Wild Turkey

From Yazd we drove to Esfahan where we met some friends which we got to know during our previous visit. However, the two days left on our exit VISA forced us to move on to Tabriz early next morning. The border crossing between Iran and Turkey was very smooth, although we overstayed our Carnet (car document) by roughly two months. In fact it took less than one hour to get in to the Turkish side where we spent much more time than we thought. The reason being that Milan and Richard went to acquire a Turkish car insurance but found a duty free shop full of beer whisky and other liqueurs J. Imagine that after 3 very dry months. With the fridge fully loaded we speeded to a previously visited camping in Dogobayazit. Everything was perfect except a small worry which had been growing in Pia’s and Milan’s mind since we left Tabriz. Car trouble...

From Tabriz the Defender 130 has developed both a ticking noise from the valves and a sign of a problem in the rear axle. A valve adjustment solved the ticking problem, at least temporarily as the two valves which were completely out of tolerance were both working on the same cylinder and this may indicate future trouble, but let’s deal with that later. The rear axle problem turned out to be a very worn out driveshaft which had to be replaced. It turned out to be a small hassle to get the parts, mainly do to the extreme overprizing from the dealer in Istanbul who wanted 500 euros for a driveshaft inc. postage. It would have been much cheaper to by the part in UK and have it sent by express couriers and in fact Richards father kindly bought the part for us and was on his way to send it. However, some phone calls later (sounds easy….) the part was on its way from Ankara for less than 50 euros. Waiting for the arrival of the parcel, Richard and Lina decided to move on by themselves to later meet up in Urfa.

After a few days the parcel arrived and so did some friends which we previously met in Yazd. It was the Dutch couple with their dog on their way back home after an overland trip to India in their fantastic Landrover camper. Pia and Milan had a couple of late evenings with their new friends and the purchases from the duty free shop. On the morning at which Pia and Milan were supposed to move on Milan woke up very very early for some reason and thought he will have a nice peaceful morning. After making a strong Turkish coffee he sat down beside the car to enjoy the view when a weird sound interrupted the quietness. “What the hell is that?” was the first thought. The source of the sound was getting closer and now originating from around the back of the vehicle and getting louder. The appearance of a huge Turkey put a smile on his face as it was not an unknown Turkish monster as he briefly had considered. In less than a microsecond the smile changed simultaneously into a shout, jump, run around the car and climb up on the ladders to the roof tent. The wild Turkey attacked!!!

The bloody animal destroyed the morning completely. Everybody where sleeping, except Milan who was the only victim the thing apparently could think about. Every movement he made the turkey ran back the few meters of distance it had given to the stranger. The 20 meters run to the shower would have left Carl Lewis scratching his head on the start line in the Olympics, at least that was what went through the head of a shocked person who had far to much whiskey for his own good the night before.

The not so friendly Turkey. /Pentax