The Ham Nomads

15 May 2015. <TR> Eceabat; Çanakkale; Alexandria-Troas; Dalyan —

Today we left the comforts of Kum to drive across the peninsula to Eceabat and cross the Dardanelles Strait in style on the ferry to Çanakkale.

On the way we called in to a little bread shop on the outskirts of Eceabat, where the wonders of 'physical' language came into play — she had no English, Warren has no Turkish, but the transaction was carried out easily, Warren first pointing to a loaf of bread, then holding up one finger. She bagged a loaf, then reached into the till and took out a one Lira coin to show Warren, who reciprocated by giving her an identical coin from his pocket. Simple!

Then the ferry. On the way to it, we passed our friends David and Carole (from the Kum campsite), who were going up and down the street trying to find a cafe that sold 'real' coffee, not the Turkish variety — we found out later that they failed! We were about the last ones on board, so our van was at the back. Right up front we noticed the van of the German couple we had met at the Kum campsite, so today was a bit of a Kum reunion!

The crossing was all too short, only taking about half an hour. But we took advantage of it to relax with a glass of tea.

And then leaving the ferry at Çanakkale. The Turks seem to have no idea whatsoever of the concept of queuing — it was absolute chaos, each vehicle trying to get its nose in front of the others. Add pedestrians into the mix, and the odd mobility vehicle, mothers with pushers, and the cars trying to push their way onto the ferry — you get the idea!

Our main task in Çanakkale was to visit an automotive electrician — the ventilation fan in the vehicle was out of service — in the heat we're having right now, you need to blow cold air in, and as it gets colder, warm air, especially to demist the windscreen — so it needed to be fixed. We found a place, but he spoke no English — but his neighbour spoke German, so that became the lingua franca. Turns out the the switch was kaput, and a replacement was not available, so we got him to substitute anything that would serve — so we ended up with a new switch on the dashboard — now a 4-speed switch, but a simple on/off — so it's all or nothing for the Hams for now!

The little coffee bar nearby served nice çay (tea)

We were driving out of town when we noticed a large field of tents near the waterfront. We decided to drop in for a look-see. Turned out to be an agricultural show. Agricultural distributors were displaying their wares, or the crops that came from their seed stock. It was a great place for farmers to get together and talk about what farmers talk about — tractors and other machinery, animals, crops, whatever. And one of the banks was handing our free ice creams!

Part of a tourism display for Troy

After this, we dropped in to the Kipa store next door, and found a place (Haskahve) that serves great coffee — yes, the Turkish variety, but also the more Italian varieties of espresso and cappuccino!

Çanakkale will soon have a magnificent new mosque!

More paddy fields

Then we drove out, getting many more glimpses into Turkish life. We missed the turnoff to Troy (don't worry — we'll be going back!), and ended up at Alexandria-Troas, a totally different site, but interesting in its own right. Where Troy goes back to about 3000 BC, Alexandria-Troas only goes back to 311 BC. It is believed that St Paul left from here for Macedonia in 50-51 AD, and spent a week here during his third missionary journey in 56-57 AD. It was still an important city at the end of the third century, when Constantine was considering it as a possible site to move the capital of the Roman Empire. There's little to see here now, but the good news is that there is still a lot yet unexcavated, so it's still a case of 'Watch this space'!

The road in to Alexandria-Troas

After exploring Alexandria-Troas, we returned through the village of Dalyan, to a campsite we noticed on its northern beachfront. Turns out that the campsite is not yet open, but you can stop there (with no facilities) if you wish — and we wished! There were a couple of German guys camped there, who were able to explain the situation. They were able to give us a great tip, too — we have been looking for CampinGaz, as we are now on our last cylinder. They informed us that one of the Turkish AyGaz cylinders has a compatible connector with the CampiGaz one, and we should be able to use this till we get back into Europe — and that there was an AyGaz distributor about 400 metres up the road. Warren took a walk up there and, guess what, we're now cooking with AyGaz.

Distance driven — today, 55 miles ( 89 km ); to date, 20,306 miles ( 32,680 km )