4 November ’04, Thursday. After a little debate we both chose to move on this morning. Again, it was a tough decision, but we just have to find that perfect spot to call home for at least 30 to 45 days. When we drove down into Cirali a couple of days ago, I just knew that we would have to drive back out. Going out is almost straight up and full of very tight turns. We had to go into 1st gear for almost every turn for the 5 km back up to the main road. Well, we had a lot of fun and saw a lot of great sites in the 2 days that we were there, so going on just means we wont spend the whole day basking in the sun. Our route will take us through at least 3 mountainous areas, but the rest will be right down on the shoreline. We encountered quite a bit of road construction on the coastline, but in a way, that was just great as we were able to really enjoy the spectacular views. During the construction, some of the roadway was a little scary as it would take us within inches of the banks that would take you in for a swim at the quickest moment. At one point, we had to come to a halt for about 15 minutes while they pushed rocks down onto the road, and then cleaned them off to the side for one lane to get through. Most of the roadway was newly laid gravel over tar, and it was really quite slippery in the corners. I think that the top speed we were able to drive at was about 20-35 km. Very slow going… Once we broke through the construction and back into another mountain area, we saw off in the distance, some ruins where they had dug out their living and worshiping areas directly out of the vertical side of the mountain. There was no visible road to get closer, so all we could do was enjoy it from a far distance. It looked amazing… Where we just happened to park was along side a farmers field, and there was a young boy about 9-10 who saw us. He waved and yelled out “HELLO”, and then followed that with “GIVE ME MONEY !!” as he ran toward us… It was hard to say no, but you just can’t give for that reason. We then found ourselves entering the town where St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) was born. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t any reason to stop beyond his being born there, so we continued on. About 40 minutes later and we were heading down the hill in to our next location for a couple of days….Kas. Our campsite is within a quick walk into a wonderful ruin of a “Theatre”, and then on to the town its self. We are parked just above the water in a great little campsite. It is terraced campground, with every site having a view to the water. There is a small restaurant/bar and a couple of small docks tied together with a boardwalk. We met our neighbors tonight, Ralph and Susan who have brought their camper with them from Alberta Canada. They have been camping in their VW Campervan in Europe since last April as well. Their trip will last them for a year and it has been just like ours… FANTASTIC !!!
Tomorrow…Kas
Tomorrow…Kas