On the road again.....and the silk road!!!!!

So we are on the road again. I know we haven't yet managed to finish our first blog, we are still in Ethiopia, but since we have seen most people since then we will skip it for now. There is a chance if we get time we will fill in the gaps, just to make it a bit confusing.

The trip we are doing now is from Istanbul to Beijing. We will go through Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China!

Grace started in London and came through Europe but I will let her tell you about that bit. The trip is four months and as I know a lot of you will know, grace and I have never been through here before. We are really looking forward to exploring countries that you hear nothing about or you only hear bad things about. Can't wait to learn for ourselves what this part of the world is like. And we get to follow in some ancient footsteps and amazing history along the way. The main aim of the trip is to follow the silk route, the ancient trading route through central Asia. Before shipping become a viable form of transport and trade the silk route was the major trade route. It also meant it was the way that technology and ideas were passed between civilisation.

After spending a month at the truck park (where I was very well looked after) in Istanbul we were ready to hit the road. Grace had arrived from Europe and gaps had arrived in town as well, great to have the big man with us!!!

Istanbul is an amazing city sitting between two continents, the only city in the world to do that. It has been the seat for 3 different empires (the Byzantine, Roman and Ottoman). We spent many days exploring the sites of the city and eating as many kebabs as possible. And of course smoking as much shisha as possible. Then it is time to hit the road.

 

First stop is a pilgrimage for Aussie and Kiwi's, Anzac cove for Anzac day. Was a very special and moving day to be where our troops landed and so many lost their lives at such a young age, so far from home. We spent the night sleeping out at the commemorative site ready for the dawn service. We then walked up to Chunuk Bair, it took us 40mins and it took the troops 4 months to get there, the site the New Zealand troops fought for and took, for the New Zealand service. It was also where Mustafa Kemal lead the Turkish troops. He later become the first President of Turkey and lead them to the country they are now. It is one of the only war memorial sites I have been too that is such a special place for all the countries that took apart there. The place was full of Turkish memorials as well. Amazing for Turkey to allow countries that tried to invade and take over their country back to build memorials and come in such large numbers to remember it. Mustafa Kemal, later know as Atatürk, father Turk, said these words before he died

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives... you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."

We then crossed the straights and landed in Asia!!! Turkey has a long and always changing history. The coast is full of ancient sites. It has a lot of Greek and Roman ruins. Istanbul was even the capital of the Roman empire (called Constantinople at the time). People have been living here for as long back as 3000BC. We have travelled along the coast visiting the ancient sites and cities. Visited troy but couldn't see Brad Pitt anywhere and you needed a lot of imigination . Ephesus was mind blowing and so well preserved, walking the streets where St Paul walked and seating in the amphitheatre where he would speak. Mark Antony would also bring Cleopatra here to impress here, can see why.

Spent a few days in the sunny spot of Oludeniz, one of the worlds most popular places for para gliding, so of course we para glided. Beautiful and relaxing way to get an awesome view over the coast line. After a beautiful drive along the turquoise coast looking out at the Mediterranean we visited the relaxing ancient site of Olympos.

People in Turkey are very friendly and welcoming. We stopped for a bush camp and had a visit from a very nice farmer. We then left and came back on his tractor with fresh cheese and eggs for us. We then kept saying shut up, shut up, which we worked out meant wine or alcohol, all he got was tea tho. When we stop for lunch people stop and give us food as well.

Chai or tea is very important here and everyone is always drinking it. In the markets peoples jobs is to come round and deliver tea to everyone. No one seems to pay for it and when you are buying something you can almost always get free tea with it.
Truck is going well and group is great, a part from that gaps guy of course.

Doing a trip we have never done is exciting but also hard. I had my most stressful drive day getting to our latest camp. We came thru a very small village that was extremely tight going down into a valley, only to find that the road at the bottom was getting repaired and we needed to go back thru the village and around the long way. We were only about 200m from camp so it was a bit of a pain and the last thing I wanted to do was drive back thru the village again. On an exciting note there was a marriage celebration in the village that night. Lots of loud music and fireworks. Then noise that sounded kind of like fire works but couldn't see anything but just after it we would hear things falling in the trees and on the ground around us. We went to investigate and found that as part of the celebrating the men would shoot their guns into the air!! A lot of hand guns being shoot by a lot of very drunk Turkish men. And one shotgun as well, so the stuff falling around us was from the shotgun, lucky it was tiny stuff and did no damage, but still a worry having it coming down on us. We didn't hang around long at the party,not great combination of a lot of drink and a lot of hand guns. We have one american on the trip, Kevin, and of course he was the only one that got hit by the lead shot, hit him in the leg but did no damage. He did the only logical thing to do, went up and partied with the shooter.

It is only the start of a long adventure for us but Turkey has already blown us away.