Christmas in Romania

We woke to a light dusting of snow here in the old town of Sibiu, it makes the view picture postcard perfect for Christmas morning. We intend to stay here tonight (nice hostel) before moving on tomorrow. Since my last post we have travelled some distance, my lazy blogging at fault there. We went to Haytusa in Turkey, an old Hittite city and impressively large, especially for being over 3000 years old. Becka saw some live music in a Turkish town on the Black Sea, but I was too tired and went to sleep!

We crossed the Bosporus in a bit of a dash arriving at Edirne a bit zonked out, the next morning we saw a wondrous mosque with a dome a few inches larger than the Agia Sophia in Istanbul. After a slightly tense crossing we were into Bulgaria and we headed for a ski town, Bansko. We skied and boarded for two days, the second being after a big dump of snow. Powder awesome.

Our plan was then to head to Belgrade in Serbia and then eventually out of the Balkans through Slovenia, where we both thought warranted a further visit. Unfortunately the Serbians wanted 116 Euros for car insurance, which we only needed for 3 days but was valid for a month. In Montenegro it had been 25, so we headed out of Serbia again and now a couple of days later we are in Sibiu in Romania. Romania is more western seeming than Bulgaria, shops in abundance and latin script but the countryside is buzzing with villages and rural life, and the neat villages have a distinct eastern European feel.

Turkey Two

After we got to Turkey from Iran i was in bed with lurg for two days and only pottering for a third. On the fourth we left Erzurum for the Black Sea. The route we hoped to take is shown above, we made it to the highest pass at 2600m but turned back to camp in one of the deserted villages above. The next day, with only a lot of digging to show for a morning's progress we doubled back and took a longer road. Today we reached the Black Sea, pleasantly warm weather after so long in the snow. We are staying in Samsun tonight.

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.

Friendly Albania

We've really been enjoying our time in Albania, we've seen some great mountain views, stayed at a "homestay" in the mountains and the people are very friendly. We took a dirt track to Theth in the mountains yesterday and stayed with a family there, though the setup is more like a bunkhouse where the host cooks dinner and breakfast. The views were breathtaking there and the way of like seemed little changed, aside from the relatively minor tourist impact. The village was in a remote valley, two hours drive from the nearest tarmac and three from the nearest town.

We have headed south to Berat and battled the crazy driving to arrive just before sundown and bag a great hotel. Tomorrow we'll do some site seeing in the town and head on, perhaps to the Ionian coast.

Destination Albania

We had a great but busy day yesterday exploring the Tara gorge, which was spectacular, and its hard to believe it started from a great wild camping spot, so many great views. We rough camped next to a mobile phone mast, high above a valley in the Montenegro hills. The views were spectacular and we weren't bothering anyone up there so we were pretty calm about it as a camping spot.

Tara gorge is 1300m deep, only 300m less than the Grand Canyon and I'd hoped to do some rafting but everything is shut at this time of year. The views were jaw dropping though and we even drove down a rough track from the top to the bottom, a good day.

Today we're making a wifi stop in the capital Podgorica before heading on to Albania.

Kotor bay

A bit out of sequence, but we drove around the outside of this bay yesterday before driving up the side of the mountain for a stunning view. Montenegro again.

Tara gorge in montenegro

Waaa! The view here is so stunning it is difficult to comprehend and the picture doesn't do it justice. We spent the past few days coming down through Croatia and yesterday in Montenegro, the scenery here is all great. A day or so longer here and then onwards i think.

Island of Rab

I'm doing a few entries at once because if i use internet once it costs me 2 quid for the whole day. We've been strugglin to find open campsites recently, most closed a week or 2 ago. This has led to some great rough camping spots but a sense of unease at the end of each day. Today we found an open campsite on the Croation island of Rab so we've checked in for 2 days and the picture above is from the site. We arrived in Croatia yesterday and were in Slovenia the previous 2 days which we both enjoyed. We saw 3km of a 20km cave system, staggering in scale. We also got caught in a lot of unseasonal snow and played the smug 4x4 driver card:) After Rab we'll carry on South to the Dalmation coast.

Officially classified as a tank

We saw this tank at the side of the road and i knew exactly the picture i would take:) This was a few days ago at the Austria-Slovenia border. We also saw a sobering bunker complex that would have been manned by Austrian conscripts in the event of ww3. They wouldn't have lasted long.

Sleepy Austria

All yesterday we passed very busy areas in Austria near Innsbruck, even the valley we camped in while surrounded by mountains was pretty bustling. Today we've seen a quieter side of Austria in the south, but we covered a lot of ground and are both ready for a short day tomorrow. We hope to be in Bled, in Slovenia by lunchtime tomorrow where we intend to stay and see some sights.

Manicured Switzerland

We stayed three nights in Switzerland and saw lots of stunning alpine scenery, the rivers seemed to me to be managed, the fields were mown and the villages were picture perfect cute. It made it all slightly unreal. This morning we wake up in Austria and maybe it's the route we took but it has not been as cute as Switzerland, though they had a very helpful Toyota garage that set me up with a new wiper.

Picnic in France

We're having a tasty picnic and we'll cross into Switzerland later today. We've had a pleasant morning pottering around these forests and trails. Yesterday was a driving day which was finished off with rain and me knocking tasty dinner on the floor. Bah. The night before we met some brits at the campsite and chatted and drank into the evening.

Email time.

We found wi fi and made with the internet thing, planning our next move (Reims) and catching up on email. We're in Paris today and will go to the Eiffel Tower later, it was a bit of a pain getting in on the train but the tube is easy. Disappointed to miss the catacombs but the city it beautiful. More photo's when i get the computer back from B.

Casting off

Just leaving Newhaven now and neither of us are looking forward to the windy channel. Waves equals seasickness:( looking forward to the french wine and food though.

Home is where your cat is

We're back home after over 5,000 miles and a massively rewarding trip. It's a good feeling to relax into but i might get itchy feet again soon. We had a pleasant time exploring northern Spain, taking in some sights but mostly finding some mountains and camping. I hear Scotland is quite good for that too... Blog will be dormant until the next trip.

Farewell Morocco

From Marrakech we headed to Rabat and then to Asilah the next night. Both are pretty chilled places which made them fairly relaxing places to stay but it did mean we had a low key farewell to a generally buzzing country. Last night we stayed at a friend of Becka's near Malaga and I type now from Laura's porch, looking out over the Andalucian hills. The sun is shining and we only just finished breakfast at about midday. Laura is sending us away with arm fulls of lemons and oranges fresh from the trees, yum. We will be three more days in Spain before catching the ferry and this relaxing time with Laura should be setting us up for a easy, freewheeling ride up to the north. Looking back at Morocco, it was everything I hoped for in this trip, we saw so many spectacular sights, got in some rewarding offroading and experienced the intimidating emptiness of the desert. The best part was staying with a Moroccan family though, it offsets all the hassle on the streets to give a true flavour of Moroccan life.