Heartland

My infrequent blogging is a reflection of a decreasing amount of time spent in hotels or even towns. We've been getting past the beaches and resorts of Turkey to explore the heart of the country. We've seen touristy things like the fairy chimneys in Cappadocia and less touristy things like our exploration of a mountain track which ended up with us turning back due to snow drifts. There's been lots of rough camping, we can usually choose good spots and this often gets us off the beaten track too.

Best night: full moon in Cappadocia surrounded by fairy chimneys, waking up to a skyscape of balloons

Best food: Lunch out in Gaziantep, posh kebabs with lots of side dishes

Worst thing: Not enough showers

Off to see if I can upload any photo's to Flickr.

Happy birthday me

We intended to visit the baths at Pamukkale today but on discovering the price decided against it, to be fair a nice hot shower after lots of rough camping would have been just as nice. We are also getting "ruin fatigue" having been to Delphi, the Temple of Poseiden near Athens and Ephesus we have had some ancients overload.

Instead we pressed on to Egirdir which is a pretty town on the edge of a lake. All day we've been driving through a varying landscape of craggy hills, fertile plains and scubby vegetation and there hadn't been a cloud in the sky.

We're in a friendly guesthouse tonight and the first shower for 5 days was very welcome indeed!

Next stop Asia

We're on the island of Chios, preparing to take a ferry to Turkey, a new continent awaits and I'm excited. Greece has been pleasant and I think we've rushed things as usual, it's also quite expensive after we got used to Balkans prices. We arrived on Chios at midnight last night and found a secluded spot to park up in. Yesterday was mostly just getting back to Athens from the evocatively located temple of Poseiden. This morning we explored some of the mountain tracks here on Chios and gave the car a bit of a work out, 4WD low range definitely needed in some places but the car beasted it all.

Our ferry leaves at 3pm local time so we'll be in Turkey tonight.

Classical education

Today we saw the oracle at Delphi, or to be more precise, the ruins of. I really enjoyed wandering down the sacred way imagining what it might have been like 2,500 years ago with thousands of statues, marble, bronze and gold shining in gaudy competition for the eye. Greek myths and history seem unreal in so many senses but seeing a place that features in some of them makes them a lot more tangible. The other thing that stunned me was the skill used in construction, massive stone blocks that fit together without mortar.

We have also had two excellent beach camping spots since I last blogged, one in Albania and one in Greece. In Albania we had a long sandy beach to ourselves all night and we even had a fire going with a bit of music playing to cap it off. I'll try and get some pictures up on Flickr soon.