So it begins

It begins

Published Date : October 22, 2004

Lisa is my tent-mate for the next six weeks through the Middle East.  We woke up at about 0830 to find most of the rest of our tour group already there.  After packing up our tent, it was time to get to know our fellow tour mates.  The stragglers showed up just past 0900, giving the rest of us a chance to get to know each other.  There are a total of 36 people on the tour, mostly Brits and Aussies, several Kiwis, a couple of Americans and me as the sole Canadian.  On first glance it seems like it will be a decent group.  Most people are only on board for the Middle East portion of the trip, but there are 14 of us going all the way to Cape Town.  I really wasn’t expecting that many people to be going all the way through.

Our tour leader for the first leg of the trip is Mel from England, and our driver is Wayne from Australia.  After going over some basic housekeeping details, we hit the road.  Our first stop was the supermarket to get some goodies for lunch, then it was a long drive down to the Gallipoli Peninsula.  We stopped for lunch at some random patch of flat land off the main road and just pulled out the tables and started dishing up.  I think I’m gonna enjoy this trip!

Eçeabat, a small picturesque fishing village, was our final destination for the night.  This is apparently our most uncomfortable camping spot on this trip – we pitched our tents in the dirt parking lot of the Boomerang Bar!  Sharing the small space with two other expedition trucks (Overland Club and Kumuka) I find it hard to believe such a small town can handle the influx of ANZACs every year.

Mel and Wayne did up a chicken BBQ for us for dinner.  We’re in charge of all our own meals from here on out.  I have no interest in cooking, so I volunteered for the job of “table packer” for the duration of the trip.  I just have to help unload/reload the tables for all of our meal stops.  I’ll quite happily take manual labour over cooking for 38 people thank you very much!

We spent the rest of the evening at TJ’s Hostel watching the movie Gallipoli starring Mel Gibson.  It was a great way to give us a feel for the historical sites we’re going to be visiting tomorrow.  TJ is supposed to be a world class guide, so I’m quite looking forward to it.

Bush Camp #

Published Date : October 23, 2004

Eçeabat was definitely the most uncomfortable campground I’ve ever experienced.  Freezing cold wind, and rock hard ground, but I managed to get some sleep at least.  We spent the morning touring around the Gallipoli Peninsula with TJ, owner of TJ’s Hostel and an expert on the history of the area.  He’s runs tours in Gallipoli and also does talks all over Australia and New Zealand.  He’s a Turk who speaks English with a pronounced Aussie accent – interesting to say the least!  He was incredibly knowledgeable about World War 1 in Turkey and a veritable fountain of information.  I discovered that quite a few Canadians actually fought and died in the campaign, which I didn’t know before.  They Newfoundlanders to be precise – since Newfoundland wasn’t part of Canada until 1949.

Our many stops included the museum, ANZAC cove, Shrapnel Valley, several cemeteries, and the ANZAC and Turkish trenches that are still intact today.  Standing in the actual trenches that were used by the soldiers really puts things into perspective.  I can’t imagine what it must have been like for those men to be hunkered down hiding from enemy fire.  The museum was quite small, but it had a very diverse collection.  Many things had been donated by family members of soldiers who had fought in Gallipoli.  It even had a collection of bullets that had collided mid-air and fused together – the fact that they have so many tells you just how many bullets were flying at that time.  We ended our tour at ANZAC cove where we observed a minute of silence in memory of the fallen soldiers.

The entire tour was really informative, but I found it a bit overwhelming – too much information in too short a time.  I highly recommend TJ’s Anzac Gallipoli Tours to anyone who’s visiting Gallipoli.  Well worth it!

Leaving Eceabat, the rest of the afternoon was spent on the bus en-route to Troy.  We crossed over the Dardanelles to Asia, but after driving several hours we arrived there to find Troy closed.  They had already switched to their winter hours, so they closed about an hour before we arrived.  While we were there, we took the opportunity to stretch our legs and explore a little bit.  I had a wander through the souvenir shops and picked up a few postcards.

Back on the bus, we drove another half four to our bush camp for the night.  And by bush camp I do mean bush camp.  We just pulled off the road into the woods, found a clearing, stopped and pitched our tents.  I’m loving this trip so far!!

After playing a bastard version of baseball and cricket using a tennis ball and tree branches, we spent the rest of the night drinking and talking around the campfire.  Good times.

Hostelling it

Published Date : October 24, 2004

After my usual breakfast of cereal and peanut butter toast, it was back on the bus once more.  We spent the morning at Troy to make up for last night, but I decided not to go in.

While it would have been interesting, the ruins of Troy are not one of the best preserved historical sites in Turkey.  With only an hour to explore and several months of travel still ahead of me, I decided to save my money for later in my journey.  About half of our group felt the same, so while the others went through the ruins, the rest of us wandered through the market stalls that had been set up just outside the entrance.

Even though I didn’t explore the ruins, I took the opportunity to appreciate where I was.   This was the Troy of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.   The site of the Trojan War.   The birthplace of the legend of Helen of Troy, Paris and Achilles and the Trojan Horse.  Walking around places like this, I always feel as though I’m stepping back in time and walking through history.

Back on the road, we pushed on to Selçuk, stopping only for lunch along the way. I’m not sure if they’re staples of the Turkish diet, or just what we happen to have for supplies, but for the third day in a row, it’s tomato, cucumber and sausage sandwiches for lunch.  I’ve never acquired a taste for cucumbers at all. and I normally only eat tomatoes in small doses.  Unable to stomach them for the third day in a row, I settled on a peanut butter sandwich instead. 

We arrived at Selçuk early in the evening.  Tonight we’re staying in a hostel called Soloman’s Place.  I’m sharing a room with Ruth (Kiwi), Marika (US), Adele and Sarah (Oz).  The hostel provided dinner for us tonight – barbecued chicken again, but it was very tasty.  After dinner they brought in a couple of barbers for our entertainment.  Apparently it’s tradition for Wayne, our bus driver, to shave off his beard at the beginning of every trip, then not shave again for the duration.  So we all looked on as one of the barbers expertly sheared him using a straight razor then used flames to remove his ear and nose hair.  Turkish shaves were offered for the guys and neck and shoulder massages for the girls.  They offered to shave the girls’ legs using the straight razor as well – nobody took them up on it.   The massage was nice and relaxing though.

Definitely one of the more unique evenings of entertainment I’ve ever had!