I am a little bit in awe of where we are right now...

Yesterday's drive took us from north of the big port city of Iskenderun to the valley city of Antakya.

Antakya is located in Hatay province, which until 1938 was part of Syria, and the area still feels more like Syria than Turkiye. Not that I know what Syria is like, but the area definitely has more of a middle eastern feel to it than what we have experienced elsewhere in Turkiye.

And in fact, we are now only 20 kms (12 miles) from the Syria border. 

Not every day is a good day

And yesterday was certainly not one of the better ones, but in the end we are fine and it's just another adventure.

We packed up from our beautiful free campsite and set off at about 10:30am. I decided on a backroads route so that we would avoid having to return to the big city of Adana. The road wasn't in great condition, but I would rather go slowly that way than have to deal with the traffic through the city.

We had a beautiful first day of Spring!

What a gorgeous day we had yesterday. Blue sky and sunshine! It could have still been a little warmer, with a high of only 10C (50F), but there was no wind at all and with the sun shining it was really quite nice.

So we left Max behind and set off on a 10 km (6.2 mile) hike to try to get to the nearest high point.

Booked the rest of our flights, and found the perfect free camping spot!

It's a really tough call booking flights this far in advance. Especially for summer travel which is expensive to begin with. Then add in constantly changing Covid restrictions that are wildly different in each country, and increasing fuel prices, and it's hard to know what to do. But, I'm overall happy with what me managed to book.

So, we fly back to Canada August 5th from Amsterdam. We arrive in Montreal with an 18 hour layover before our flight to Calgary. 

We are sticking with our original plan

We didn't really do very much yesterday, except we spent a lot of time with Duygu  and Timmy talking about the many things to see and do in this area, as well as talking about their road trip to India and looking at some photos and telling stories. 

Although, Ruth did go with them to the fabric guy to buy the material for the covers for Max's dinette seats. I was feeling the need for an afternoon nap, so I stayed behind and did just that!

Well, that was an interesting day!

We were up and on the road at 6:30am Thursday morning. We were headed just across the city, but wanted to beat any rush hour traffic, and we did a pretty good job of it.

I had been looking at other listings on the park4night app for the city of Adana and came across one from fellow motorhome travelers who live in Adana. They like to welcome others to park at their home and visit with them. We contacted them, and they invited us over.

Adana Museum, and a great day for a bike ride

We left Max parked up by the river and walked the 3 kms (1.8 miles) over to the Adana Museum. Other than the riverside, this was the first we had seen of the city itself. Adana is a modern city, very clean, and with lots of green park space. For a big city, we were pretty impressed.

We arrived at the museum and there were a few school buses with groups of kids, which is not surprising. We paid our 15 lira ($1.30 CAD, $1.00 USD) each entrance fee and went in with a large group of them.

Into the big city of Adana

We packed things up at the free campground in Tarsus. It had become quite busy there as three Turkish rigs traveling together showed up around 9:30pm Monday night. I think all the spots were full so we're glad we parked well out of the way.

Thanks to the municipality of Tarsus for providing this free campground. Always good to be able to get back on the road with full batteries and water, and an empty toilet tank!

More wandering around Tarsus

Three nights in Tarsus is almost one too many, but we still managed to keep ourselves busy yesterday with a few more interesting sights to see in the central area.

Fortunately, we had blue sky and sunshine, with a high of about 13C (55F).

The city of Tarsus has been inhabited uninterrupted for 9,000 years!

Sunday was an abnormally chilly day. Only an overcast high of 7C (45F), and down to the freezing mark at night. Next winter we are going somewhere warmer, even if it's only for a month or two!

We bundled up as much as we could and set off to explore the old central part of the city of Tarsus. 

Inverter gone bad!

The other morning, I turned on our inverter and immediately heard sparks. Uh oh. That's not good. I shut it down right away, and tried it again. This time, I left it on despite the sparking, and within about five seconds it shut down automatically and went into fault mode.

The night before, it had been working perfectly. What happened between then, and the time I turned it on the next morning? Who knows. Electronics don't last forever. But it should last more than 9 months!

Sometimes you just have to trust your instincts

We left our quiet overnight spot at the Men of Rock parking area and drove back down to the main coastal highway heading east towards the big city of Mersin (pop 1 million). 

Not many cars on the road, and we think that might have something to do with the price of fuel. When we arrived in Turkiye January 22, we paid 13.5 lira per liter. Today, it is now 23 lira per liter. Yes, I know that is happening all over the world, but fuel was already expensive for the Turkish people at 13.5 lira per liter.

Well, that was an adventure!

What a day we had! Keep reading to the bottom for the best part!

We had a totally silent night parked at the ruins of the ancient city of Olba. But it was chilly... -1C (30F) when we woke up. A good reminder of why we've been staying on the coast! Fortunately, things are starting to warm up and the next month will make a big difference. They are calling for sunny highs around 20C (68F) by the end of next week.

We left Max in his spot and went out exploring. Nobody around but us and some goats and sheep!

Fantastic Gilindire Cave, and up into the mountains

First thing we did was to go for a short walk around the park at the beach where we had overnighted. It's a really pretty bay, and I'm sure the place is packed with tent campers and picnickers on a summer weekend. 

But yesterday morning, there was just us, one couple in a tent, and a guy picking up trash.

We have decided we are not going to Cyprus on this trip

We are now only 60 kms (37 miles) from the ferry port that would have taken us to North Cyprus. So we needed to make a decision.

We weighed the pros and cons. If we went to North Cyprus, the only real benefit would be that we would be able to extend the spring season so that our remaining time in Turkiye would be warmer.