Woke up at about 9.30 to heavy rain, didn’t want to get out of the tent and get wet, but it was too bright and noisy (we’re right next to the main road) to get back to sleep, so I’ve played solitaire on my ipod until the batter died (exciting times!)
Pretty lazy morning again, we tidied the car a bit and chatted with the other two teams, Don’t Panic and Matt-Nav & TomTom. They’re heading to Georgia today and we’re off inland towards Erzurum. Rachel got a text from Fiona saying the road had been very blocked and flooded in places.
The others have just set off, we’ve swapped numbers and might meet up again somewhere between Ashgabat and UB – Matt-Nav & TomTom are on a similar schedule to us – UB in early September.
We’ve been driving for a few hours now, followed the Black Sea coast for a while in the sun, it’s very mountainous on the right and lovely blue-green sea all along the left with some nice little towns along the way – a few signs of having been flooded earlier, but mostly cleared up now.
Then we turned inland into the hills and a strange valley where everything was green and there were a lot of houses looking precariously balanced on the steep slopes. A lot of the towns seem to just be being built, along with a new road and some hydroelectric stuff. We just keep getting higher and higher too.
We came out of the mountains and saw some big flat plains but we’re still really high up! We kept driving for a while and thought the car was losing power until we realized we were actually climbing again. This climb tool us to a peak with a huge monument and statue on it, so we got out and took some photos and it was windy and freezing! Now the sun is setting and we’re going to try and find some food and a place to camp.
We stopped in Askale to get some food, but the shop didn't have much, mainly cooking ingredients. We got bread, jam and some fruit juice, then carried on to find somewhere to camp.
We drove a little off the main road and then stopped at the edge of a field and got the stove out to cook our last Sainsbury’s can – Beans & Sausages! Halfway through cooking, a tractor stopped next to us and two men came over, Turgut & Hussein – neither of them spoke any English and we don’t know any Turkish, but we got on fine with charades, we managed to swap phone numbers and they gave us some chocolate. After a while, they set off again and James and I were talking about how bizarre it had been, when after a short while a car pulled up next to us. It was Turgut again, and he had a whole tea set with him! We drank the whole pot (must’ve been about a litre), let him scribble something on our car, then tried to give him a photo, but James lost my camera! What a great night!
Photos from the day.
Pretty lazy morning again, we tidied the car a bit and chatted with the other two teams, Don’t Panic and Matt-Nav & TomTom. They’re heading to Georgia today and we’re off inland towards Erzurum. Rachel got a text from Fiona saying the road had been very blocked and flooded in places.
The others have just set off, we’ve swapped numbers and might meet up again somewhere between Ashgabat and UB – Matt-Nav & TomTom are on a similar schedule to us – UB in early September.
We’ve been driving for a few hours now, followed the Black Sea coast for a while in the sun, it’s very mountainous on the right and lovely blue-green sea all along the left with some nice little towns along the way – a few signs of having been flooded earlier, but mostly cleared up now.
Then we turned inland into the hills and a strange valley where everything was green and there were a lot of houses looking precariously balanced on the steep slopes. A lot of the towns seem to just be being built, along with a new road and some hydroelectric stuff. We just keep getting higher and higher too.
We came out of the mountains and saw some big flat plains but we’re still really high up! We kept driving for a while and thought the car was losing power until we realized we were actually climbing again. This climb tool us to a peak with a huge monument and statue on it, so we got out and took some photos and it was windy and freezing! Now the sun is setting and we’re going to try and find some food and a place to camp.
We stopped in Askale to get some food, but the shop didn't have much, mainly cooking ingredients. We got bread, jam and some fruit juice, then carried on to find somewhere to camp.
We drove a little off the main road and then stopped at the edge of a field and got the stove out to cook our last Sainsbury’s can – Beans & Sausages! Halfway through cooking, a tractor stopped next to us and two men came over, Turgut & Hussein – neither of them spoke any English and we don’t know any Turkish, but we got on fine with charades, we managed to swap phone numbers and they gave us some chocolate. After a while, they set off again and James and I were talking about how bizarre it had been, when after a short while a car pulled up next to us. It was Turgut again, and he had a whole tea set with him! We drank the whole pot (must’ve been about a litre), let him scribble something on our car, then tried to give him a photo, but James lost my camera! What a great night!
Photos from the day.
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