Travel to our home in Turkey (2 Viewers)

[berni109]

Raul you do it online as far as I can see.
Hope so cause I will be there next month
bgtoll.bg

 

[Bramidan]

No need to buy online if you don’t want to, the service stations coming up to the borders have signs saying they sell them as well as service stations just after the border.
If there is a border, Serbia springs to mind, there is shop selling vignettes. All painless I just paid by card, of course not busy when we came through so It was not a problem, if you are filling up you can do it same time as paying for fuel. Nothing required, Reg number and country of origin ie UK.
Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria required vignettes. We didn’t go through Romania, I believe it’s a requirement there as well. Only Austria gave a windscreen sticker, the remainder are policed electronically. We purchased minimum which was 10 days.

 

[Raul]

No need to buy online if you don’t want to, the service stations coming up to the borders have signs saying they sell them as well as service stations just after the border.
If there is a border, Serbia springs to mind, there is shop selling vignettes. All painless I just paid by card, of course not busy when we came through so It was not a problem, if you are filling up you can do it same time as paying for fuel. Nothing required, Reg number and country of origin ie UK.
Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria required vignettes. We didn’t go through Romania, I believe it’s a requirement there as well. Only Austria gave a windscreen sticker, the remainder are policed electronically. We purchased minimum which was 10 days.

Thank you, then it’s the same as other mentioned countries. In Ro you need one to.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Raul]

Bramidan, how is the weather where you are? Fresh

snow here north of Ro, and it’s to be expected all the way down to north of Greece. Some parts of Turkey round Istanbul to.

 

[coroner]

Bramidan, how is the weather where you are? Fresh View attachment 735095snow here north of Ro, and it’s to be expected all the way down to north of Greece. Some parts of Turkey round Istanbul to.

Snow still on the high peaks behind Fethyie but confined to a bit of rain and low cloud further down never mind will soon be hitting 40 C. Plus. On the agean coast

 

[Bramidan]

Windy today but surprisingly warm, looks like rain moving in though!
Can hear thunder!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

l make a point of having my vehicle serviced whilst abroad,so much more professional and efficient when compared to U.K.

Not always unfortunately
Had my Iveco serviced by a German dealer last year and as recommended the diff oil changed, got home and parked it up on my brand new drive.
Few weeks later pulled it out to give it a wash ready to go away again and noticed oil on the drive

Took it to someone with a pit who said the diff plug was loose and had leaked out about 30% of the oil!!
Lucky I caught it before it did damage.

Trust no one is my motto

 

[Littlewheels]

Not always unfortunately
Had my Iveco serviced by a German dealer last year and as recommended the diff oil changed, got home and parked it up on my brand new drive.
Few weeks later pulled it out to give it a wash ready to go away again and noticed oil on the drive

Took it to someone with a pit who said the diff plug was loose and had leaked out about 30% of the oil!!
Lucky I caught it before it did damage.

Trust no one is my motto

I don’t know weather that’s luck or good fortune but what a nightmare you would have faced had it come out whilst travelling.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

I don’t know weather that’s luck or good fortune but what a nightmare you would have faced had it come out whilst travelling.

Yes as probably did another few K after the service

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Bramidan]

Day 9 and we are leaving Greece for Turkey via the border crossing at Ipsala.
We have made this crossing several times in the past so knew what to expect.
We were heading for Altin Camp Burhaniye.
Usual delays at the border with only one gate open. I was messing about with the menus on the left hand stork at the steering wheel and noticed Adblu was a bit low, bearing in mind the posts on here regarding Adblu I decided to fill it up. Nothing better to do and I had some in the garage.
We had left the previous campsite without having breakfast so wife walked into the back and prepared breakfast for us, the joys of a motorhome.
Whilst in the queue one of the guards came along, looked in the garage, had a look in the Moho and that was that. Slight problem at the actual booth when the border guard asked us for visa’s.
We explained not needed for Turkey, 90 day tourist visa. He went away, obviously to seek advice and then came back and confirmed we didn’t need visas. I guess he was new!
Anyway we are now in Turkey. It’s a brilliant road coming down on the western side, especially around Canakale where there is a new motorway and the 1915 suspension bridge across the Bosphorus. Opened last year and is the longest suspension bridge in the world.
Not many Turks use the bridge they seem to favour the roll on/roll off ferries which you can take at Lapseki or Galibolu. It’s expensive for the Turkish people at 279.50 TL but for us with exchange rate as it is we paid £12.26. I paid more last year with my car and folding camper because they said I had 3 axles. Nearly justified the price of the new motorhome, dream on!
The motorway was virtually deserted.
Further on we used to have a nail biting decent down a mountain to the coast and have noted for the past 5 years a tunnel was under construction. Oh what joy, it was now open, once again with excellent roads before and after.
A great journey until we got to Oren, when in my wisdom, I decided to ignore the sat nav because it takes you through the town, really narrow busy streets with speed humps ( some of the most brutal I have encountered) and Turkish drivers who are going to overtake come what may!
I had worked out an alternative route, pass the town, take the next right, down to the coast road another right and come back to camp that way. Great idea until we got to the coast road which they had decided to close and were undertaking extensive works. No signs, no diversion signs. Sat nav going mad, so was my wife, bear in mind these things always happen at the end of the day.
Fortunately I started to recognise where we were and we got to Altin Camp. A great success on my part, only added 40 mins to the journey! Atmosphere was a bit fraught.
Altin Camp is a wonderfully located camp site. You are virtually on the beach, they have their own beach, you just set up where you want. EHU, black waste facilities and water. There is a small bar and restaurant, not open when we were there as it is out of season. They specialise in Yoga breaks so it is very peaceful. I think there was about 10 other motorhomes on site.
The toilet facilities are dated but clean and serviceable.
They advised us not to park too close to the beach, rain and wind forecast for that night.
It rained! Loads of puddles the next morning but no problem getting off the site.
We left at about 9,30 for our last leg to Dalyan.
Next post I’ll cobble together the all important statistics ie miles travelled and the cost!
.

 

[Littlewheels]

Good report today

 

[nicholsong]

Bramidan

If you were around Oren you passed very close to Basia's Sister's place. They used to live in Oren but are now in a tiny village a bit inland from there.

Basia visits her, but although I have sailed the Turkish coast years ago, I am not a fan of the country since I worked for Sun Express flying out of Antalya 30 years ago and have not been back since.

Enjoy your stay.

Geoff

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Bramidan]

It’s the final countdown ( sing along if you know the words and you could even do the actions, oh well never mind!)
We left our home in the UK on the morning of 7th March heading for Abbeywell Vets in Folkestone to pick up the AHC for our dog. We arrived ridiculously early because we have to negotiate the M25 from the M40 junction past Heathrow etc. No problem though parked in their car park and had a cooked breakfast.
Picked the AHC up at 10.am and then onto the tunnel.
We then went to Bruges, and overnighted to get an EU passport for the dog the next morning.
In effect the stop at Bruges took us a day but we never have to do that again!
We arrived in Dalyan Mugla at about 4/ 4.30 on the 16th March, so in total 9 nights.
Total distance travelled was 2492 miles and driving time was 57 hours 39 minutes ( according to the trip on my Fiat Ducato).
We left our home with about 3/4 tank of diesel and actually arrived at Dalyan with about 3/4 tank.
During the trip total diesel cost was £554.
We lost track of vignettes ( discussions have been undertaken with the person in charge of the MotorhomeFun Yearbook ) I know we purchased 3, Austria £8.83, Hungary £18.83, Bulgaria gone walk about.
On diesel consumption I was taking readings from full to full ( yes I know but that’s what we do, right?) best was 35.52 mpg lowest 26.66, the lowest was the last fill up in Turkey but the old boy seemed to be having trouble with the pump ( I thought I was being crafty, no body in the filling station, surprise surprise)
Anyway the average worked out to be 30mpg which I didn’t think was too bad. Where I was able I had cruise control on at about 59 to 60 , apart from over taking where I found if I didn’t accelerate I was best friend with my neighbour, the lorry driver.
On the basis that we didn’t pay for the ferry from Italy to Greece, as ŵe have done on our previous trips, the total cost showed a saving of about £400.
The Co-pilot ( bless her heart ) had emptied the fridge in our UK home so we didn’t spend a vast amount on meals.Camping costs about £40.
Would we do it again, well yes, we have to get home!
Lessons learnt, I think we should leave the UK after the 1st April, when campsites are open, to give us alternatives.
We would avoid Serbia, phones didn’t work and we weren’t particularly impressed with the roads etc.
As for the vehicle it performed admirably, only problem we had was that the rear view camera started to play up, I think that was caused by the terrible weather we encountered at the start of the trip. That was an extra fitted by the dealer so no fault of the Fiat.
Our motorhome is an Adria Sunliving S70SC, the only criticism we have of the motorhome is the table is far too heavy and cumbersome, I have been trawling the internet and various people have come up with alternatives so that’s next on the agenda.
One of the biggest plusses for me was that I had a Gasit LPG system fitted prior to our trip so I had no worries about running out of gas, we used the gas for everything and used the heating most nights. My intention was to empty one 6kg tank and simply changeover so I could assess how much LPG we used and the cost, did I do that? No I couldn’t wait and as the LPG was next to the diesel pump and I was there I had it filled up, grand total of £8.37.The young attendant was impressed with my Gasit bag of adaptors.
Trip home will be via Romania.

 

[3DOM]

Thanks for taking us on the journey with you

 

[Poms_from_Adelaide]

So a continuation of day 7 and we ( minus one motorhome) continued onwards to Bulgari.
Quite a short day as we had lost a few hours in Serbia, you know what it’s like when you stop.
Anyway we headed for Plovdiv, specifically, Camping Alliance.
Bit of a back story here, Sat Nav said we were arriving in 6 minutes,I thought we had another hour to go, clocks had altered! Sat Nav picked it up we didn’t until we looked at phone, which now worked.
A large modern hotel at the front of the site, it looked deserted, we thought another one closed and I decided we would just park up out front. Wandering up to the barrier there was a sign saying internet booking only and their web address. Not a problem, ipad tethered to phone.
Whilst I am reading the sign, a window opened and a young Bulgarian woman asked could she help. Success, she opened reception and booked me in via my I pad, Expalined I would get an e mail with a QR code for entrance, toilet and showers. She explained they were all internet based and usually nobody on site, she obviously took pity on the old fart trying to gain access!
What a site, absolutely wonderful, equivalent to the best French campsites, really well sized pitches with individual water and ECU hook up. She explained the large toilet block, dish washing area etc was still closed because of winter but one toilet block was open. Fully tiled out, heated and constant hot water for a shower, luxury.
They even had an automated machine in Which you could place you toilet cassette, it then emptied it, flushed it all out, disinfected it and filled it with the required cassette stuff. I think that worked for your QR code but I was frightened to use it!
There was a BBQ area with built in BBQ as well as a massive grindstone to sharpen knives.
The next day, prior to departure, you logged onto your booking and they calculated your electricity costs, obviously you couldn’t get out of the barrier on your QR code if you hadn’t paid.
In fact less than a euro no charge. We hadn’t used any electric so all was good.
That one night in a first class site reinvigorated us, this was how it was supposed to be!
It cost us €15, the young woman had told me they were doing an offer up to the end of March.
We would have paid double for the facilities after the previous night.


View attachment 733670 View attachment 733672 View attachment 733673

You got a good deal! It was 26 Euros a night in April Great site though, really handy for bus into Plovdiv, and the BEST toilets and showers. I imagine it will be full of families in the High Season, because the play area looked great fun!

Thanks for the write-up, very enjoyable reading.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}