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Istanbul - Ankara
E.Route : Istanbul - Ankara : ETD 0700 : ETA 1600 : Dist. 298.m.
A.Route : Istanbul - Ankara : ATD 0707 : ATA 1623 : Dist. 290.m.
- Depart Istanbul 0707
- 0850 - 0858 Crew change
- 1055 - 1113 Crew change
- 1249 - 1342 Lunch stop
- Arr. Ankara campsite 1623
Est.A.Spd : 33.1 mph : Gross A.Spd 31.1 mph : Net.A.Spd 36.3mph.
Stop time : 1:19 hr : Speedo TD 5580.3 : Speedo TA 5870
Comment : Not exceptionally interesting, although the first introduction to the tactics of Turkish bus drivers and other happy motorists, and also an introduction to the fearsome collection of wreckage to be seen by the Turkish roadside.
Jim Lindsay's diary:
The official convoy system was still more or less operating and we were the tail coach, which gave us the duty of
checking that everyone else had left the site spotless. Patrols meant that it had been an interrupted night and then
there was an early start, leaving just after 0700. According to the diary Bill and I folded the tent and groundsheets
and then cleaned up the site. I'm sure everyone else was just as busy but the diary does not tell. Not surprisingly
I slept through a good deal of the journey that followed. The wrecks of lorries and buses lined the road to Ankara.
It was easy to see why. The drivers of the big Mercedes buses that carried most of the local traffic drove with a
very special style. Sometimes they would roar past on blind bends with their horns blaring. At other times they
would pull alongside so that everyone on board could have a good look at the odd foreigners, and only squeeze
back to the correct side of the road at the very last moment. Clearly this high-risk behaviour did not always work.
Our overnight stop by a beautiful lake near Ankara must have looked good on paper but was a dismal choice in reality.
As tail coach we arrived late and by that time the little space available was all taken. There were no facilities in
any case. A radio message came through from Leicester and we motored round to join them as a splinter group on the
other side of the lake. Contingents kept forming and changing group friendships. After this we were best mates with
Leicester for some time.
A slightly surreal part of the evening was that a little party from the British Embassy in Ankara came to visit us
and made small talk for a while. They should really have gone to the main camp, but perhaps our little group seemed
less threatening. Another excitement was the first and also the last formal use of our wonderful travelling toilets.
Footnote
We camped on the shores of Lake Eymir, about ten miles outside Ankara on the summer campus of the Middle East Technical
University.
