No. 1 factory across the lake when looking for a potential park up. It did not show as a road on the maps, but as a track. From our last night’s park up, I had seen a steady stream of trucks on it. So even though completely in the wrong direction and adding a good hour to the day’s driving time, we headed for it.

At the factory was a hut, a man and a barrier. One waved and the other was lifted. We had to drive through the factory with its big equipment and mountains of salt. Would have loved a tour.

The causeway was 7.8 km long. And the salt looked like snow.

Fascinating. Something I will remember.

We drove to a large prosperous town called Yozgat. Apparently it has some fine buildings and a clock tower, but the parking we could see was underground and the town was busy. Abort. Straight to our overnight in Camlik National Park. Under £2 to enter and I mimed sleeping. OK, but in the car park. Again lots of picnic benches so anticipating lots of families later.