egn
Adventurer
Hi,
this info may be not of great interest to for most people here in the forum because Turkey is to far away, but I thought I share it just in case some people want to visit it.
Why Turkey?
As we were last year in more northerly and cooler areas of Europe (Sweden, Finland, Northwest-Russia), we thought of going to a warmer area do enjoy swimming at reasonable temperatures. So a a country south of Germany was preferred. As we had to go during the main season, we dropped France, Itally, Portugal and Spain from the list. This areas along the oceans are very crowded at this time and most of the time we would have to camp in expensive camp grounds. This is not the style of camping we like. We want to be free of all this restrictions and prefer to stand free at nice and lonely spots. Greece would have been an option, but we were already there several times. Croatia and Slovenia are also very restricted in the places were you can stay. Albania would have been an option, too. But there were some security concerns and very tight road conditions, which caused us to postpone a trip to this very nice country into the future.
In contrast, Turkey seemed to match our imaginations perfectly. There are endless possibilities to swim at the long coast line, and there is also a lot of interesting historic places and beautiful and wide landscape to explore. I know South- and West-Turkey already from yearly sailing trips, and could say only positive things about the friendly and helpful people. So finally after several months Turkey was chosen as our holiday target.
When and how long?
We didn't have much options here because we have to go during the school holidays. We decided to go at the 7. august for about 4-5 weeks.
Route to Turkey
There are a lot of options how to reach Turkey. There are several ways on land, but there are also possibilities to go in part by ferry. We decided to go through Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria in 4-5 days. The complete route goes through the European Union and so we didn't expect and problems at the borders. Of course, every country on the route has its own toll system for roads. In Turkey we then decided to take another route back as we heard that there a no problems at the Serbian border. This route is much more convenient because to roads are better.
Regarding fuel we have to look to fill our 1.300 l fuel tank before Turkey because the fuel in Turkey is much more expensive. The 1.300 l gives us a range of about 3.000 km which should cover most of the distance we drive in Turkey.
Route within Turkey
It was planned to make a round trip starting at Istanbul going east, along the Black Sea coast until about the mid of Turkey. Then going south till Cappadokia, and then going west again until we reach the coast. The length of this round trip should be about 2.500 km, and in total we would travel about 7.000 km.
Navigation and Maps
For regular road navigation I use my HTC Advantage together wir the iGO8 software. The map covers complete Europe including Turkey. Additionally I have electronic maps for TTQV/Pathaway and russian military maps.
Tracking
As last year I use a GPS Tracker that records the GPS positions constantly onto a SD-Card. Additionally I will send SMS with position data to http://www.poi66.com in order to keep people at home up to date.
Summary
We had very positive experiences. Especially the nice and very guest friendly people were great. In spite of the language barrier, we could communicate with each other. And there are a lot of nice places to stay.
The only negative points were the waste all over the place and the building of tourist flats in mid of otherwise nice landscape.
I'm sure this wasn't our last trip. Especially the far eastern part of Turkey seem to provide even more. But the kindness of heart of the people we met cannot be topped.
You can now see the short travel log at http://bt-tuerkei-2008.poi66.com . Sorry for being in German language. If you have problems in translating or want to have more detailed infos, please feel free to ask.
Enjoy,
Emil
this info may be not of great interest to for most people here in the forum because Turkey is to far away, but I thought I share it just in case some people want to visit it.
Why Turkey?
As we were last year in more northerly and cooler areas of Europe (Sweden, Finland, Northwest-Russia), we thought of going to a warmer area do enjoy swimming at reasonable temperatures. So a a country south of Germany was preferred. As we had to go during the main season, we dropped France, Itally, Portugal and Spain from the list. This areas along the oceans are very crowded at this time and most of the time we would have to camp in expensive camp grounds. This is not the style of camping we like. We want to be free of all this restrictions and prefer to stand free at nice and lonely spots. Greece would have been an option, but we were already there several times. Croatia and Slovenia are also very restricted in the places were you can stay. Albania would have been an option, too. But there were some security concerns and very tight road conditions, which caused us to postpone a trip to this very nice country into the future.
In contrast, Turkey seemed to match our imaginations perfectly. There are endless possibilities to swim at the long coast line, and there is also a lot of interesting historic places and beautiful and wide landscape to explore. I know South- and West-Turkey already from yearly sailing trips, and could say only positive things about the friendly and helpful people. So finally after several months Turkey was chosen as our holiday target.
When and how long?
We didn't have much options here because we have to go during the school holidays. We decided to go at the 7. august for about 4-5 weeks.
Route to Turkey
There are a lot of options how to reach Turkey. There are several ways on land, but there are also possibilities to go in part by ferry. We decided to go through Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria in 4-5 days. The complete route goes through the European Union and so we didn't expect and problems at the borders. Of course, every country on the route has its own toll system for roads. In Turkey we then decided to take another route back as we heard that there a no problems at the Serbian border. This route is much more convenient because to roads are better.
Regarding fuel we have to look to fill our 1.300 l fuel tank before Turkey because the fuel in Turkey is much more expensive. The 1.300 l gives us a range of about 3.000 km which should cover most of the distance we drive in Turkey.
Route within Turkey
It was planned to make a round trip starting at Istanbul going east, along the Black Sea coast until about the mid of Turkey. Then going south till Cappadokia, and then going west again until we reach the coast. The length of this round trip should be about 2.500 km, and in total we would travel about 7.000 km.
Navigation and Maps
For regular road navigation I use my HTC Advantage together wir the iGO8 software. The map covers complete Europe including Turkey. Additionally I have electronic maps for TTQV/Pathaway and russian military maps.
Tracking
As last year I use a GPS Tracker that records the GPS positions constantly onto a SD-Card. Additionally I will send SMS with position data to http://www.poi66.com in order to keep people at home up to date.
Summary
We had very positive experiences. Especially the nice and very guest friendly people were great. In spite of the language barrier, we could communicate with each other. And there are a lot of nice places to stay.
The only negative points were the waste all over the place and the building of tourist flats in mid of otherwise nice landscape.
I'm sure this wasn't our last trip. Especially the far eastern part of Turkey seem to provide even more. But the kindness of heart of the people we met cannot be topped.
You can now see the short travel log at http://bt-tuerkei-2008.poi66.com . Sorry for being in German language. If you have problems in translating or want to have more detailed infos, please feel free to ask.
Enjoy,
Emil