Stuck in the mud!

We got up early and drove Max down from his beautiful spot and parked lower down so that we had a better cell signal. 

We're sitting there having our morning tea and hot chocolate when I hear some bells. You know, the type that sheep wear. Sure enough, I see a couple of sheep out the side window. Then I see more, and more... and before you know it Max was completely surrounded by sheep!

One of the most beautiful places in Romania

Our friend Gabi had told us about a place here in Romania that is very beautiful, but a bit of a hike to get to. It's called Fundătura Ponorului. 

From where we were parked, we mapped out a route that said it should be around 14 kms (8.7 miles). There are a lot of different trails in the area though, and it's difficult to know exactly which one to take. 

We haven't seen another motorhome or campervan in probably two weeks.

We said goodbye to Valentina and her mother and headed out at around 10:30am. Made a quick grocery stop in town, and then on to Gradistea Muncelului - Cioclovina Natural Park. It was only about 60 kms, but it took over an hour.

I had read about a great overnight spot that had room for only one vehicle, so we had our fingers crossed that there was nobody already there. 

Why do they make it so complicated...

One of the many reasons we want to get resident status in Europe is so that we aren't having to play "the Schengen shuffle". The Schengen visa area in Europe encompasses most European Union (EU) countries as well as some non EU countries. It means that we can only spend 90 days out of any rolling 180 day period in those Schengen countries.

So it takes some advance planning.

Well that turned into an adventure!

I think I've used that title before. We always seem to get into some kind of unplanned adventurous situation! 

This time, we went on a bike ride to a couple of waterfalls, and then parked the bikes and hiked in the rest of the way. It turned into quite the hike!

Out for lunch and a nice hike

They kept saying it was going to rain, and it looked like it was going to rain, but we got lucky and it never did. 

We took Valentina out for lunch and even sat outside on the patio. Afterwards, we went for a hike in the hills in behind Valentina's house. Some great photos!

Such a beautiful area

Valentina's place is located on the border of Retezat National Park and it's such a beautiful area. We could live here... except that they get winter! Lots of snow, and she said they were down to -25C (-13F) a couple of times this past winter. She goes to Egypt or Israel quite often to escape the cold!

Anyhow, yesterday morning she drove us in her car up into the park to have a look around.

Into the Carpathian mountains

We had a beautiful drive yesterday into the mountains. Our route took us through Defileul Jiului National Park and we stopped at the Lainici Monastery which is located inside the park. 

From there, we did a big grocery shop and had lunch in the town of Lupeni, and then drove to our friend Valentina's house where we are going to stay for a couple of days.

The interesting town of Targu Jiu, Romania

Sunday morning we drove to the town of Targu Jiu (pop 82,000). More of a city I guess, considering the population. But it has a large town feel to it.

Not much to see along the way. Southern Romania between Bucharest and the Serbia border is largely farmland. But Targu Jiu is located at the foot of the sub Carpathian mountain range so our scenery will be improving over the next few days as we are headed into the mountains next.

Big Roma houses

Saturday morning we puttered around and got Max ready to go. Did all the various chores like emptying and filling tanks, and cleaned the front windshield one more time. Max probably hadn't been this clean since the day we picked him up!

But that didn't last long.

April Expenses

Not a bad month. Considering we started the month in Turkiye near the Syria border, and ended up in Craiova, Romania I think we did okay. 

Plus, we splurged a couple of times!

Time to move on

We've been here three nights now, and although it's a nice spot and it would be easy to stay another night, we're thinking we'll move on today. We want to be up in the mountains to visit with friends on Monday, and it's still 350 kms (217 miles) or so away. 

Just one family's story

There is a refugee family from Ukraine staying in the guesthouse here where Max is parked. The guesthouse does meals as well, and we decided to have dinner yesterday. We were asked if we wanted to sit at the same table together, and we did.

So yesterday afternoon our host Gabriel grilled a whole bunch of meat over an open fire... sausage, chicken, and beef... and we had a feast!

Welcome to Romania!

Romania is not a new country for us. We were in Romania for the month of November, 2016. We liked it so much at the time, we knew we would return some day. It's unfortunate that we're only going to be here for about two weeks, but that's the way it goes.

We got on the road just before 10:00am and headed for the border crossing bridge. But as we got close to the traffic circle before the bridge, things slowed down and there were police blocking traffic. 

Can't ask for much better than that!

Just an all around nice day! Sunshine and blue sky with a high around 25C (77F). Can't ask for much better than that!

So we got the bikes off in the morning and went for a ride. For a small city, Ruse has some nice bike routes.

At the Danube River on the Romania border

Our quick trip through Bulgaria is almost over. We're on a deadline now to get to the northern tip of Denmark in time for our ferry booking to Norway on June 1st. So we're not doing many detours... we are sightseeing when appropriate along our chosen route.

But, there are quite a few things we want to see and do along the way. And, people to see!

Max went on an adventure! And the city of Veliko Tarnovo

When we had driven up into the mountains behind the city of Slevin, we were surprised at the good condition of the road. In Bulgaria, the roads are in overall poor shape. Lots of potholes, even on major highways. But this road had been not bad.

So when we left and headed towards Veliko Tarnovo, we carried on, on the same road.

Not a good idea!

12 km hike on a beautiful day

One of the nicest days we've had in a while, so we decided to stay put. We were overdue for a good hike, so we set off on one of the many trails here at the Blue Rocks Nature Park near Sliven, Bulgaria.

Because we were parked up at the antenna tower, we were already at the top of the mountain! So it was a little different to be doing the downhill section first and having to climb back up at the end.

Blue Rocks Nature Park near Sliven, Bulgaria

They had been calling for a decent day on Friday, but we woke up to raindrops and they continued on and off until after lunch. At least it's warming up though, with an afternoon high near 20C (68F). And today it's supposed to be sunny and 24C (75F). That's almost shorts and t-shirt weather!

We decided to drive up into the mountains in behind the city of Sliven. 

First impressions of Bulgaria

We've only been in Bulgaria for a day and a half, but there are some things we've noticed already. One of the first things is that the roads are not in very good condition! We missed a pothole yesterday that would have done some serious damage. It was a crater! And this is on a major two lane road that is part of the vignette toll system with a lot of truck traffic.

Also, the roads we've been on so far have no shoulder. But there are pulloffs every few kilometers.

Welcome to Bulgaria. Country #51 for us!

It was chilly on our last night in Turkiye. The temperature was 1C (34F) when we woke up and there was frost on the windshield. So we got up and drove right away to warm things up.

It was only about 100 kms (62 miles) or so to the border, but we needed to stop and top up the fuel tank one last time, as well as fill one propane tank.

Through Istanbul and our last night in Turkiye

I had our route all planned out to get through Istanbul. We would take the tunnel, the entrance to which was only a couple of kms from where Max had been parked. And we set off at about 10:10am, when we figured "rush hour" (if there is a such a thing in Istanbul) might be over.

We got to the turn off to the tunnel and I saw the height restriction sign that said maximum 2.8 meters. Well, Max is 2.8 meters! I hadn't even thought there might be a height restriction, but apparently this tunnel isn't used by heavy trucks.

Speeding ticket!

Turkiye has both toll roads and free roads, and so far we've managed to spend our entire time here on the free roads. The toll roads have a tag system only, so if we wanted to use them we would have had to register Max at the post office and have an account with some credit on it. 

But here in Istanbul, we are going to have to cross the Bosporus Straight either by bridge or tunnel and they also operate on a toll system that would normally be charged to the same highway pass that we don't have. 

A dreary day in Istanbul

Unfortunately the weather isn't cooperating for our visit to Istanbul. Cool, wet, and windy seems to be the narrative for the balance of our time here. We're still getting out and seeing things, although it will give us a reason to return when we can explore under better conditions.

Oh... we got some good news today!

Day one in Istanbul. It never hurts to splurge once in a while.

In the morning, Cheryl took us for a walk around the neighborhood and she showed us how the Istanbul transit cards work so that we could use the metro and ferry services.

The day started off really hazy... or maybe smoggy. We could hardly see across the bay.

Arrived in Istanbul

I had myself well prepared for yesterday's busy drive into Istanbul traffic. Expecting the worst. Fortunately, although it was congested at times, it wasn't overly crazy. Definitely not what you would call a scenic drive though!

It took us just over two and a half hours to do 138 kms (86 miles).

Max is in the shop

We had overnighted at the Cehennemağzı Caves parking lot, so just after they opened, we went for a visit. It was only 12.50 lira ($1.10 CAD, $0.85 USD) entrance fee, so we didn't have high expectations. 

There are actually three separate caves, all very small, but all very different. None of them very exciting though!

Good thing Max is small!

It was definitely a good move to come down to the coast. It's not warm by any means, but it's comfortable. At least we haven't had to put the furnace on! We had spent Tuesday night in Kozlu, which is a western suburb of Zonguldak.

We felt comfortable leaving Max alone, so we went for a walk back towards Zonguldak before leaving the area and heading further west towards Istanbul.

Slight detour!

It was chilly when we woke up Tuesday morning. Glad to have had the electric heat on overnight! But outside, it was only about 2C (35F) and windy. Not nice.

We got all of our chores done and filled Max's water tank and hit the road. We weren't planning on a long drive... only about 80 kms (50 miles) to another campground with electricity. 

Our time in Turkiye is almost up

We have to be out of Turkiye by April 21st at the latest, however we will likely make a run for the Bulgaria border either the 19th or 20th.  So, just over a week to go. 

That will give us about five and a half weeks to make our way from the Turkiye/Bulgaria border to the northern tip of Denmark where we get on the ferry June 1st for the trip to Norway. A distance of about 3,100 kms (1,900 miles).

The big city of Ankara, Turkiye

We got up at 6:00am and did the 25 km drive into the center of Ankara. 

Ankara is a big busy city with a population of about 5 million people. That's exactly why we got up at 6:00am on a Sunday morning. And still, there was a fair bit of bus traffic. But once we got onto the side streets it was actually fairly quiet. 

Morning hike and afternoon drive

We wanted to do one more hike in the Ihlara Valley before doing the fairly long drive to the big city of Ankara (pop 5 million).

So after breakfast we left Max at his spot overlooking the valley and hiked into the northern part of the valley.

The cave churches of Ihlara Valley

Ihlara Valley is more of a canyon than a valley. The Melendi River runs about 14 kms (9 miles) through the gorge. The valley was a significant religious center from the 4th to the 11th century and contains 105 different churches carved into the stone walls. 

There are three different paid entrances to the gorge, with walking paths running the entire length, often on both sides of the river.

Cappadocia to Ihlara Valley

But before we left Cappadocia there was one last thing we wanted to do. Go for a bike ride! I had seen that there is a bike path running between Goreme and Avanos.

It turned out to be just a marked off section of the main road, not really a bike path. But it was still a good ride and we got some more photos of an area we hadn't been to yet.

Our last hike at Cappadocia

There are a lot of hikes around Cappadocia and we will return to the region someday to compete the ones that we missed. This is the second post of today... if you missed it, you might want to check out The Balloons of Cappadocia.

On Wednesday, we did the Sword Valley and Rose Valley hikes. We walked from where Max was parked, so we ended up doing a total of about 15 kms (9.3 miles).

The Balloons of Cappadocia, Turkiye

It had been four or five days that the balloons hadn't been allowed to fly due to weather conditions, but yesterday morning we could hear the burners while lying in bed. So we got up right away to find several flying overhead. It wasn't the nicest morning with a lot of haze in the sky, but we went out to take some photos anyhow.

Then this morning, we heard them again. We got up right away, and it was a much nicer morning with a clear blue sky and no wind to speak of at all.

More weird rock formations around Cappadocia, Turkiye

Yesterday we hiked Love Valley and White Valley. They kind of run into each other, and it was about a 10 km (6.2 mile) circuit from where Max was parked. Lots of ups and downs, so it was a good workout. 

The temperature was a pleasant 22C (72F), but there was no sun at all. There was just a drab haze, which doesn't really make for the best photos, but I took lots of them anyhow! The scenery is so odd, but I finally got them whittled down to a reasonable number.

It's a big money business!

But some news to tell you before we get to that. 

Yesterday, I booked our ferry tickets from Denmark to Norway. I booked us return tickets for €192 ($263 CAD, $211 USD) each way. The further in advance you book, the cheaper the tickets are so I wanted to get that done as soon as we were comfortable with the dates.

We depart June 1st, so now we are on another time schedule! 

The ghost town of Karain, and arrived in Cappadocia

We had stayed overnight at the parking lot of the ski resort, but we didn't sleep well. It was really windy, and so we got up at 6:30am and started driving right away. By the time we got down to lower elevations, it wasn't windy at all!

We stopped for breakfast at a pretty little roadside park with a pond and picnic sites. The Turkish people love their picnics!

We had a blast skiing at Erciyes Mountain Resort, Turkiye

The last time we went skiing was almost exactly nine years ago at Colorado's Winter Park Resort. We had a great time then, with almost perfect powder conditions.

And the time before that was eleven years prior. So this was only our third time skiing in the last twenty years or so! 

But, it's just like riding a bicycle.

We're going skiing!

We're actually headed to our next stop which is the popular Turkish tourist area of Cappadocia. But along our route is the big ski resort at Ercİyes Mountain. 

Turkiye is one of the cheapest places in the world to go skiing. And the mountain has spring conditions available right up until the end of April. So we figured, let's go skiing!

More beautiful views, and a nice lunch out

A perfect day to go hiking in the mountains. We set our sights on a nearby antenna tower that was about 4.5 kms (2.8 miles) one way with a 477 meters (1,565') altitude gain.

Blue sky and sunshine and no wind to speak of. Just a nice spring day. You can almost watch the snow melt!

March Expenses... that was a cheap month!

How much does it cost to RV in Turkiye for a month? Well using our March expenses as an example, it costs about $950 CAD ($760 USD)!

Yes, that is our total expenses for the month of March. $950 CAD. And that is for everything, including our travel medical insurance.

Spring hiking in the snow in Turkiye!

I know, many of you will think "what are they doing in the snow??" and it's a good question since we often talk about not liking the cold and the snow. And now that shorts and t-shirt weather has returned to Turkiye's southern coast, you would think that's where we would be!

But for a week or two, we really don't mind the snow. It's when you have to put up with cold and snow for seven months in a row that we really don't enjoy it. 

And so we begin the drive northwest

While we've enjoyed exploring Turkiye's south coast, we've really been missing the mountains, and of course there is so much more to see inland. The weather has finally turned, so yesterday we did a fairly long drive into the mountains.

We woke up to a strong wind yesterday morning, so we decided to get on the road right away at 7:00am in order to get through the congestion at the city of Samandag. We did hit some traffic on the bypass around Antakya, and didn't stop for breakfast until almost 9:00am.

Moses Tree, the Titus Tunnel and another great overnight spot

We finally said goodbye to our hosts at the little campground by the river. We had a really good time there. When we had arrived, we figured it might be good for a two night stay, and we ended up there for four nights.

There were two things we wanted to see in the area. The Moses Tree, and the Titus Tunnel. The maps all said that the Moses Tree was in a little village on a mountain road, but we figured that if tour buses can make it there, then we can make it there.

Traditional Turkish Bread

We arrived with a plan to stay here two nights and ended up staying four nights. And are we ever glad we hung around. Yesterday, spring arrived in this part of Turkey. In fact, the whole country seems to have jumped into spring this past weekend as sunny skies and increasing temperatures have taken over the area.

In the morning, we went for an 11 km (7 mile) walk around the villages near where we are staying. And in the afternoon, the campground became quite busy with picnickers and our hosts showed us how they make traditional Turkish bread.

Max got a bath

Lots of comments yesterday regarding replacing our computers. The "Mac vs PC" arguments are still alive and well I see! We will stick with the more frugal choice. We have spent less money in ten years on PC laptops for the both of us than what it would have cost for one Mac laptop ten years ago. Hopefully they will last another few months until we get back to Canada in August.

Anyhow... Ford vs Chevy... who really cares, provided they both do the same job. 

Planning our travels around the weather

Sunshine one minute and showers the next. That's been the story the last two days, and it looks like it's continuing today. It kind of makes it hard to do anything, and of course it makes it difficult for the laundry to dry!

It seems like we've been dealing with on and off weather issues since we arrived back in Europe last October 1st. Sure, there have been some nice days mixed in there as well, but we sure do miss the perfect weather that we would get every winter we spent in Mexico.

Kamp Alani near Antakya, Turkiye

Laundry needed done, and holding tanks needed emptying, so we decided to go to a campground for a couple of nights. I found one on iOverlander that was surprisingly not listed on park4night. It also got great reviews on Google Maps, so we headed over there Thursday morning.