38:45.00N 35:55.00E

 

Our Turkish is getting quite good and we have learned words like speed control solenoid valve and archimedes screw mechanism. 

 

Our steering box odyssey took us first to the office of Goreme Balloons.  The skies over Goreme are full of hot air balloons early every morning.  Once they come down, they have to be retrieved and this calls for a fleet of Landcruisers – old ones like ours.  They were really helpful (as all Turkish people seem to be) and gave us a contact in Kayseri.  After lots of help from Ramazan in the Star Cave (he was born on the first day of Ramadan) and Mehmet the tour guide, we got an appointment with the Toyota people in Kayseri, who would know how to fix it.  

 

We turned up and the car had them quite puzzled.  After a few hours of head scratching, a lovely lady called Funda took us to the staff canteen and we all had lunch.  They couldn’t fix it that day, and  there was a stomach churning Ukraine flashback when we unloaded a bag each from the back of the car and were driven off to a hotel in this bleak town, our future feeling very uncertain!

 

Kayseri is not very interesting!  We did see the house where Kemal Ataturk died, his wax likeness is attached.  It rained mercilessly almost the whole time we were there and our hotel was rather soviet in style, with theS TV blaring in the restaurant, where we were the only guests.  There were shots of awful floods in Bursa, further north, and people being rescued from cars on TV.  We asked for a glass of wine and 2 waiters went on a search of their cupboard and brought out about 10 bottles, one of which was red wine.  For the bottle they wanted 80, but a glass was “half past seven”.  We decided the half past seven glasses were a better deal and it was rather nice wine.

 

We did lose the will to live a bit in Kayseri!  We were very cold and wet and short of warm clothes, and in spite of all their efforts and kindness, Toyota Kayseri couldnt fix the problem.

They put us on to a specialist in Istanbul, so back we came!

 

And that is where we have been for the last 3 nights, visiting Vegi Bey in his workshop in an amazing part of Istanbul, a sort of Motown industrial estate where there are wall to wall car repair depots.  We got by here with a combination of French (Vegi Bey lived for many years in Belgium) and help from other customers.  After a very long job and having been given a delicious lunch in their upstairs office, we have the car back, we think it is fixed but cant be sure.  Anyway we know it is safe to drive, so tomorrow we are moving on to Greece, for the next bit of the adventure.