Monday, July 11, 2011

Day 45: Mon 11 Jul - Istanbul to Kocadere (near Gallipoli) by hire car - 350km

Weather: fine 32deg

Our first breakfast in the Erboy Motel was nice but not quite the variety in "Turkish" dishes as the previous motel. Kerry was happy as they had tea bags and water to make a fresh cuppa instead of the very strong "stew" that is normally served. I haven't taken to the Turkish coffee (mud) like Wendy did while she was here, preferring the sweet, hot apple tea served in a small glass. However this is not served at breakfast so I have the standard motel filtered coffee. 

After stowing our packed bikes and excess luggage in the storeroom we checked out and waited for the hire van, which ended up being a half an hour late putting us behind schedule a little. 

The drive out of Istanbul was not quite as bad as we'd been told about; but almost. Wouldn't do it again in a hurry. At one stage we were surrounded by various Police vehicles while driving down a tram line we're not sure we should have been on. We weren't pulled over and survived so on we went. The roads were a mix of very good and fairly bad but always busy, especially for the first three hours. Five hours later we arrived at our accommodation for the next four nights, Gallipoli House in the village of Kocadere. The surroundings are wonderfully rural, with a mix of grain, fruit and livestock. And the only sounds are the cows, birds and roosters, bliss!!   

Gallipoli House is a rambling ex-farm house and buildings, all beautifully converted into accommodation, dining and entertainment areas.  

From here we do our obligatory Aussie pilgrimage to Gallipoli and maybe some local touring. We start with a personal guided tour tomorrow.

My room at Gallipoli House

The view from my window


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