Walked into town to post birthday cards and then did the laundry for 5 euros. Lounged about until 2 pm waiting for the clothes to dry in the heat which rose to nearly 30 degrees. Then said goodbye to this excellent campsite and drove through the Thursday market, strung out along both sides of a road for about half a mile with just enough room to squeeze through.
The border with Turkey was about 40 kms away at Kipi and is reached by a motorway with practically no traffic on it, which gives an indication of the state of relations between the two countries. Numerous soldiers on both sides of the border with guns at the ready stared quizzically in our direction, but the process of crossing the border was painless until we got to the Turkish customs and a man with a charm by-pass wanted to see our green card, ie motor insurance. We tried to get away with showing our Liverpool Victoria insurance: no good, he barked, park over there and buy insurance. It cost us 125 euros, although the insurance man was about the only friendly person at the border. We were glad to get away.
Bought a tank full of diesel for nearly £90 and then decided to get a Turkish sim card. The satnav lead us to the Vodaphone shop in the little seaside town of Sarkoy, a jolly bustling place, and the people in the shop were most helpful. There were two girls who didnt speak English so they phoned husbands, fathers, friends and neighbours and eventually about 10 people were helping me. They wanted identification but I had left my passport in the van with Jennifer. The van was parked about 300 metres away. Went back for the passport by trying to take a short cut and got hopelessly lost in the maze of narrow streets. By sheer chance I arrived back at the Vodaphone shop and eventually found my way back to the van.
Jennifer came back to the shop with me and we bought a 10 Gb sim card costing 135 Turkish lira. Jennifer went to an ATM to get some lira and it gobbled up her card which we had to retrieve from the bank the following day.
