Back to the start

A day of driving was required to make it to the finish line at Istanbul - our original starting off point. After our stable Turkish breakfast of tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, olives and bread, bread... Oh and more bread, we were ready for our 700+ km drive. All was going smoothly
until 50kilometres in Aaron's ever helpful GPS managed to find a 10km road, through a town with a population of 50, which wasn't actually a road. The first 1.5 km wasn't anything different to what we had experienced, even though, we were driving through wheat fields. By 3km and still 7km left on the supposable short cut at 20km/h, I requested we stop for a photo shoot in the wheat fields. At this point we realized perhaps this wasn't the way to where we needed to go. All was validated at the 5km mark when the grass track ceased to exist but plummet down a hilly slope, surrounded by boulders. The only solution - reverse - and head back to a bitumen road. A good 30 minutes later an executive decision was made. No more dirt roads! We are not driving a tractor. From then on it was smooth driving up, down and around mountainous and flat terrain. The remainder of the drive went smoothly till we reached Istanbul. Gridlock! Tuesday evening traffic. This is where the locals disregarded road lanes and just pushed their way across at a snail pace speed...6 lanes became 8, then 9. The more concerning factor was the lady who appeared in the middle of the highway selling water. Who was she? And how did she get there when the either side of her are concrete bollards and 12 feet high fences. It wasn't long till further down the road we met her compadres selling mobile phones charges and red roses. Just what you want to do during gridlock some roadside shopping! :) 25km down the road and 3 hours later we arrived back at the Big Apple Hostel to be welcomed back!