The journey to Turkey

AT LAST, the day to begin our journey has finally arrived!

Having sold our final remaining possessions from the UK, we stuffed the old Toyota with as much stuff as we could carry, the last few final bits which couldn't be wedged in had to, alas, go in the bins.

The last item for collection was our bed, and we moved this down to the communal hallway of our flat on Exeter Quay, ready for collection that lunchtime.

At 11.20 am on Thursday 5 October, we locked the flat for the final time, posted the keys in and headed for our first stop in Ashford Kent. Our mileometer is reading 114,383.

En route, we heard that the bed collector had, eventually, managed to rouse someone to let her through the controlled doorways, and would have to take the bed and mattress in two trips.

The weather has changed to a drizzle.

We arrived at the travel lodge in Ashford at 3.50pm, and after unloading all the key valuables - laptops and documents, we parked the Toyota under the surveillance camera and headed to Pizza Hut for an early dinner. It's really raining now.

Off for an early night, as we have to be up to board the Channel Tunnel Railway at 5.59am.

We're up at 4.30am, it's dark and drizzly for our last few hours of UK, and by 5.05 we have covered the 12 miles to Eurotunnel check-in. We've booked it online, and the self check-in is an easy touch screen.

Before boarding, we are pulled over to security. They check the engine and if we have any gas - which we do, a few small camping gas cartridges for our small gas ringed cooker. They look in the boot and dab or bags with something, and stick a probe in amongst the packed boot.

They seem satisfied, and we are waved on our way. We drive onto the train, and through the carriages. Before 'take-off', large doors between the compartments are closed, and we start rolling at 5.57. The journey is quick, smooth and quiet, and we emerge into a dark French sky after 26 minutes are are out filling up with petrol in Calais 15 minutes after that.

Our next target is a hotel we have booked online in the Swiss lake-side town of Luzern.

After a couple of hours driving, we pulled over to a service area for breakfast. The service areas are all off the road and have picknick seating and facilities. Out with the little cooker for fried eggs and bacon and fresh coffee.

We are travelling on the toll roads, which are wide, open and not at all busy. On these we can make really good time. To enter Switzerland we cross over into Germany and drive to the border in Basel where we have to buy a Carne for 40 SF.

At 6pm we are checking in to the hotel Spatz in the town centre of Luzern. The weather has been sporadically wet and windy for most of the journey, but we arrive at Luzern to a bright, clear sunny afternoon.

The hotel has free wi-fi so we are able to check email, and update friends and family that we (and the car!) are still OK.

We dine early at the hotel on steak and chips, washed down with Swiss red wine and beer - which is surprisingly good. After dinner, it's off to explore the town and see the waterside. There is a huge ferris wheel set up by the water, and it looks magnificent, so we take a ride in the moonlight and relax and enjoy the wonderful views over the lake.

We sleep very well, and after a light breakfast at the hotel are back on the road by 7am. The weather has now caught us up, and it raining very heavily, with strong gusty winds. The car is heavy and this helps us stick to the roads. Switzerland has an abundance of tunnels, the longest of which is the St Gottard tunnel, stretching through the mountains for 19km.

We reach Italy by 10am, and stop for a break and a quick lunch of cheese, smoked ham and peanuts before pushing on to Ancona.

Our intention is to catch the Saturday ferry from Ancona to Cesme (Turkey), which leaves at 10. We are in good time as we arrive at the Port at 4.15pm. There is bad news though. The FIA world rally championships is mustering it's competitors and the ferry is full. As the next one isn't unil next Saturday, we decide to get a bed for the night and take the ferry to Ignounamitsa Greece, which leaves at Sunday lunchtime.

While waiting at the port, we met another English couple who had missed that day's ferry to Greece. They are relocating to Bulgaria, and have two dogs in their old Ford Estate.

We find a nice hotel in Ancona, called the Hotel Europa, which has secure underground parking, and a lovely room. We dine in a restaurant close by on anti-pasta and spaghetti, followed by pizza and escalopes with mushrooms, wine and beer.

A good night sleep and a lazy breakfast in the hotel later, and we are at the port by 10am. The weather has improved, and it is now a bright, clear, sunny day for our crossing. We have booked a cabin, which is clean and spacious, with an ensuite toilet and shower.

We ran into Steve and Louise agian, they are on the same ferry so we agree to meet later for drinks and dinner that evening on board. They had had to spend the night in their car, as they could not find a hotel which would take the dogs. On board, the dogs have their own cabin!

The ship is large and very well appointed. The food is wonderful and fresh, so we have lunch of prawn salad and Greek salad, before retiring for a shower and a snooze as we sail.

We met up with Steve and Louise in the bar for Martini's before having a lovely dinner of slow-cooked lamb with wine.

We slept well, although Iain said the sea what quite choppy in the night. The boat is so large that it hardly moved around much.

We are due in at 6am, so we get up, shower and pack at 5, and go up to await the instructions to get down to the car. After docking at Igounamitsa, the ferry will contune down to Patras to disembark the rest of the passengers.

A small drama on the ferry as, in their haste to get out, a large 4x4 truck backed into a rather nice Audi - luckily there was no damage.

We are on the motorway by 6.12am, it is now Monday 9 October. The motorway will eventually go all the way from Igounamitsa to Ipsala (Turkey), but large chunks are still under construction, so we are contiually diverted around the old roads which snake up and down the mountains of northern Greece. The weather is bad again, more rain, wind and in many places dense fog. But the roads are very quiet.

On one such detour, after Thessaloniki, we travelled a 50km, to find a road block. They are signalling that we will have to go back and find another road. Arriving back at Thessaloniki, we see that the motorway looks open, so we take a chance and give it a go. 50km later we reach the same point, this time we are on the other side of the lakes, and here we find mud on the roads, more police and activity and large snow ploughs pushing away the mud. We plough on as far as we can until once again we are turned back.

This has put us back a good 3 hours, and eventually we find the road over the mountains we need and arrive at Kavala at 5.30pm. It's getting dark so we take the first hotel we see, which has a lovely hilltop position overlooking the town below - Hotel Philoxenia. We have a nice room with a balcony, but as there is no restaurant at the hotel we pop into the town for sauages and salad, and come back to the room and barbeque it up on the gas ring, while sipping our wine and beers, popping olives and looking at the wonderful view.

A quick scan of the local TV news reveals the reason for the detours. The road we had needed had been washed away by a massive mud slide. The bridge was down, and it was impassable.

We are both tired, so an early night and after a good breakfast of eggs, sausages we are back on the road, heading for Turkey. The wind and rain is strong and gusty, but the car is going well, and we have no problems.

We reached the Turkish/Greek border at Ipsala at 10.30am, Tuesday 10 October. Now for the beaurocratic rigmorole. Get a visa, go back get it stamped by the Port Police, off the customs, the car is listed on the passport. We do not have a green card (insurance), so Iain goes to the duty free shop to buy some, then back for a final check over and we're through!

It's 11.10am, and we are in Turkey. Next stop, Cannakale - a little on from Gallipoli, for a short ferry crossing, and then head for Izmir. Izmir is busy and smoggy. We arrive about 5ish. It's Ramazan here at the moment, and in the hours before the sun sets, the roads are always frantic as the Turks head or home and the Iftar meal - which breaks their fast.

We decide to drive on by and find somewhere in Aydin. We stay in an excellent 4* hotel, the Anenom, which also has free wi-fi, and have an excellent meal in the a la carte restaurant of lamb ribs and veal. The breakfast in the morning is amazing. Freshly cooked-to-order omelettes, fresh tomatoes and cucumber, eggs, yoghurt, honey off the comb, cereals, fresh breads - everything you could want. We have all day to do the last 3 hours to Fethiye, so we take our time over the breakfast.

Finally we arrive in Fethiye at 10.50am, on Wednesday 11 October. The mileometer reads 116,676. We have covered 2,293 miles in the car. We were greeted by the happy faces of Adem, Nese and Dilara, who all helped us unpack the car, before refreshing us with coffee.

No sooner had we swept the floors and sluiced the balcony, Pat and Chris arrive, along with their 4 Canadian house guests: Dick and Sharon Oakes, and Frazer and Sharry Rae. These are to be our cabin mates for the much anticipated Bodrum Cup, and they are fantastic characters.

After lunch, a quick catch-up with Clare and her brother, before back to Adem's for a lovely fresh fish dinner, and an early night.