We had a long day of
driving today and we were on the road by 08:10, taking the old road
to the Turkish border. We filled up with fuel (Diesel is expensive in
Turkey) and bought some essential supplies whilst still in Greece.
Crossing into Turkey
was straightforward if a little long-winded and then it was a long
slog of major roads and motorways. Driving around Istanbul on the
motorway ring-road was ….... interesting. Turkish drivers have
absolutely no concept of lane discipline and their driving is
appalling. I am not exaggerating when I say that we saw as much
'undertaking' as overtaking and cars would weave in and out of all
four lanes at great speed often cutting across two lanes at a time
missing moving cars by inches. You have to have eyes everywhere and
if you leave any gap at all between you and the car in front, a car
will appear from left or right to fill the gap without any warning.
There were a lot of gasps from both of us but amazingly no horns were
sounded, the locals just accepted it!
Many miles out
of Istanbul, the traffic started to thin and the driving became
easier although you still needed to have eyes everywhere! We started
to climb steadily as we approached Gerede where the motorway turns
south to head for Anchora. We left the motorway here and took the 750
which runs parallel to the east. We were heading for a campsite that
we had found on the ACSI site, Yayla Mocamp at Akyarma. We saw it on
the opposite side of the dual carriageway so we found a place to do a
u-turn and headed back. We expected it to be basic but were
pleasantly surprised. We were then only customers but we had
electricity and there was a clean shower block with proper toilets
(not foot ones), toilet paper and sinks with soap and paper towels.
The situation is quite pleasant, under trees with a stream and small
recreational lake. There is also a restaurant but having driven 650
km and been on the road for over 10 hours, we just wanted a simple
meal and some sleep. The site is at nearly 1500 metres and it was
positively cool at 13°C
– time to hunker down.
Photos: Jane managed to grab a few photographs as
we crossed the Bosphoros. This one shows the European side of
Istanbul on the right and the Asian side on the left.
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