The Ham Nomads

12 May 2015. <BG> Sozopol; <TR> Azizye —

Our van, and the closed campsite opposite

Today we made a move for Turkey.

We took a route that the Garmin suggested, but we decided that it was a little dubious. But it did take us through a small town, and past some interesting scenery, including storks nesting, and someone with a cottage industry of dried hides. We passed an interesting stone building — was it a monastery, or a mansion, or what? But we reset the Garmin to take us back onto reasonable roads, back towards Burgas, and then on the E87 down to a border crossing at Azizye.

The E87 went right to the border, but it somewhat petered out as we neared the crossing. At one point, a landslide had taken half the road down into the valley below!

The border crossing was interesting. It took a little longer than some others, as the Turks were a lot more thorough — but very friendly! The customs man did come into the van to inspect it, but it all seemed to be just a matter of form. The thing that took the longest was the purchase of a subscription for the HGS electronic toll system, one of the two systems used here in Turkey. The instructions for it are all in Turkish, so at some stage we will need to check at a Tourist Information Office to see that we are doing the right thing!

Okay, across the border, and all of a sudden the roads are magnificent. We stopped just past the crossing for a bite of lunch, and we noticed a couple of hitchhikers coming through the checkpoint after us. Surprise, surprise — it was the couple we had noticed coming to the closed campsite last night. They were French, but had a great grasp of English. We asked them how they had got on last night, and they had quite a story to tell. They had walked back to a pizza shop in the township, and its owner took them to a hostel and asked his friend there to put them up for the night. The hostel was not yet open, so they had the whole place to themselves — and they were only charged €20 for the night -- quite reasonable for two. So all was well, and they were able to continue thumbing their way into and through Turkey.

This fellow was going into a service station.
Strange? And then we saw him hosing down his horse!

We were now driving in Turkey, with magnificent scenery and great roads. Our plan was to make for Edirne, where the Garmin told us there was a Tourist Office, and then make our way southwards onto the Gallipoli Peninsula. We stopped for a coffee at a roadhouse on the E80 tollway across to Edirna — Warren had his first genuine Turkish coffee, and Suzie settled for a cappuccino from the machine — then drove a little further to another similar rest stop, where we decided to call it a day. At this stop, we had the company of a small flock of chickens — at one point we had to shoo one of them off our open van window! But another pleasant, quiet night!

Distance driven — today, 129 miles ( 208 km ); to date, 20,052 miles ( 32,271 km )