I think we're officially in the middle of nowhere guys! What do you reckon?
Excited? Yeah it's amazing!
And we're literally probably a mile from the Syrian border!
He's inviting us back for food!
I can't believe how far we've come!
This is what road trips were all about! Following random strangers!
This is a fun road trip!
We're Marianne and Chris, in 2018 we quit the 9-5 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.
Good morning, so we had a good night's sleep in the car park here.
We're literally parked just underneath Saint Peter's church, and the sun's come up,
it's a beautiful blue sky today,
which is great because today we're driving further North and East up towards Gaziantep.
Good morning! Morning!
And we were the only people in the car park here last night.
It was a nice and peaceful night,
apart from the call to prayer which is a part of travelling this part of the world,
the minaret of the the local mosque is just behind the houses there.
We've come up to Saint Peter's church this is a very special church.
You'll be able to see, it's up in the rock face behind us.
So we're going to go and check it out.
So walking up there this definitely gives you a wonderful aerial view of the city.
Look at that! It's bigger than you you'd think when you're in it.
It's a very large city,
I think that's half a million people, or half a million population?
And it's incredible, because it's being overlooked by these caves just carved into this stone.
So walking up,
look you can see there's already evidence of
things carved out in the rocks there,
and actually a little brick wall look at that there must have been some sort of fortification here.
actually as we're walking up i can see some bulbs growing out of the ground here which look like tulips?
I always thought that tulips came from the Netherlands .... apparently they first originated in Turkey.
So entry into the church is 40 TL per person or if you have a museum card then it's included.
So located on the west side of Mount Starius is the church of Saint Peter.
Absolutely mind-blowing to think that this is the first known cave church in the world.
On this display board here it actually says that Saint Pierre, Saint Peter as we know him,
was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus,
and came to Hatay and made his first religious meeting in this cave!
That is mind-blowing?!
Isn't that mind-blowing?!
It really absolutely blows our minds, coming to Turkey we have not seen so many christian relics anywhere in the world other than here !
Serious history here!
So this is the outside of the church here, look at that! isn't it amazing.....
Carved in the rocks it is the first cave church in the world, on the side of the mountain here ....
Absolutely amazing!
It is so beautifully maintained and the upkeep is ....
So they've still got remnants of ancient mosaics on the floor.
There's another little tunnel going off in the side there,
amazing to think they carved this out of rock.
So another must-see site here in Antakya is the Hatay archeological museum,
which we're going to go and check out right now!
So entry into the museum was 40 TL or it's included on your museum card,
or if you want to go and see the church and the museum they do a package deal for 105 TL
I've got to be honest, before we came to Turkey
I was not really that much into history.....
But it's been really interesting,
even just looking back at the paleolithic times
and seeing how the modern homo-sapien would has evolved
and how we have changed so much.
And of course you get to see chaps like this!
That's not something you'd see every day!
this is a statue of one of the gate guards!
And it would have been from the Hittite period,
on the Anatolian - Syria borders.
If you like your history i would definitely come to this museum,
the mosaics and artefacts that they have here are mind-blowing,
I mean look look at the size of this!
And then all the way behind me it just goes on, and on, and on!
So before we hit the road and do the three hour drive to Gaziantep, we just bought an Antakya Hatay simmit,
It smells so good!
Oh those sesame seeds are just mmm!
That's good to Gaziantep we go!
So the drive up to Gaziantep today is going to take about three hours,
it's North East of where we are, and the road literally hugs the Syrian border.
So it should be quite an interesting drive this morning.
We're just turning off here, I'm sure Halep on that sign there means there is Aleppo.
So just stopping by the side of the road here,
cotton is a massive farming produce here in the East of Turkey and there's a field here, still yet to be harvested.
We'll we'll try and spot some harvesting going on the road on the journey today.
Throughout Turkey they have a lot of police stops to check people's paperwork
and details, and coming down to this corner of Turkey,
you will naturally see a lot more army checks, police checks and they're just doing their job,
to make sure that they keep Turkey safe.
It can be a little bit off-putting when you first get here and you're not used to it.
But it is all part of the experience!
So the road that we're going along north at the moment,
but we stayed on the other side of these mountains when we first came down to this part of Turkey,
and over this range of mountains here on the other side is Syria.
Driving along it's proper old school you see lots of farmers still using a horse and cart.
And it's nice to be taken back to those to those days to see that natural life again.
So we've just turned off now, and this this road is going to wind up to the South of Gaziantep,
but does go very close to the Syrian border.
Well there's no traffic now, there's just us and Overlanding Sophia,
who are behind, but on the hillside here you can see the Syrian border, the wall.
There's a an actual wall, or a fence there that you can see, that is the Syrian border!
So we just stopped off because we saw the cotton field,
and the ladies picking the cotton in the distance!
It's fresh, look how clean it is! It's beautiful, that is literally just like cotton wool yeah!
yeah that's amazing !
Isn't it? I didn't know what to expect, it's just cottom wool! and it's got the seeds inside.
You think it's manufactured to make it so clean don't you? Yeah!
And we're literally probably a mile from the Syrian border you can see it just on the mountain behind us!
Excited? yeah it's amazing!
I can't believe how far we've come!
I know..... it's not a normal road trip?! No !
It's a great road trip!
Right! I still i still can't get over how naturally beautiful that is!
Okay guys, let's hit the road!
I can't actually believe that we are running parallel to the Syrian border!
The wall is right there,
so the little houses you can see just at the top there that is actually Syria!
The people that live in those houses are Syrian and the people that live on this side are Turkish!
I love that ! Literally a couple of hundred meters!
I love getting so close to a border that you can you can see, you can almost smell the other country .... it's incredible!
So just driving along, and then we saw all these things drying ...
what are they? Peppers? Oh chillies?
Chillies! Wow look there's hundreds of them on the on the tarpaulin here!
Amazing
We've just passed some more army trucks!
So all the way along this road they've got lots of agriculture,
they've got loads of olive trees we've passed lots of vineyards,
it looks really really good farming land.
Yeah this vehicle's coming is laden with cotton that's why it is packed so high, because it is so light!
We've got goats on the road!
Traffic jam!
We just love winding through all these little villages,
chickens walking on the road.
Rural life here,
we've got the uh the mosque in the distance,
kids out playing in the streets.
Come on chicks!
Mr cockerel! Come on
So we just stopped to make a quick coffee by the side of the road.
i think we're officially in the middle of nowhere guys!
What do you reckon?
I think we are in the middle of nowhere!
It's very peaceful!
Nice drive?
It is beautiful !
Chesca what are you doing on the floor Chesca? Filming ...
I thought you twisted your ankle like me !
or doing an impression of Chris!
Look how cute this dog is! Chesca's found a new friend!
Hello
How are you?
Thank you!
We think he is asking us where we are from
England!
Then why are we taking a picture of the road! we say it is lovely!
He laughs and says it is not now!
The Crops have finished - but it's a nice road it's a nice road
He thinks i'm crazy for taking a picture of this!
But it's a nice road!
He's inviting us back for food and and hospitality, and food ... Oh mind the car !
He is so nice, everybody's so nice!
And we just stopped by the side of the road!
how lovely is that!
How wonderful was that to see the shepherd on his donkey,
riding with his kangol dogs,
and we stopped took a photo and he just gave us the biggest smile he was so happy.
happy to see us, that's absolutely lovely!
You know they say that smiles are infectious?
They are, that was the smile was just warmed my heart! It's beautiful!
Oh a horse, a duck!
We're just driving through a village,
and I think there's it may be some kind of gathering or?
I'm not sure whether it's a funeral? or a mosque service?
It seems to be very busy ......
So it's very busy, i think there is actually road works ahead so the road is closed ....
but I think, i think it's a funeral service.
how nice is that they just given us some food!
That's super nice,
so we're just sat here eating lahmachun.
Marianne's talking to a bunch of guys because they speak french
it's so friendly they keep giving us food! Everyone's just so lovely!
it's super
lovely lovely
So the road is closed due to construction,
Is it a funeral? yes, there's some construction ahead,
yeah, so he said follow me and i'll show you the way around - oh!
That's amazing,
i'm just going to wait here, he's going to get his car, and we have to follow him.
We have to follow him, and he's going to show us a shortcut!
So we're following this guy,
because the the road there the road is closed.
So we've got a bit of an adventure down some roads to get to Gaziantep,
it's a little bit of a detour, isn't this fun?
this is what road trips were all about!
following random strangers, who take you to new places!
and i've got lahmachun!
This is a fun road trip!
We're going through the Turkish countryside.
Are you having fun? Yeah!
Well we'd never find this way, we are literally just like going across fields.
All is good, past a little tea shop.
So we found on park4night, this little free municipality park up for caravans.
Marianne and Chesca have just gone to see if it's available,
So yeah it's all looking good.
They're waving!
Okay we're going in!
There is space ...
you can stay for three days for free!
With washing machine, electric, water!
I love these government-run campsites - they're amazing!