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Friday, April 15, 2022

Max is in the shop

We had overnighted at the Cehennemağzı Caves parking lot, so just after they opened, we went for a visit. It was only 12.50 lira ($1.10 CAD, $0.85 USD) entrance fee, so we didn't have high expectations. 

There are actually three separate caves, all very small, but all very different. None of them very exciting though!

The first cave was used as a church during Roman times. There was an odd "selfie" point, so we did what the instructions said...

Cave selfie!

There was only one interesting formation where water drips down and causes these different colors.

The next cave was called Heracles Cave. It was a very cramped opening where you had to go down some difficult stairs...

Caution: Protect Your Head!

Some odd scaly formations.

Sketchy stairs.

Down she goes.

And it leads to this underground pond.

The third cave wasn't even worth a photo... just a big overhang really.

So essentially, Cehennemağzı Caves is not worth a special trip. Okay to visit if you're in the neighborhood though.

From there, we headed west along the coast towards Istanbul. I had a difficult time figuring out a route though. I know that we're going to be dealing with heavy traffic once we got to the outskirts of Istanbul no matter which route we take, but the coastal route kind of peters out to a bunch of twisty windy back roads before ending up north of the city. I finally decided to cut inland.

There was a secondary reason to cut inland. I had read of a fairly new RV dealer that was getting great reviews. If we were going by them anyhow, I wanted to check and see if they had a new bathroom roof vent in stock. Regular readers will remember that ours somehow got damaged back in November of last year.

I had removed it and resealed it, but we couldn't use it because the hinge was too badly broken. And depending on the angle we were parked, it still occasionally leaked. 

Leaving Ereğli.


The road followed the coast for a while.

Scenery along the way.

Twice we saw this sign and figured it must mean something important!
It says "Closed to Heavy Vehicle Traffic"

And this is why the road was closed!

We had to use a detour taking some narrow back roads. Even then, there was a heavy truck coming the opposite way and Max had to pull way up against the side to let this truck pass.

We then headed inland and up to the city of Adapazarı where the 2K Kamp Karavan Market is located. Lots of parking out front, and we went inside to ask about roof vents. The son of the owner spoke very good English and helped us out. 

Max has three different roof vents. The two in the main living area are the same and much better quality than the one that had been in the bathroom. They had one heavy duty model in stock made by Dometic. Not cheap, at €200 installed. 

But, they had it in stock and said they could change it for us immediately. Imagine getting that kind of RV service done immediatley in Canada or the U.S.? You'd have a month or more wait for service!

Our other choice was waiting to get it done when we are back at our home dealer in Germany. We may or may not have gotten it covered under warranty, and my opinion is that it's not a warranty issue to begin with. So it may or may not have been cheaper to wait. 

2K Kamp Karavan Market.

Max in the service bay.


They have a well stocked parts department.


We wasted time looking at the inside of some of the new trailers.

When the job was done, we paid the 3,200 lira (€200, $275 CAD, $220 USD) bill. They told us we were welcome to overnight in one of their display slots with water and electric.

So now that's finally done. We have a nicer bathroom vent than what came with Max originally, so it's a bit of an upgrade as well as the repair cost that we're not sure should have been ours to bear to begin with. But we think it was better to just get it done now that things are warming up.

Today... we are off to the big city of Istanbul. This should be an adventure! We have an old friend from our hometown of Ottawa who lives in Istanbul. We haven't seen Cheryl for probably 30 years. She has invited us to stay in her apartment for the weekend, so we're going to leave Max at a secure paid parking area nearby. 

Yesterday's drive.

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And in Canada...

8 comments:

  1. Wishing you Good luck with the Istanbul traffic.

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    1. Thank you! It was slow going but I think overall it was better than what we expected it to be.

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  2. Thanks for showing travel map...now I don't have to google it :-) Can't wait to see you in Istanbul.

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    1. Glad that you enjoyed the map, we always try to include it on travel days but we do forget the odd time.

      We can't wait to see Istanbul ourselves. :-)

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  3. How cool is it to have a friend in Istanbul! Sometimes it is worth it to just bite the bullet and get things repaired right away rather than wait to do it yourself or get it done a little cheaper later. It gives peace of mind knowing you have everything complete.

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    1. Yep, that is pretty cool! We are really going to enjoy our short time here with Cheryl.

      Since we got the leak back in November and Kevin did his best to repair it, this was the first opportunity that we had to get it replaced and yes, we are glad that we just bit the bullet and got it done. Honestly I don't think we could have got it done cheaper unless they would have put it under warranty and as Kevin mentioned, he thinks it would be hard to prove if it had been an installation problem from the start or if it was something that we had done, even though we were always careful opening and closing it. Anyways, now we have peace of mind and the vent is a better quality one. :-)

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  4. Good thing to get rid of a pesky leak! That's one that will likely never return!

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    1. It is, it was never very bad once Kevin did the repair on it but we knew it was there and wanted to get it replaced. We hope you are right and that is the last we will see of it. :-)

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