After Goreme we headed towards Trabzon on the Black Sea coast, via two bush camps. The first was in a valley overlooked by mountains, with a carpet of buttercups. The second was in an area that we had been warned would be difficult to find good bush camps, however we were very fortunate to come across a little restaurant with some spare land by the river. We descended en mass and set up camp, cooked another delicious meal and then engaged in a rather rough and tumble game of “snatch the bacon”. I am dreading ever playing British Bulldog given the bruises many of us were sporting afterwards. The restaurant owner’s son was a lovely boy called Omar, and he kept appearing with his English textbook and homework. After trying (and failing) to teach me some Turkish, he discovered that Sam was an English teacher, and so headed over to get his help. His English textbook was quite a revelation – useful phrases he was learning included “I like his tie, it is made of silk”, and “I hate girls who are late”. He also learnt to say “there has been a train crash in Manchester” and appeared to think that Manchester was the capital of England.
The next morning we assured Omar of his place as most popular boy in school by waving him off on the school bus. We then headed off on a beautiful sunny day (as all truck days seem to be!), and within minutes we were driving along the beautiful Black Sea coastline – sparkling water on one side, and lush green mountains on the other.
We arrived into Trabzon, and went first to a lovely little church, Aya Sofia (as the sign says, not to be confused with the one in Istanbul) and had a look around the frescoes (and enjoyed the rather nice WC facilities). We then headed into Trabzon city centre for a wander around – first stop was a camping shop with a fairly significant arsenal of shotguns and knives – more exciting for the boys than for the girls I think! After lunch at the Turkish equivalent of Pizza Hut, an hour or so sitting in the sunshine in the main square, we headed off to the campsite near Sumela monastery – it was to be our last organised campsite of the trip (already!), but it is fair to say that the shower block did not live up to Goreme standards... you would have had to have seen it to believe it!
We had a full day in Sumela, which started with a visit to the Sumela monastery – high on a hill (very high, quite a walk up!) overlooking a beautiful valley and some snow capped mountains. The monastery has some beautiful frescoes and amazing views and was well worth a visit. On the road up to the monastery the truck was caught in a flock of sheep (complete with shepherds of course!), some of which had rather snazzy head-dresses – I guess even sheep have to get dressed up every now and then.
Along our drive we had visited a small shack on the side of the road, and picked up some lamb – and then been invited in to enjoy orange tea (a change from apple tea, and tastes like hot Tang). It was our second night at Sumela that brought the lamb out, and it was amazing – best meal yet, which is saying something given the food the crew have been producing (with our vitally important help of course!). Perhaps it helped that I had built up an appetite by playing in a game of 5-a-side (the Irish, complete with matching jerseys versus the rest of the world – one Aussie, two South Africans and two English), or maybe it was just amazing in its own right. I hope we get to eat it again at some stage so that I can find out!
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