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!