Yesterday we decided that our gimped car wasn't up to the day's
course of dirt roads and mountain climbs in the middle of this
awful storm. We set off on our own in a different direction on the
main highway to stay the night in a city called Yozgat. This detour
would cut out about 200km and a liter of oil.
Robert called his sister, Gillian, to find us a hotel. "nothing
fancy but secure parking would be nice" is what I said. She booked a
room at the Galati Cimli with an address of Cimli Milli Parki Yogu.
Miraculously we found signs and drove straight to it, in the dark,
in the rain.
We found ourselves in a wooded forest road that wound up a mountain
immediately south of Yozgat. When we pulled into the parking lot we
were stunned to find a dozen rally cars were already parked!
Apparently we weren't the only ones that wanted to avoid the awful
roads.
Inside the lobby, we found everyone relaxing, lubricated, and
discussing the day's events. It turns out that they came as a group,
arranged a group rate and a group dinner. We were basically crashing
their party. We thought that we were striking out on our own, but we
just crashed into the rally again!
The next morning, we rejoined the rally in Silvas, and again decided
to avoid the wet dirt roads by staying on the main highway. We had a
lovely scenic drive through the Turkish country side. As we drove
along, the weather turned colder and the car got happier.
Fortunately, this time we got to the rally destination hotel on Lake
Abant. The hotel received their first snow fall of the year today!
We are just above the snow line and it is sticking well. I expect a
layer of snow on the car in the morning.
Tomorrow we drive to Istanbul and we are meeting with the local VW
club. Maybe they can pull the engine and replace the oil seal. Maybe
they can't. I dunno. The language barrier is a real problem when
trying to make arrangements by phone. At least in person one can
mime and scribble numbers in the dirt.
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