We stopped at a large mall to spend the £170 we had left over from the van repairs. J came away with jeans and a top.
We had our last Pide, not the best version but possibly the best of Turkish foodComing around Istanbul we crossed a long bridge. My bridge expert passenger was able to tell me combined cable stay and suspension cable construction.
Still with cash left we stopped at a seaside resort next to a C15 bridge built by Sinan the architect to carry Ottoman troops. He features in a book club read … The Architect’s Apprentice.
Sinan the architect and his bridge to carry Ottoman troops. I ceased carry vehicles in 1970s.
Dinner a lot more expensive and very disappointing. I had Roquefort salad, but the cheese was flabby and tasteless. It certainly had never been to Europe, let alone France. Perhaps we should choose destinations by the food!
Fantastic Fanari
19/11/2025
Filled with diesel just before the border, as it’s just under £1/ltr. Paid cash. A quick two item purchase in a supermarket got rid of the rest of the cash.
At the border, James was allowed to stay in Jez rather than walk through as a pedestrian. Issue with the van reg … the vehicle had not been registered as entering Turkey from Georgia. We have had this issue at some motorway tolls. The 1 is a number not an i, said I. Aah, never seen that said he. I didn’t bother explaining about a private plate. Two cursory glances inside from the hab door. Didn’t even open the garages. We could have illegally imported the dog I had liked, as no one was interested in Corrie or wanted to see her passport. Took just over an hour.
Onward to Fanari where we stopped on the way to Tr. Two BG vans that later departed and a UK van. We’ve not seen a UK motorhome in 3.5 months. Mary and Tony joined us for a drink whilst we ate. And then for a nightcap in Jez. Lovely evening.
I WhatsApp called my father’s 89th birthday party.
Four generations
We had a great time in Turkey, but we decided the SE corner that we missed out on due to van repairs in Ankara, could stay missed. I had particularly wanted to see the stone heads at mount Nemrut, but just not worth the driving distance. We may re-visit Istanbul at some point by plane, but out of tourist season!
Georgia we would bolt back to anytime. Loved it. Amazing diverse scenery for such a small place. And fabulous food.
A loooong driving day. Over 11 hours with a shop stop, lunch and the border back into Turkey. Sim replenished and cash obtained. 560km, most of it in driving rain.
J, as passenger had to walk through the border. I nearly got arrested for smuggling. Stupidly I hadn’t checked the regs for importing wine from Georgia. Only 1ltr pp!!! After an hour, I was allowed to keep 10 bottles. 9 were confiscated. I hadn’t tried to conceal the other 4 boxes in the door well. But once I realised, they’d not been spotted, my fleece was flung over them. I also stashed another bottle in the fridge! I can collect the confiscated wines within 3 months, on re entry to Georgia 😂. I nearly suggested the border guards might drink it, but remembered this may be insulting to Muslims!
We finally parked up at a place we stayed at before. It’s so much easier going somewhere you know after a long day. A takeaway in the van so we could have a glass of the contraband!
Horrendous wet driving conditions. And some more mad overtaking / undertaking Wine confiscation receiptWeather clearing by Rize
And Repeat
14/11/2025
9 hr driving day. Another 590 km. Stopped for lunch and diesel/LPG. My neck and shoulders are suffering.
Çorum our overnight stop, is modern with a lovely park, where we spent a super quiet night.m. With doing all this driving, I’m refusing to cook. And J can’t / won’t cook. So supper was in a pretentious restaurant called The Suits 😂. Food good though.
Corim parking perfect for Corrie walking
Ankara: Ada Karavans
15/11/3025
Only 233km today to our lovely repair chaps. We went shopping and for some lunch. Sat inside whilst a man on the roof. Another in the shower. And the little one said Roll Over.
Drain hole replacedReally messy mastic removed and neat new sealant applied to the rooflight.
We spent a good hour with them trying to work out why the heating works on electric but not gas. Erfan phoned a friend. Eventually they said we would have to go to an Alde dealer in Istanbul. We didn’t really want to mess with Istanbul traffic. I put a post on wildcamping.co.uk. Woke in the night and checked for answers. One suggested a tick box under installed settings on the control panel. At 0400 I did this. By 0500 we were warm, too toasty! I can only think it had been fiddled with on the last service.
Airbag repair 1
16/11/3025
A wasted day really. I imparted the good news about the heating. We had to wait for the son to return to pay up. £265 for new shower drain, resealed skylight, a window frame turned the correct way and gas investigation. Again, very happy to pay for quality workmanship at such a good price.
ADA Karavans had rung the airbag people so they were expecting us. After a few checks, it is a new problem. A relief that the airbag glue from our last visit held up. But he needed to order parts and to return tomorrow morning.
We looked on P4N, but the nearest was the lake campsite 65k north. So we returned to this peaceful sanctuary. Ducks, geese and a strange looking rabbit. £13.34 with all services and free to use the washing machine. A needed relaxing afternoon.
Camping No. 9. Peace and nature
Airbag Repair 2
17/11/2025
Up early, walk around the lake and services done. The 65k back south to Ankara. We were 6 hours at the air suspension place. But they had to identify the problem and buy parts. Fortunately not the same air bag leaking. It was the inlet to the bellows (Google translate). We walked to the nearby shops. Had coffee. Walked Corrie around a park. Took out another wedge of cash not knowing what the bill would be. Paying 20% extra is a plastic card deterrent. I knitted and caught up on Strictly. J napped and read. It was a long 6 hours. We had thought we would need to go to Zampatas Brothers in Thessaloniki, as they are a Goldschmidt agent, but now we need not. The bill was only £123. We’ve a lot of Turkish cash to spend in the next two days. Maddy, my daughter, suggested it has become free money!!!
We drove 2 hours to a lake side picnic area. Supper out was only £10.67 for fried carp and koftes. Not made much of a dent in our wedge of cash.
Nothing wrong with the cooking, but uninspiring. Missing the tastes and choice of Georgian food.Lake side spot
It’s been some time since I wrote my blog! But better late than never…
I’ve been with my current owners for seven years! Well, they think they own me but it’s the other way round actually. I’ve taught them their Ps and Qs – James is quite good at peeing (outside of course) and Katherine gets to queue a lot while shopping!
It’s been two years since Oscar passed on – we miss him – but I am happy to be top dog – only dog… we’re on another grand motorhome tour for three months- currently in Georgia (not the Deep South) but the Georgia next to Turkey. Turkey, Georgia and Armenia are our destinations. Turkey was ok if you don’t want wine (I don’t obviously), Georgia is awash with it – and we’ll see Armenia soon.
Being K9 critical, Turkey is bad for people leaving loads of rubbish around – and Georgia is the worst ever for wild dogs! K and J have travelled for ten years and seen wild dogs in lots of countries but this place takes the biscuit – they are not getting my biscuits – well, occasionally…
We liked Ankara but not Istanbul – Kutaisi in Georgia is good and Tbilisi was very good. For the dogs, they carry a water pistol and shoot to soak them – it works… Some days ago I was bitten by a domestic dog – two wounds – a visit to a vet who wouldn’t charge anything, and lots of treats because I was “girl poorly”…..
K is completely potty over her new grandson – on FaceTime she coos and calls over and over “It’s Nana, Nana…”
Time to continue my seventeen hours per day sleeping… more K9 reports later – Kalispera…
Despite having paid last night to stay overnight in the Sumela Monastery car park, the bar steward on the gate was determined to charge for today too. Even J got a little angry. Think this is our only negative person encounter in Turkey in nearly 2 months.
Pretty scenery on our descent to a large mall. Corrie got left again as we headed into Starbucks for coffee and cake, a hoody for she who didn’t bring enough warm clothes and a small food shop. We came away with no booze!
Shocking colour
The plan was to spend the evening surrounded by tea plantations. Think French vineyard. But after a too busy / parked cars / small road abortive drive to a tea garden and then not liking a narrow road up hill to a plantation, we aborted altogether. We could see mounds of tea plants all around and that will have to do!
Mounds of tea plants
Our park up is sandwiched between trucks, many Georgian, by a picnic area. The best spots have been nabbed by the permanent caravans and other camping cars.
Just as well no booze on board, as I could have sunk a vat of gin tonight! Had an ice cream instead and watched a man tree climbing for figs.
Hemsin
16/09/2025
It got noisy from 0530 with the trucks firing up. Meant we got up and away before 0920. An easy drive to Hemsin, passing the rounded tea plants, planted wherever there is space.
We liked Hemsin. Totally ordinary. The municipality has installed a lovely riverside walk. With adult swings!
????
Asked a local with G translate about a road. He replied with perfect English as he used to live in Russel Square, London ££££s! Upshot was we left Jez in the town and walked from there. Uphill to a waterfall. Lunch at the top. Then staggered up a bit more before descending
It is just so lovely to be in lush green. Beach trees, ferns, a few nettles all indicate how damp this climate.
Should have shared!Saw a few log and hay barnsHouses dripping down the hillOwner v proud of his immaculate Lada. I had a red one briefly Tea factory Lots of Ottoman bridges
J tried to nap but trucks with picked tea leaves kept trundling past and elderly men yelling at each other (I sympathise with hearing loss as J’s hearing aids are rarely fully functioning). So we took the local’s advice to drive back to the coast and up the next valley for a quieter overnight parking.
We drove past miles of raft and zip wire offerings. Definitely the tourist route.Some major road improvements again. J read that overseas banks including Deutsche Bank are funding most of the widespread road construction. All to be paid back in 21 years?!?
We paid under £3 to enter the national park and stopped in a lay-by. This is 🤫
Camlihemsin
17/09/2025
The rain arrived at 0600, and rather than get stuck in mud in our lay-by, we drove / crawled up a dodgy road to a camper stop. It is / was being constructed and then was destroyed by an avalanche. Some derelict huts, a lot of new roofs and even more piles of broken timber and bent metal. Very sad when folk invest and try to make a living. We felt we needed to contribute so left a good tip after a shared lunch plate.
We walked up and up following a river. Then down and down. J’s legs telling him that he exercised yesterday too!
We were joined by big boy … a real softie. Even Corrie didn’t mind him as he didn’t keep shoving his nose up her bumLove these mountains for the mixed foliageand lots of white croci
Spoke to a couple (in French!) who were tapping the pine trees for resin. His wife makes all sorts of cures and balms. And spotted others picking wild bilberries.
Back down the mountain to get close to the border. Limited options so in a truck stop. But a waterfall behind us which will drown out any engine noise.
And that is a mini glacier we passed!
Tea
Rize is the premium Turkish black tea growing area due to high rainfall and fertile soil. More than 80% of Turkey’s tea comes from here … that is a LOT as they drink it constantly – highest tea consumption worldwide at over 3 kgs p.a. per person. The 2nd is Morocco at 2 kgs, followed by the UK at 1.7kgs. It wasn’t always tea though. They used to drink coffee, but it became too expensive after WW2, so Ataturk told people to drink tea instead. They used to import from China until they realised they had the perfect climate in the NE. They are the No. 5 worldwide producer.
The tea has health benefits … it reduces risk of heart attacks and diabetes, lowers cholesterol and increases metabolism. And we like the taste. I’ll buy into those benefits so I bought some and was drinking several large mugs. I eventually linked my bloating and severe flatulence to another side effect! The tannins irritate the bowel. Perhaps I was over consuming!
Although 2 mins from the Fiat garage, we had to go back on ourselves for 6 mins to get across the dual carriageway. We spoke to 4 people, but were eventually told they hadn’t the right oil. Could they get it? I don’t know! Obviously the right staff were not working Saturday morning. They referred us to Master Garage further past Trabzon. So back up along the same bit of road to turn again.
Master Garage said we were too big. Ho hum. This is becoming a saga. So we just bought some oil. It’s not quite right … I googled … we needed C2, this is C3, so we may loose 5% mpg. And it’s partially synthetic … we needed fully, so it’s not quite as pure. But at least we won’t seize the engine. It will have a full service mid November when I return it to the UK.
Zigana Tunnel -Turkey’s longest tunnel 14.48km. The pass used to close for 5 months due to snow. Surprisingly free
With the dull coastline, we continued up into the hills. So we spent a jobs afternoon in the car park of a viewing platform at Torul.
Torul viewing platform where a castle used to be Our park up views
All alone by 6.30, but then a car arrived. Two young chaps. I thought they were either going to ask for money or tell us to move. Just as well it is dry night No. 1, so I could drive. But no, they warned us we would be locked in until 9.00 am. Just fine by us.
Sumela Monastery
14/09/2024
We checked our planned route with the staff at the viewing platform. Yes the mountain road was ‘clear and comfortable’ for our camper. We didn’t want to return by the same tunnel. A beautiful drive.
I stoped driving a few times just to soak up the viewsWe also found a spring water pipe to refill, as we were down to 25%We had lunch on the way and it was a little chilly so they lit the stoveWe had planned to walk but whilst eating, the clouds descended so laziness prevailed
Our destination was one of the top attractions – Sumela Monastery. A Greek Orthodox monastery built into sheer cliffs. Originally founded around AD386, largely expanded during C6 and C13. It had 72 rooms including a rock church and various other chapels. It thrived and was a pilgrimage site until the population exchange in 1923. Thereafter it fell into disrepair, with a fire destroying wooden parts in 1930. The Turkish government funded restoration with it opening to visitors in 2011. It then had to close from 2015-2019 whilst they installed significant measures, including steel netting, to prevent rock fall. I had not expected so many frescoes to be on the exterior. Sadly so many badly damaged by graffiti. We got our steps in and it was very busy.
Aqueduct We had planned to walk up 1.7k but only got so far as the path had collapsed. Had to flag down one of the busses or it would have added 3km along the road. Eerie mist
Sumela Monastery J reading in the library … he great acting skills!The death of Mary, who the church is dedicated tooBloody graffiti With the steel rock protection Inside the being restored main rock church
We have spent the night in the car park here … another duvet night, it is definitely Autumn.
Overnight parking with good stars
More van woes. A drawer screw won’t screw back in so we are having to prop that drawer open. And the inverter is working but not supplying the 240 v system.
Clune Gap Years 