It was raining gently when we woke so decided we’d
leave early. No computers this morning. We packed up, and with John
directing, I reversed towards the rather large table drain. John had
found some rubbish last night and put some broken tiles behind the
wheels and in the drain. They helped us out of the wheel holes but
not the drain.
I
backed in slowly and the rear wheels just started digging into the
far side of the trench.
John was about 2” taller by now. He dug behind the wheels and fitted the max trax into place. We had not had any luck with them so had our fingers crossed. Nothing to winch off and the road was 3 feet above the bottom of ditch….
Anyhow
EC just slowly nudged the orange max trax and proceeded to creep up
them. With rear wheels onto the sealed road I gunned it. Bouncing the
front on the ground as the front wheels entered the ditch but she just
came out. What a relief……
We
did leave a big mess behind however which we do not like doing….
Back into real agriculture
region with fruit trees and olives in abundance.
We
arrived back at the Perre Antik Kent Perre Ancient City, Well I
think this is mainly the burial ground. We paid our 7lira A$2 and
watched a video in English then still in our wet weather gear we
wondered into the site. We had it to ourselves…. 
It was drizzling
and a little cold, but the site is big and very interesting. Supposedly
the grouped “graves” were for a family. Some were still
in caves while others had lost their roofs. Some where sarcophagus
others just on a plinth in a hand carved cave with a large stone for
a door.
Had
a quick late lunch back in EC then drove on to an evening camp. We
got to the lake on Abdulharap Cayi and turned off at Celikhan. It
had been snowing for the last 30 minutes and was getting heavier and
staying on the ground. The forecast was for 5-10cm of snow
Really
neat “we think” floating islands close to shore. We would like to
get a closer look.But was not to bee.
No
where here to camp so we continued along the white road and across the
dam wall. We could stop here but it was really snowing and already quite
thick on the ground.
We decided it was safer to leave.
We
retraced our track for a period then turned onto another yellow. This
was smaller and had more snow on the ground.
A
hold up with a small front wheel drive blocking the road, John and
some others got out and pushed. We got further then more hold ups.
Other cars stopped. Managed to get around them.
The small bus drivers
are crazy and not waiting for anyone... If there was any possibility to overtake they took it.
When John was checking the side of the raod for me to pass a stopped vehicle he was nearly run over by a "bus" hurtling in to pass the stopped car. I beeped the horn to warn him and he jumped clear. I understand that they need to keep their momentum up but very unsafe.
Final last hold up where we were
8 cars waiting. A tractor was pushing a semi up the hill. He stopped
again just opposite us. All the cars that were stuck behind him
came through then we could pass. Finally through to the Orange.
Everyone turned north we went south. We put chains on as the road looked
slippery, the back right one hooked up the mud flap a bit of
readjustment with crow bar and off again. Starting to get dark .
The chains are not good at speed (covering just 2 quarters of the tire) and cars and trucks were whizzing past so we took them off.
John
took over driving and we drove down this eerie highway. We were
dropping altitude fast and within 20km we were out of the
snow. Turning off on a white near a river.
We
stopped to look at a possible site by the road and a car stopped to
chat and ask us if we needed help. He had a little English.
A
little further on a track led away from the road towards the river.
It was well graveled. Drove down and found a little sandy spot for
the night. May not be a great spot but we were safe.
157km Camp site 790m alt.
157km Camp site 790m alt.