Syria to Turkey. 20.7.2010

Border

We rose early as we planned to drive all the way to Goreme in Turkey (Cappadocia). First we had to negotiate the Syrian- Turkish border post at Kilis. We chose this crossing as the Bab al- Hawa crossing, which is closer to Aleppo, is generally busier and the road beyond Kilis is better. Indeed the border crossing was not too busy but as any of you who have lived in the Middle East will know, you need a large dose of patience when dealing with anything bureaucratic. Eventually after many stamps in the passports, little pieces of white paper and two and a half hours we were on our way. Interesting little fact here- we saw lots of old Syrian cars turning to rust at the Turkish border post. These cars were presumably not roadworthy enough to enter Turkey. Turkish officials were checking Syrian cars thoroughly. Petrol is also much cheaper in Syria so they don’t want you bringing in petrol either. Luckily they just asked us if we had petrol and didn’t make us empty our truck!

Gaziantep to Goreme

In contrast to Syria the roads are well-maintained in Turkey and there is a plentiful amount of service stations and rest areas. Yes, you still see houses that are half finished (either the owner needs to get more funds to build further or the builder has gone bankrupt) but Turkey is certainly more developed, cleaner and greener. We drove along the coastal highway from Gaziantep to Tarsus(birthplace of St Paul) on a relaxing road with no chaotic drivers, three lanes (so trucks can overtake each other easily and not slow the fast lane down) and no potholes. What an easy drive! We drove inland to Cappadocia through picturesque villages, valleys where you can see for miles and tree covered mountains. Even though I'm a keen geographer I hadn’t realised how much of Turkey is forested. In fact, an impressive 26.7 % of 779, 452 sq km is tree covered. The highway climbs up to 1400m past Ala Daglar National park (with Mount Demirkazik standing at 3756m). It’s simply beautiful! We arrived at Goreme at 6 o’clock and found a very good camp ground- Kaya camping. The breathtaking view of Goreme’s famous fairy chimneys- rock columns, mushrooms,pyramids and the valleys of cascading cliffs which were formed when Erciyes Dagi erupted is amazing. Tired and hungry, we ate and put up the tent. We had stepped into a magical children’s fairy tale and with that we closed our eyes and went to sleep.