We're Marianne and Chris, in 2018 we quit the nine to five and bought Trudy our camper van.
We are currently on an adventure to drive the circumference of the world.
You join us as we explore the East of Turkey.
With mystical lands
adventurous train rides,
great wild camping spots,
and interesting characters.
Morning!
we ready for a bit of Turkish breakfast?
We are always ready for breakfast !
We had a lovely evening with Eric and Jokè last night,
but before we leave Manavgat we're going to have a Turkish breakfast,
and of course then with our friends Chesca and Ben from Overlanding Sophia, we're going on a road trip!
yeah! But before we do we want to say thank you to Eric who's hiding behind the van thanks Eric!
Everyone is running from the camera !
These guys are going to have their first Turkish breakfast!
I am so excited!
So with Eric's recommendation this restaurant in Manavgat apparently is the best for breakfast in this in the town.
Okay so the Turkish breakfast is served!
Chips, gozleme, cheese cigars, salad, eggs, more cheese,
ham, lots of different things, jams, lots more there, more salad!
Dave what do you think of your first Turkish breakfast?
I've never seen anything quite like this! Bon appetit!
After a fantastic breakfast,
and we're all very full!
We're going to hit the road and head down the coast a little bit.
Cheers man, take care, see you, see you, we'll see you soon man.
Awwwwhhhh !
Bye guys!
Adios Amigos
We love you!
All the best guys!
Stay safe.
Okay we're starting the road trip!
So we jumped into Trudy after that amazing breakfast,
we're heading down the coastline a bit to Gazipasa,
it's probably about an hour and a half away.
Very cool little bicycle flower statues there.
Look it's turning really hot hot!
It is hot isn't it? Yes i've got longer trousers on, i need to put shorts on!
after three days of quite thundery weather,
it's suddenly taken us by surprise, to be in the 26 / 27 degree sun and it's warm!
The route today we're hugging the coastline along the south coast,
I think we'll definitely have to find a a beach park up again for tonight.
All the way along this stretch there's lots of bananas you can see growing by the side of the road there.
There you go, the truck in front is full of bananas!
Just driving down towards Alanya, not far from Alanya huge hotels here on the coastline.
It is a very touristy spot.
So we just stopped off for a bit of fuel,
all fuelled up, i just love the prices over here.
£37 to fill up, that's just absolutely amazing.
What a view, look at this! It has all opened up now,
blue water, we're just coming up to the city of Alanya.
Very picturesque,
and it always looks better in the sun!
So this road between Alanya and Gazipasa is lovely,
it actually feels a bit like the south of France,
like the med!
With nice flats and hotels, a long seafront with blue seas ...
So nearing Gazipasa, we're coming into an area lots of polytunnels,
huge farming industry as far as the eye can see there's polly tunnels.
We've gone past Gazipasa, and we're heading down to the coast,
because we're going to try and find somewhere to park up for the night,
and then come up with some kind of road trip plan.
Okay so we found this little park up,
banana trees behind,
we're going to set camp up here.
What do you reckon Ben?
Perfect ! It's good isn't it?
Nice and quiet, sunny!
Lots of rock pools!
Oh the sun is out!
Come on let's play Chris! come on! What are you doing?
Not a bad place to wake up to, on the beach here just East of Gazipasa.
You may have seen when we were in the car park in Istanbul,
Our friend Ersel bought us loads of double yolk eggs and he's just bought us another box when we met him,
which we're having for breakfast,
so this should be another double yolk egg!
Yes! Thanks Ersel!
breakfast sorted!
So we're just having our morning breakfast ....
Chesca's got an egg banjo, which is basically a runny egg sandwich, Marianne's got scrambled eggs on toast.
Well after that wonderful breakfast,
we're going to put the Turkish map on the side of the van and we're going to work out what we're doing over the next couple of weeks.
Here for food apparently,
and also we were told that there's the oldest church in history is based here as well.
Okay we have a plan!
So what we're going to do is we're going to drive with them in convoy down towards the Syrian border,
down to Antakya, up to Gaziantep and then back to Halfeti - excited?
So excited ! We can't wait !
Marianne excited? i'm very excited!
Okay we're jumping into the vans because we are heading to the mountains for a bit of lunch!
To a restaurant that was recommended by a lady we met called Janet, thank you and lovely to meet you!
And we're looking forward to this, so let's go into the mountains!
Are you ready? Ready! ok let's rock and roll!
It's an absolutely scorching day!
And where we are parked we're just surrounded by banana trees!
So we're just going through Gazipasa, this is a lovely little square here!
And we're just going to find a cash point,
get some cash out in case they don't take credit cards
up in the mountains, always a good idea.
Right cash sorted, let's go and get some lunch!
This is nice we're starting to get close to the mountains.
There is a massive quarry here,
oh you see that truck's going up that road a bit like we did in Georgia up there!
When Chris says to me "be careful love, it might be a dodgy road"
I say "there is no road that ever will compare to the dodgy road in Georgia"
No it's true!
Absolutely fantastic views,
there's a bit of a drop there, I know Chesca is afraid of heights ....
Chesca if you watch this, I hope we are not traumatising you too much.
It's getting a bit it's getting ......
a bit of a big drop down there actually!
Mariannes tip for going around corners on mountains - horn!
I was just a bit worried whether Chesca is all right, but she seems to be all right.
These are really high roads!
we are lunatics!
Okay this road's getting smaller and smaller!
7 km to go!
What a road - beautiful,
And there's a beautiful lake down in the bottom there!
Absolutely stunning view!
A good spot for lunch
hopefully i put it in the Satnav right and there is a restaurant at the end - but we'll see!
I'm not really sure where we're going!
Well I am navigating! no i do know where we're going,
but it feels like we're in the middle of nowhere!
It doesn't look like your normal location to go and find a restaurant really is it?
So we've just we've just stopped,
because it says that it's up this road, but we're not %100 sure!
Are you going to go and check it out?
No, it is not there?
That just goes off into the trees and then like off, off and off!
We were saying so the two big strong men and we sent the girl off into the woods with the bears!
That is just classic goldilocks!
After the road gets worse than this.
Don't listen to google maps, let's just drive straight down!
No i think we made a good decision, i don't think that is that road so .....
let's go a little bit further.
Okay trust your instincts!
Google map said it was up there,
Chesca went up, it just went up into a dirt track!
It's probably, literally just around the corner down here.
So this is where we've driven up to,
The Kiwi Park!
Wow look at this!
the old farming equipment,
these are the squash, you see they dry them and sometimes they turn them into lanterns.
this isn't a vine, it isn't a grapevine,
they are all loads of kiwi fruit ... look!
We're just coming down the back,
they've got the little little seating areas!
Kiwis everywhere!
Look ....
This is hotel palace
hotel palace!
For sleeping? Yeah!
It's for sleeping, look it's a little bedroom, with a little tv and a fridge! That's amazing!
This is like sleeping in the mountains, mountain style!
What a cool spot!
it was worth the drive Chesca wasn't it? %100!
Oh look we got loads of chickens!
And then down here, they've got access to the river!
Ah this is the little kitchen,
amazing this is where the magic happens
Oh wow
Now i wish i said four of those!
so we've got a nice stew, a couple of salads.
We're going to share them ...
although I like the idea that the stews are in front of me and Ben!
some bread, bon appetit
So we've got kiwi and pomegranate seeds for dessert!
okay, that is so random! there is a crab on the road!
What is a crab doing on the road?
So we made it back off the mountain in one piece.
And we've arrived back at the beach where we were parked before, because it's a good spot!
We've just gone past Gazipasa and
we're heading down to the coast ...... Mariannes laughing because i said that wrong!
So after that wonderful ..... whoops! I just tore the map!
We've gone past Gazipasa
okay, cut - hold on!
you got the magnets? I do because i'm a genius!
it's upside down!!!
I am not that much of a genius !!
Gazipasa ...... so we're heading uh we've gone past Gashi - let me start that again!
Ow !! That's karma, she was laughing at me!
it is breakfast time Chesca's got an ed banjo ....
an ed banjo I just said!
hold on let me start that again!