An average week?

Let me fill you in on the highlights of the last week.

We camped it up again in Kusadasi, a seaside town with easy access to Ephesus “the best preserved classical city in the Mediterranean”, which may be the most boring description going of this breathtaking, stunning testament to Roman workmanship, and don’t forget the photogenic cats!

Calypso on the ferry across the Dardanelles

Enjoying the ferry ride

Phil

Ephesus

The Grand Theatre

A very photogenic cat!

Yvonne, Julie, Mary & Andy at Ephesus

A small gang of our travellers took it upon themselves to liberate some wood from the campsite's stock to fill Calypso’s wood locker up.  We enjoyed a large fire that evening.

Loading the wood locker

James collecting firewood

We dash out of Kusadasi, to Pamukkale.  It’s a short drive down a dual carriageway through many small towns until we turn off at the brown Pamukkale sign and the road starts to snake through smaller villages.  Finally in the distance we see the white terraces of Pamukkale which makes a great time to stop for lunch and enjoy the view.

Group at Pamukkale

Loo stop, and a photo op!

Lunch with a view

Anna & Mahala

Fi having a paddle in the thermal water

Lou

Phil

Simon and I leave the gang to enjoy the travertine pools, and the ruins of Hierapolis at the Unesco World Heritage site while we drive off to find our campsite for the night. 

It is closed.  The man who runs the place isn’t turning up.  One of his friends arrives on scooter and in broken English tells us to wait, makes some phone calls and then Ismail turns up.  He owns a hotel down the road, would we like to see it?  After some negotiations and haggling on price we thought it couldn’t hurt to take a look.  The Ozturk hotel turned out to be a delightful family fun pension with shade created by crawling ivy and trees, a roof terrace with views of the terraces and en-suite rooms, which we thought our campers would appreciate!

Mary, James & Alex, poolside at the Ozturk hotel

Our cook group whip up a culinary storm in the hotel's kitchen that evening, vegetable curry, dhal and rice.  After consuming our feast we head out to the Kaya Bar where we continue to indulge in beer, cheap wine and shisha.  The young ‘uns of the group are happy to be staying up and out till after midnight!  This is also where we reunite with Warren, it was a great relief for everyone to see him walking up the street.  He had spent two nights sleeping on buses playing catch up after having to return to Istanbul for his Uzbekistan visa.  Needless to say his was most pleased to find we were staying in a hotel and he could catch up on sleep in a bed.

Becs & Mahala

At the pub

James, Andy, Anna, Simon & Teresa enjoying a beer or two

Lou, Fi, Alex & David

James hiding behind a shisha pipe

Spike, Pernille, Becs & Yvonne

After our late night it was a slow and relaxed start to the day.  The afternoon was to be filled bathing in hot springs and mud baths for some and for others it was to be adrenalin fuelled paragliding.

Lunch before mud baths

Mud bath!

The paragliders - Phil, Andy, Julie, David, Simon, Becs, Spike & Lou

Becs getting suited up

David ready to go

Simon waiting for the right wind

A great day for paragliding

Spike and the Go Pro camera

Flying!

Pamukkale from the air

To end our delightful stay in this laidback town, Ismail and his sister cooked for us. On the menu was lentil soup followed by Kofte, chicken or fish with salad and rice.  It was a more reserved evening with everyone slipping off to bed early, ready for an early start and our first bushcamp!

We are driving towards Goreme and must stop on the way as the drive all the way there is far too long.  We start by looking down the small roads running off the main road, trying to spot a little piece of heaven away from the din of civilisation.  Eventually we spot a dirt track that looks interesting to we take it and follow it down where we find a nice space sheltered from the wind blowing across the flat plain.  We are followed to our destination by a Turkish man and his three children.  I ask if its ok to camp where we are and he very excitedly nods his head, yes!

Scenic lunch spot overlooking lakes and mountains, the best so far

Calypso and her fans

Bushcamp

As roof crew and luggage crew spring in to action we are joined by another car, again, full of Turkish men.  We continue to set up camp and start cooking the evening meal.  Spike and Andy make a great fire which is promptly sat around by our new Turkish friends and they soon offer us beers and tuck in to the bottles themselves.  They seem very happy to be part of our proceedings, making introductions in broken English.  The rest of the evening is spent singing along to glee, power ballads and dancing to the loud traditional music blasting from the Turks cars. The more beer that was consumed the more inappropriate our curious camp fire thieves hands became and the ladies started marrying themselves off to pretend husbands.  Simon managed to gain three wives in one evening.

Andy & Simon cooking up a storm - shepherds pie

I love bushcamping!  You don’t always know where you will spend the evening, or evidently who will be joining in!  It can be bizarre and wonderful and random, full of magic that you cannot plan for or always be prepared for!  That was the first of many bushcamps, and I have a good feeling that they are only going to get better.