Roadtrip To Ankara
13Sunday 09 February, 2014 by Uncle Spike
This was a pretty normal journey across to Ankara. We set out at 4am in the dark, encountered lots of rain, low cloud, bright sunshine, fog and most things in between. Whilst we carried the compulsory snow chains in the car, there was certainly no call for them this winter – snow on the tops, but nothing at road level, even through the passes which are at 2,000m (6,500′)
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LOVE THE LOW CLOUDS ON THE HILLSIDE
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It was an uneventful journey too, thankfully. No police stops, whereas you normally expect to get stopped for ‘ID and papers’ at least once or twice. There were no accidents; us or others around us, and no significant hold-up’s. All we did was drive, watch the world pass by… and take a few photos along the way 🙂
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CALM OVER THE SALT LAKES
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BORING BIT…
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We don’t travel light – where did my backpacking days go I wonder? We were stacked up with some 100kg (220lbs) of fruit and other produce, plus suitcases and bags galore to enable us to ‘survive’ the cold there, lol. Most of you North American’s will laugh your socks off, but with temps down to freezing or just above, that’s is MIGHTY COLD for us southern coastal wimps.
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OPEN SPACES OF THE HIGH ANATOLIAN PLATEAU
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INTERESTING SCENERY ALONG THE WAY TOO
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We both drove (in turns, not simultaneously!), with me taking the first stint of 400km across the mountains before breakfast. It was dark, a bit foggy and some rain, but with some decent music and my night glasses I was one happy bunny. Aunty Spike and Cousin Spike Jnr slept a fair bit – after all, not much else to do in the early hours.
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But then we had some excitement – traffic lights (!)… we only have one in our area, and just 4 sets perhaps within 50km (30 miles) in each direction of home, lol. As for 3 laned roads and ‘big’ junctions, it was quite an adventure for us Troglodytes 😀
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Uncle Spike's Adventures 
The photos reveal a diversity along the road that I’d like to ride. cool pics!
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In warmer weather, me too, lol
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Oh yes and even for a trip to Adelaide just about everything but the kitchen sink is packed. How on earth did we survive backpacking in the UK ??
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I know… I carried what, 25kg for over 3 years. Now we take that per person, per day!
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Driving to Adelaide is pretty much a bore with very little to see. We don’t have snow in this corner of the world, and your roads would be a dream for me to drive on. But then, you have the traffic and the population to sustain such roads. All we have is a government that builds up the roads in Adelaide and borrows money to do so. Also, we have no mountains to speak of here, but on the plus side, the drive to Adelaide – 400 klms. from here – is generally fairly quiet. I will not drive at night because if you are unfortunate enough to hit a Kangaroo, your car is pretty much a write-off. Of course, if you are very unlucky, you could well be a write-off along with your car.
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Yeah pretty big some of those roos – heard of a few wipe-outs over the years.
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4am now way! Great shots though
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10 hour trip, so makes sense to get there before dark, and before every parking space on the road disappears after ‘home time’.
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Nice post Uncle Spike. Interesting images here. Geographically Turkey is pretty diverse, right?
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A lot of mountains, high rock/dusty fields/plateaus, 1000km coast and forests mainly
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Turkey is there on top of my list of must explore places 🙂
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Why?
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My thoughts entirely, lol.
Annual visit to the outlaws sir…
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