Turkey Part 1 - Asia bound

We had an easy border crossing into Turkey. Customs asked to have a look inside Lolly and we hoped they didn't want to look too closely in our cupboards, but after a quick response of 'beautiful' we were waved on. So much for hoping we were on the way to warmer weather - there was snow at the side of the road.

Our first destination was the Gallipoli Peninsular, the site of some bloody WW1 battles in 1915 involving the Turkish against Britain and France, with the back up of Australian, New Zealander and Indian regiments. We parked up in Eceabat, a small town on the European side of the Bosporus Strait. We were looking forward to our Park4Night spot at a renowned drinking hole called the Boomerang Bar, where it said the friendly owner had been hosting overlanders for many years. When we pulled up the place looked very ramshackle and the parking area outside was very litter strewn. If it weren't for the good reviews we'd have probably driven on, but there were people drinking in there and it was getting a bit late to find somewhere else.

After parking up we went had a quick walk into the town to get our bearings. It didn't have the feel of an vibrant happening place. We returned to the bar, which was just as messy inside - the roof had been leaking badly in all the wet weather. We ordered beers and got chatting to an Australian guy who had been travelling for 7 months on a motorbike from Europe, through to the central Asian Stans, then back through Afghanistan and Iran, and was now heading back to Europe to sell his motorbike. The bike had broken down in Turkey and he was waiting for a new part to turn up. Mersut, the bar owner, had offered him his couch to crash on. The beers were flowing, but we called it a night quite soon on.

The clocks had moved on another hour, so we were a bit taken aback how dark it was in the morning when we came round. The forecast was looking good for the day, but after we found we couldn't book on a guided tour of the Gallipoli sites until the following day (when the weather forecast was dreadful), Colin set about doing some outside jobs on Lolly while I did some admin stuff inside. There was no sign of life from inside the bar.

In the afternoon we decided we'd take the ferry across to the town of Canakkale on the Asian side of the Bosporus. We tried our first cup of Turkish coffee - we weren't sure we'd ever sleep again. Although only separated from Eceabat by a 25 minute ferry ride, it was like we'd stepped out in a different country. The waterfront was bustling with visitors and there were lively shopping streets with lots of bars and restaurants. It was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon. We went to visit the maritime museum that had been recommended but were a bit taken aback at the ticket price. We were just about to hand our money over when the ticket guy mentioned the key exhibits were shut so we aborted that plan. There is a replica Trojan horse on the promenade which was a prop in the 2004 Troy film - I guess that's the closest I'll ever get to Brad Pitt... We enjoyed the Turkish Cay (tea) more than the coffee at an outdoor cafe, and had an early dinner at a bar/restaurant on the waterfront before catching the return ferry to the even more depressing looking Eceabat.

We called in at the bar to have a beer, but there was only one other couple in there. Mick the Aussie appeared briefly saying he'd had 16 bottles of beer the previous night and had been festering all day on the couch.

Surprisingly it wasn't raining when we walked into town for our tour the following morning.

We could have visited the battle sites ourselves, but decided it would all be a bit more meaningful having someone explain what had happened and when. The tour we'd booked included lunch, which we weren't really ready for at 11.30, but it was pretty tasty.

There were just 3 others on the tour - an Aussie guy and a Mexican couple.

As we climbed into the mini bus the heavens opened. Our guide was called Borak, and he was very engaging, bringing the events at the sites we visited to life. He also had the stereotypical traits of his guests down to a tee and gave the Aussie and us some very on point banter.

The peninsular that the battle sites sits on is now a protected National Park, and is place of pilgrimage, particularity for the Australians and New Zealanders who remember relatives who fought with the ANZACs. Borak said they get a fair few British visitors as well. However, nowadays the Turkish visitors outnumber all, as they celebrate the legend of the Turk commander (Mustafa Kemel) who was later to become the first president of the state of Turkey taking the name Ataturk.

Although the campaign was over in a relatively short period (February 1915- January 1916), the losses were huge - some 250,000 Commonwealth troops and 300,000 Turkish. It was a poor campaign for the British, who had originally thought they could secure the free passage of the Bosporus very quickly to help our then allies, the Russians, but poor military leadership and bad decisions meant the targeted wins were complete failures.

The words on this memorial from Kemel (Attaturk) are particularly poignant.

We were glad we had the shelter of the minibus from the wind and rain, and we stopped at about ten sites of varying significance.

Back in Eceabat town we spotted some more war memorials we'd missed in the town.

The following morning we set off in Lolly to make our first foray in her into Asia, taking the ferry across to Cannakale, stocking up with essentials, then driving the short distance to another epic historical site - Troy.

We visited the ancient city of Troy first. We were starting to realise Turkey is not a cheap place for tourists. We noticed that foreign visitors have to pay maybe ten times more for entrance fees than the locals. The costs for tourists have risen rapidly in recent times with inflation running at over 70% in 2025, and was still in the high 30's % at the start of 2026. We also had to pay for parking at the site as well as the hefty admission price. They don't even provide a map of the site, but at least there were some information boards.

There had been a lot of restoration work done here, but Colin was in awe of the building work and logistics of building such a grand place. The first settlement was built in 3000 BC and they had construction techniques and even drainage pipes that modern day builders can't manage.

After visiting the archaeological site we called in at the museum which is in a striking metal clad structure and housed many of the artifacts found when excavating the site. The intricate details on some of the pieces are staggering.

With good weather promised the following day we headed down the east coast to ready ourselves to catch a ferry over to an island with the bikes.