If it wasn't for the "last minute", nothing would get done...
This Murphy's Law would be the best way to describe the unbelievable intensity of the preparations for the trip. As if the best time to do the most important things is the "last minute", I now find myself having to do a medical and a dental check-up (unfortunately the dental includes 2 fillings and a wisdom tooth to be "removed", as in "ripped out") and other rather important stuff...
For years I have driven many models and makes of 4WD's, and clocked thousands of kilometers on all kinds of terrain. I have always seen myself as an experienced driver in this area. Yet I have to say I learned many 4WD driving techniques by practice, trial and error, maybe even wrongly. I have never been 100% sure that what I have learned is the correct way or I thought there would be better ways. This time, I was determined to do it the right way: learn it from the experts and then take off. I even wrote to a few off-road training centers abroad to get information on their training programs; however, it never went any further than that. Finally, I found out about a basic and advanced 4x4 driving course within the Land Rover Experience program in Turkey and contacted them. After a long period of interrupted communication efforts due to their or my own schedules, we agreed on a 2-day "compact training" program.



October 4th, I was there at 8:30am sharp.

My trainer, Okan Çam and I completed the training program in the training facility set up by the Buyukcekmece Lake in Istanbul on 4th and 5th of October. Before the training I was a little skeptical about the program, was it going to be good enough? But from the beginning I realized my doubts were unfounded. It was really a full-on, informative, corrective and intensive program. I not only found out that I lacked the knowledge in driving techniques and winch recovery, but also got a chance to correct myself in some other areas. I enjoyed those two days, in good weather and out by nature... This also allowed me to remove myself from the stress of the preparations.


Dirty business?

And the Delay

If you realize that even in the last minute you have lots to do, you would do what I had to: Postpone the departure date. I think I will be able to depart sometime between 13th and 16th of October.

Update: 13.10.2005

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Months of preparation finally complete. During the last few days I honestly didn't believe that I would have everything ready to start loading the car. Literally in each room of the house and of course in the garage, I see things that I should take aboard. Issues like putting them all together and then strategically placing them in the boxes -whether they would fit or not was another unknown- and still leave enough space for me to do the driving etc almost made me an insomniac. Nevertheless, I am ready.

I planned to fit everything into 4 boxes custom made by Önder Usta. Two of these were going to be for "kitchen" equipment and cleaning stuff, one for personal -mostly clothing- belongings, and the last one for books and stationary.

And if you think that's all I had you are dead wrong. A 25 kg "rescue equipment" bag (which includes rope, reels, locked eyebolts, load binder straps, etc.), a heavy duty compressor for tires, Hi-Lift jack and accessories, camping equipment (2 chairs and a table, night lamp, tent, mat and sleeping bag), a tool box for all the tools and tool sets, two medium size plastic storage containers for the electrical and mechanical equipment, a wrench kit box, along with a lot of other "stuff" which I can't remember and more than likely won't remember even during the trip. Not to mention my 37 liter capacity fridge and its contents. I almost forgot! I have spare parts, picked carefully by Murat Usta from Otokar, in an aluminum container, loaded up and carefully tied on the roof rack putting an end to my dreams of not loading anythimg on the roof rack but 2 spare tires in order to maintain a low center of gravity. Now I have a humongous "hump" that will not only slow me down but also cause the side winds to buffet the car easily as well as decreasing the roll-over angle.

I hadn't paid much attention to Buket's shopping for the kitchen and cleaning products. The magnitude of it occurred to me only when I began to pack them. I guess Buket thought that I wouldn't be able to find any restaurant or any place to do a little grocery shopping on the way through the entire trip. She basically bought enough food and cleaning supplies to last for around 180 days; generous not only in quantity but quality and variety, as well. Without hurting her feelings much, I quickly performed an operation on the list and crossed out half of it. Once I closed the lids, the boxes seemed to have somehow "expanded" (don't speculate if a wooden box would expand or not, it does). This "abundance" of supplies aroused my entrepreneurial spirit giving me the idea of opening a convenience store in Africa and if it took off then I could even build a franchise empire with Buket's next set of supplies for my trips in the future. J

The Latest

Departure date has been set to a definitive 8:30am Saturday morning, on October 15, 2005. The same day I will reach Ankara and the next day after a nightly stopover in Adana I will set out to travel to Aleppo, imho, one of the most "oriental" and exotic cities of the Middle East. I plan to arrive in Aleppo on Monday, hopefully just in time for "iftar" and treat myself a "welcome dinner" in one of those beautiful "city restaurants".

Update: 17.10.2005

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Departure

As mentioned in my last update on 13.10.2005, TurAfrika project was launched at exactly 8:30pm on Saturday, 15 October 2005 when family and friends saw me off to my trip with a "farewell ceremony".
Buket, Alican and I had literally "stacked everything up" at 5 PM the day before and closed the doors. I have already written about the "expanding" boxes. Well I noticed later in Ankara, when I tried to mount the padlocks on the boot and the cage in Ankara that, the same happened to the car, too. Despite trying to stick to my original layout plan, I ended up sticking some of the stuff into spaces I found. I think the only way to find this "stuff" when needed will be to empty the car totally. So I hope I won't need them during the trip. To give an example, right now I have no idea where the special funnel designed to filter water in the fuel is and I will need to use it for the diesel fuel bought from suspicious vendors.


This is how it looks like after the loading...
That empty space you see above the boxes may very well be my sleeping quarters..

Following the brief coffee break with the neighbors who came to say goodbye, I left for my trip. Prior to departure, Buket and I had a bet on how much the car would weigh. She was saying it wouldn't be over 2,300 kg while I insisted it had to be over 2,500 kg... When I weighed it on one of the scales set up on the road by the Highway Authority, I couldn't believe my eyes: a net weight of 2,900kg! Then I increased the air pressure of the tires -as recommended by Michelin Turkey - to 90 psi (front) and 100 psi (back).
After a comfortable trip I arrived in Ankara at around 3:30pm. I had promised to catch up with my old school buddies so I met them at the M.E.T.U Alumni Club House. After receiving their cordial wishes I made my way to my parents' house in Ankara to spend the first night of my trip.
The next day (Sunday, October 16) at 11am I bid goodbye to the family members in Ankara and hit the road for Adana. After the smooth ride on Istanbul-Ankara motorway, the car started to bounce on the bumpy asphalt of Ankara-Adana road. Add to that the rain that started pouring down near Tuz Gölü (Salt Lake), my dear Land Rover added more to its repertoire in the artistic program - sliding, skipping, and bouncing. I couldn't control it above 80 kmph so I went into the first petrol station and made a judgement call to decrease the air pressure to 60 psi (for the front tires) and 65 psi (back). My intervention must have displeased my car, it quit dancing. The moral of this story; sometimes I need to listen to the voice of my own experiences before taking on board the "manufacturer's recommendations".

By 6pm I stopped at Riza's (my brother-in-law) in Adana. To help me relax and rest after the road trip, they took me to a restaurant where what seemed like thousands of children were showing off their ability to scream and run around. It worked and I relaxed and I slipped right out of my exhaustion… not. Then we went back home.

I began my last day in Turkey, before the first leg of my trip that will take about 2.5 months, by trying to fix the padlocks on the back and the cage doors with which I had a lot of trouble because of the car's "expansion" before. I not only got a chance to test my inverter's performance by drilling a hole in it, also managed to drill another hole to the side of my left knee while trying to widen a hole on the lock of a cage door inside the car. As I was left with a hole in my new jeans and a wound next to my knee cap that just won't heal, I realized that when I am using a drill I need to wear all kinds of protective gear (knees, elbows, head) and not just the gloves. The good news is, this repair work helped me find some of the stuff that had to be jam-packed into any available space. I will be able to remember where they are. Still no news from the funnel though.

Leaving Cilvegozu

After leaving Adana at around 11am under a bright sun and relatively warm weather, I reached Cilvegozu border gates at 1:30pm. Thanks to my smooth moves to avoid running around like headless chicken and running into the men of the red-tape order, I was all done by 2:45pm on the Turkish side of the border. I have to mention though, I totally forgot about the exit fee which I haven't paid in last few travels abroad since I was exempt from it as a member of the Exporters Union. And I didn't have a supply of 70 YTL on me so unlike everybody else I had to exchange foreign currency into Turkish Liras when leaving the country.

I thought I would enter through the Syria border gate as soon as I was out the Cilvegozu gates, so I disconnected and hid my onboard GPS. I read a few times that GPS spellt trouble for some when entering Syria. Figured I had to drive another 5km to reach the Syrian border gate. I arrived at the gate after driving up the road that wound up through rocks. On the way I passed by the ruins of Kızlar Sarayı, which I will regret for not having stopped and taken photos of. Not sure exactly why, but I think maybe because it is the "border" I hesitated to stop to even read the sign... Why else would they have put that sign up there if it was forbidden to stop and have a look? I have no idea about the history of this place. I am jotting this down in my notes to do research about it later.