3415 km: Turkey, Papaz Plaji

09 August 2019

Orux map screenshot: 
BLUE line is the planned route 
RED line is the actual route we drove

At the border from Greece to Turkey near Ipsala is a very long queue of trucks.


Fortunately the queue for cars is short and crossing the border takes us only 30 min. The turkish officer opens the car to check and sees our dog, so he asks for Tara's passport. It is the first time that the border police asks to see her passport. Only a formality, because he just opens the first page and let us pass without checking the car. I think after he saw our dog, he waived. All other cars were checked, but not ours.

The Greece border

The bridge between Greece and Turkey

Turkish border

At lunchtime we have a picknick stop beside a small forest. Before we leave we discover, that it actually is a very old abandoned cemetery.

A big dog passes by with a horrible collar with long spikes. We think it is a watch dog, that escaped. Tara is keen to play with him, but we are afraid, that she get hurts from the spikes around his collar. So we chase him away.

In Gallipoli we take the ferry to cross from Europe to Asia. Tara is a big sensation for the passengers, but most of them are frightened.

Catering

 The young man on the right side is not afraid of Tara and offers his cookies

BlueBird on the right side 

Tara is very brave as she crosses the tiny bridge leading from the sitting area down to the cars.

Searching for a nice place at the beach near Troja we get stuck in the sand.

With all this misery we are lucky that a family enjoying the lonely beach, park their tractor near us. We ask for help and immediately the man comes and within minutes he pulls us out.
Another lesson we learned, never drive too near a sandy beach.

In a village we stop by a house and ask the way to a nice beach. The granddaughter by coincidence, went to an Austrian school in Turkey, studies in Berlin so she speaks very good German. The family is very helpful and directs us to a beautiful beach. Beside that the lady gives as a bag full of tomatoes from her garden.

Papaz Plaji beach is indeed a very nice clean beach with few people. The sea much colder than in Pilion/Greece, not so inviting to swim, but very nice for a walk. A group of children are fascinated by Tara and enjoy to play with her. In the evening we barbecue corn and since we have no Internet to keep us busy, we have a lovely evening dancing Kizomba.