Expedition to Turkey

Ian Shires (of Yorkshire and Budapest)

We first met Ian and his partner, Judit, in the summer of 2003 on Camping Fifi in the Turkish border town of Edirne. They had just arrived from Bulgaria in his long-wheelbase Land Rover; we had motorhomed up from Greece via Gallipoli. We were later to visit them twice at their home in Budapest. In this article, Ian describes the 2003 journey, which took them to the Iranian border and all points East, as well as their earlier Turkish travels in 2000. A map of their journeys in Turkey is included in the images below.

See also Ian's A Travelling Life on this website.

Ian's images are shown below and they can also be seen as a slide show.

Introduction:  An expedition is sometimes defined as a journey with a purpose. In my case I called the journey an expedition because I had three aims: travel by Land Rover to Turkey and back, visit some ancient sites and swim in the Aegean sea.

Many people are wary of travelling to far away countries, especially in an easterly direction. There are rumours about aggressive Romanian and Bulgarian policemen. We hear that roads are dangerous. There are stories of murderous Turkish football hooligans, Kurd terrorists, bandits in the hills and, of course, digestive problems.

The aim of this article is to look at the truth and help folks who are at the thinking stage of a journey to Turkey. I will look at several aspects of the journey: distances, fuel, vehicle, packing, eating, tyres, sleeping, bureaucracy, money and navigation. Naturally, the article is too short to cover everything.