What a disaster last night was!! Kids running riot around the vehicle till well after midnight and it took a loud “Shut Up!!” To get some peace but then the excavator, that we were certain would cease scratching rocks out of the ground and loading them on trucks, would stop when the sun went down. Not a chance and and the trucks kept communing all night and reversing into place with their beep…beep…beep. The joys of camping in a strange country…:)
The wind blew during the night too but the day dawned a blue-sky-one. Up at 7am to get the show on the road. Well, breakfast anyway. Packed and gone by 9am.
The Road to Bartin.
The Six hours behind the wheel and 257k’s or 157 miles covered. Jen wanted to take the inland highway route further south but I managed to convince her that the coast road would be more interesting. It was much more than that. Up and down, zig zag every which way. High above the sparkling blue water one minute then down to near water level the next.
An interesting display of earlier military statuary.
Clearly there had been a serious deluge not too many days or weeks before, as the road, narrow at best, was covered in debris or being cleared by heavy machinery.
Interestingly, on this remote back road, a police road block, stopping motorists in both directions. “Passport”..”Where are you going”? “Where am I going…home, why”? This wasn’t the only time we encountered police road blocks, though we weren’t stopped every time.
Reaching Bartin.
Stopping at the roadside for lunch, an old chap (he must have been at least 70..:)) , wandered past and stopped to shake hands with a cheery ‘shalom”…mmmm!
Bartin is a large town, population 200,000 in the greater area. Just before reaching it, the road became broad, straight and smooth…whew!
By close to 4pm we needed to start looking for a camping spot. Seeing a rough piece of ground beside the road, drove across it and seeing a track descending through some scrub down a slope to a level piece of ground….perfect. It’s reasonably flat and screened from the road by trees. Setting up camp and congratulating ourselves at finding such an unused area, an old Turkish assembled BMC tractor, from the late 60’s, towing a 2000ltr water tank, pulled up beside us!
The driver hopped off and we introduced ourselves. He had come to refill the water tank from the well behind us and we chatted good humourly. .He didn’t seem to mind once I explained that by 9am tomorrow we would be gone.
You can tell he’s excited to have us…:)
We both had the best sleep. 9 hours uninterrupted…:)
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Hi Dennis and Jen, loving this adventure. So many interesting cultures. It’s a part of the world I would love to explore some stage. Amazing history. Tbilisi looked fascinating. I was on the edge of my seat when reading a few posts back with that rapidly rising river in the middle of the night!
Hey Logan,
Great to hear from you. Would love to hear how you all are and maybe a family pic. River must be growing out of his skin..:) Had a message from Dad a few days ago, great to hear from him too, but he doesn’t say much, does he…:) Best wishes to you all.
Dennis & Jen
Hi Dennis, sent an email through earlier today with a couple of recent photos of River. Yes indeed, he’s growing up quick!!
Logan