Insight into Turkish Driving

The previous night the stove had been giving me problems and when Alex checked in the morning he concluded that a part which occasioally needs replacing due to a build up of grime had reached the end of it's life. Our first priority therefore was to get a new stove. This we achived quickly and easily, (with ALex's excellent mastery of charades), in a pleasant small town. We've ended up with a small gas bottle with a ring attachment which is rather larger than we'd like but a lot easier to use and more stable than our petrol one. We got some other bits and pieces includig tasty savory bites and proceded to try and leave the town. We to hit a big and complex snarl of traffic- mainly the minibusses they use as busses here. We experiened a fair bit of frustration with everyone's need to direct the stupid foreigners, making something as simple as turning complicated as they felt the need to direct our every turn of the wheel with hand signals that are different to British ones. It was an interesting insight into the TUrkish driving mentality. Once we were out the landscape continued to captivate me- undulating plains, deep river gorges, rolling hills. We stopped for gearbox oil and Alex got another set of guys admiriing his car- absolutely every where we go 'boys' of every age come over to admire it. A couple of older guys asked for a hitch as we were leaving the garage but when they opened the backdoor to find a platform rather than seats they indicated thay'd rather wait for the bus! We moved on up into the snowline- everytime the car gets a bit cleaner from a rainstorm we seem to end up wading through mud or mucky slush shortly after. We picnied by a mosque and three middle aged guys asked if we could give them a lift. The most bombastic of the three experimented with trying to squeeze into the front seat with me but I decided to give it up and crawl into the back with the other two, much to his disappointment! One of the guys in the back was very quiet, one spoke a tiny bit of English and greatly enjoyed leaning more from the phrase section of the guide book and teaching us some Turkish. The fun, cheakey guy in the front was intent on teaching Alex to drive the proper Turkish way. It was a huge further insight into the minds of Turkish drivers for example if you slow down for anything like roadworks or turning unexpectedly you shoulod put on your hazards and when you go past any one or they are not going fast enough or if you just like their car you should hoot. We had just discoverd today that the horn was only working intermittantly which the Turk deeply disapproved of. Just before they joined us we had got a text that our house sitter had locked himself out. Luckily Alex rememered that our landlord would have the key and then with all the hullabaloo of these guys it slipped our mind completely. We were relieved, when we remembered later that is had all gone ok despite us missing a double checking call from the landlord. We dropped the guys off along the north side of Lake Van and found a place to park up for the night shortly after. The lake was incredibly beautiful but there was snow lying thickly on the ground and my heart went out to those caught at the heart of the recent earthquakes the other side of the huge lake now shivering in tents whether their houses were still standing or not. It was generally felt you were safer outdoors just now. It was all the more heart breaking to read about the emerging and busy tourist industry Van had recently created for it's self iin the guide book. I realise I've left out the pre boarder part of the next day so will fill that in soon