The Ham Nomads

18 Jun 2015. <TR> Kirşlu; Ataköy; Zonguldak —

We continued on our way, driving up via Kirşlu towards the Black Sea — so today's pictures are mostly road shots.

On our way, we've noted a huge range of residential styles, from caves in the hills, to decaying timber houses, to huge high-rise developments (complete with mosque) that are under construction and not yet occupied. Turkey is certainly a land of huge differences!

Virtually anything will serve as a mescid, a mosque
— this corrugated iron structure, for example!

We stopped off for a cuppa at a hostelry that was at the back of a vast open gravel car park — we wouldn't have gone in, but our need for a caffeine fix got the better of us. Turned out to be delightful, and the staff were most attentive. But inside was a huge dark cavern of a shop with everything on display still in shipping cartons.

Question for the day — sheep have shepherds, goats have goatherds, cows have cowherds — but what about bees?

We had just passed through the Dorukhunan Tunnel when we came upon more road works — and this time we saw how they strip the old road surface before resurfacing it — an 'asphalt muncher'!

A little further on, in Ataköy, we came across another road hazard!

We stopped off on a wide open sports ground for lunch — there was good shade near the goals on the far side! While we were there, a couple of other travellers must have noticed us, as we were soon joined by a couple of other vans and cars.

For a secular state, Turkey is very Islamic — the number of new mosques going up is phenomenal!

We reached the Black Sea at Zonguldak. This seems to be a large resort town, but not for the high flyers — it is somewhat reminiscent of Blackpool in the UK.

We found a Migros store in Zonduldak, so we were able to do a four-day shop before we continued on.

Even more massive roadwork!

We finally stopped for the night on the D-010 (there aka Sahil Bulevari), about 500 metres short of Alapi. This site was full of litter, which we simply ignored, as the view out to the sea was delightful. We have to say that the coastal strip from Zonguldak round to here was, unfortunately, characterised by huge amounts of litter. If they ever want to encourage tourists through this area, something will really have to be done about it!

We settled in for the night to the tune of a huge thunderstorm. There was a tree near us, but we weren't dangerously close to it (thinking of lightning strikes, which were very near at times!) We had a symphony of nature, raging at her most temperamental, followed by another  sunset to die for over the waves of the Black Sea.

Distance driven — today, 211 miles ( 340 km ); to date, 22,554 miles ( 36,298 km )