Sunday, November 7, 2010

Scenic and Other Driving in Turkey

Scenes from the last two days' driving...we probably didn't cover a hundred miles, but they're all interesting...
We've seen many of the world's scenic coasts--a few
more to go--and they are all spectacular in their own ways--
but Turkey's Mediterranean coast rivals the best of them

















Sea camel















Nearby islands, many of them















The clarity of the water is exceptional



















The great Kaputas chasm, right on the road--
only a few feet wide, a couple hundred high




















Issues in this small isolated beach















Actually, animals on the road are pretty unusual for Turkey,
but the bridge here framed such an exceptional shot, I had to
do it
















Turkey has some 70 million citizens and some 150 million
restaurant/cafe/snack bar seats; they line the roads, they
are at every intersection, every rest area...

















Here's a pastry shop on wheels, baklava and all those other
good things; yes, we did; how can you not support this
kind of entrepreneurship?
















We have been astonished at the number and variety of gas
stations in Turkey; most of the traffic is commercial, trucks,
buses, maxitaxis (dolmus), relatively few private automobiles
in sight; diesel is running well over $8 a gallon, and gasoline
way more than that; yet there appear to be thousands of gas
stations, nearly all of them quite new and quite nice, nearly
all with little markets or cafes; all of them offer you free tea
or coffee as well as trinkets with larger purchases; and--this
seems to be the major competing point--all of them offer free
car or truck washing facilities; Turks are fastidious, not to
say obsessive, about keeping their cars and trucks clean; we
once watched a young man take 20 minutes to rinse, lather,
wash, scrub, rinse, and rinse again, his motor scooter; we
should have videotaped it; anyhow, under this kind of social
pressure, we have now ourselves washed the Grey Wanderer
more times in Turkey than in all other countries combined;
free




























And then there are Turkish drivers (very nearly without
exception, males), who are on the whole quite good, if not,
um, linear, if you get my "drift"

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