Heading for Ankara the Capital of Turkey 15 Oct

Woke at 4, 6 and got up at 7am. Having paid, we were on the road by 8am, and cleared Izmir about 8:30. After a small climb out of Izmir we were in a long straight valley and we were able to speed along for mile after mile. This, in fact, was the pattern of the whole journey; roads that the Romans would have been proud of, interspersed with occasional short climbs. After the first 100km or so the engine started to sound rather noisy, there is a hole in the exhaust pipe. The noise as of bearings continues with us, but is it getting any worse? We'll possibly be able to tell today.

The countryside looks very arid, presumably mainly because of the time of year. There is a lot of cultivation evident and one imagines it to be fertile when the rains come. There are also some impressive bits of rock amongst the scenery and in places the subsoil is very light coloured (about the colour of cement) in other places it's brilliant red.

Along the way we see multicoloured sheep with pink behinds and yellow necks, Brian says this is to show the path of the ram. We see a family of gypsies with their bear - the men riding the women walking. Then we see a whole tribe of gypsies, mostly in their caravans, which, of course, are horse-drawn and very simple affairs. In one village an awe-inspiring tractor towing a trailer of banners and brightly dressed women and girls passes us going in the opposite direction (anything to do with a wedding?) Near Afyon a lorry was in collision with a bus. The lorry was in rather a mess, but these things are happening all the time.

The weather was absolutely perfect and has been for several days now. Brian drove to Afyon which was about halfway, while I had lunch about midday and by 12:30 we had already covered about 330km (over 50mph) 260km to go. We saw a superb train being towed by two steam engines. Good excuse to put the two train pictures in again, but the other way round. Shortly after stopping for petrol the police stopped us at a crossroads they asked us for passports in their best French and then waved us on. The steering was getting rather peculiar, because, as I suspected, the offside rear was nearly flat. Foolish to continue on it for so long. We only had 10km to Ankara, but another 20km out to campsite so we changed the wheel and drove out to campsite. Sadly I have no information about the location of this campsite.

There we discovered there were no shops within miles, no money changing facilities, and no one who could speak English. We remove wheel, check inside tyre and find strange imprint on tube. Was it a faulty tube? Put new tube in and bundle everything into car, including Scotsman (Eddie) who has come from Madras on a Rayleigh Wisp. It was Eddie who recommended the Hotel Amir Kabir in Tehran. We drive into Ankara to find banks closed but change money in large hotel at tourist rate. Go to restaurant which advertises pide, but doesn't have them, and have kofte (Eddie has shish kebab) tomato salad and what Brian thinks is humus, but which turns out to be yoghourt. Cost about 12TL.

Then back to camp site where guard comes rushing up and demands passports. Still tetchy, so tell him to get lost and he'll get them in good time, so he offers us chai which we accept, and after a pot full he gets his passports. He is quite an entertaining character. It's a clear starlight night, but it's very cold even though it's still early when we go to bed. Despite guernsey and sleeping bag with blanket I am still cold.