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Turkish Tea-Time

30/3/2015

It was a cold, grey, drizzly day in Niksar, Turkey but as the door to the household kitchen swung open we were met with two kinds of warmth; that of the wood burning stove blazing in the corner and the welcome friendliness of a Turkish family.

Having met our campsite owner, Tunay, only the previous day he had proudly embraced the visitors to his home town and invited us to eat with his family the following day.

As is often the way with home-cooking, the mix of dishes was delectably different from the occasional kebab street-eat we had sampled so far across Turkey. ‘Çay’ is the staple throughout the day- black tea sipped from small, tulip-shaped glasses with plenty of sugar. The tea kept flowing, topped up from a double teapot on the stove; strong black tea from one spout and hot water from the other.

Tunay’s mother, Gülseren produced steaming bowls of Çorbası, a pearl barley soup with beef and spinach served with thick slices of bread and soft, salty Beyaz Peynir, Turkish white cheese. An array of dishes were brought to the table; ‘Manti’, soft triangular pasta with garlicky yoghurt and sprinkled with thyme and Tursu Bol Sekeli, bright pink, vinegary pickled cabbage.

More family members bustled into the room, Uncle Sinasi carrying a TV satellite box to fire-up the kick-off of a football match between Istanbul’s Beşiktaş and Kayseri’s Erciyesspor. We budged up on the sofa to make room for excited Grandma, Zekiys, animatedly chanting the striker’s name ‘Demba Ba’ repeatedly.

The next course was Dolma Sarma, meat and rice-stuffed parcels lovingly wrapped in vine leaves. Delicious and moreish, these skilfully- made bite-size packages of loveliness dripped a fragrant oily tomato sauce and were my favourite. Accompanying the dishes was a local speciality of Tokat Gemeni; a red paste of tomatoes, ground walnuts and chilli. More Çay followed, accompanied by sweet, homemade Gilek Regeli, a runny, sticky strawberry jam and nutty, buttery Halva.

We frequently encounter such hospitality, warmth and openness from people in foreign lands, an unforgettable experience and fond, lasting memory.

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Exploring The Elements

5/3/2015

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Avid followers of our blog will know we love to take photographs. Thomas Cook are currently running a travel photography competition and we thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase a few photographs that might not typically see light of day on our website. The theme for the competition is "Explore the Elements" - Earth, Water, Fire and Air.

Earth

EARTH - Represents the hard, solid objects of the earth. Associated with stubbornness, collectiveness, physicality and gravity.

This photograph was taken in Kazan, Russia. It features the statue of Musa Dzhalil in front of Kazan Kremlin. Dzhalil was a Tatar poet and martyr.

Water

WATER - Represents the fluid, flowing, formless things in the world. Associated with emotion, defensiveness, adaptability, flexibility, suppleness, and magnetism.

Whilst in Montenegro we documented many of the beaches along the Budva Riviera as the summer season ended. This photograph was taken at Ploče Bay on a stormy day. We captured this pensive swimmer shortly before he dived into the rough sea.

Fire

FIRE - Represents the energetic, forceful, moving things in the world. Associated with security, motivation, desire, intention, and an outgoing spirit.

This photograph was also taken in Montenegro on Drobni Pijesak beach were we found lots of 'sea glass'. Traditionally fire is used in the production of glass, but more importantly we were interested in how the forceful energy of the sea transforms the once sharp edges.

Air

AIR - Represents things that grow, expand, and enjoy freedom of movement. Associated with will, elusiveness, evasiveness, benevolence, compassion, and wisdom.

To quote Jarvis Cocker "Yeah, the trees, those useless trees produce the air that I am breathing". This photograph was taken on an early morning drive up Mount Olympus in Greece.

To check out more entries follow Thomas Cook on Twitter and use the hashtag #exploretheelements.

It would be great to see entries from...
https://mybeastgoeseast.wordpress.com
https://valerieratcliffe04.wordpress.com
http://www.ka-ro-551.blogspot.com.tr
http://arabiannotes.com
http://2people1life.com/blog/

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Engine Sorted and Serviced

1/3/2015

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After a short hibernation period were about to head back out on the road. Bee-bee’s cracked cylinder head has been replaced and she is raring to go (we hope).

Here’s a quick outline of the work she’s had done...

New Cylinder Head

Having the car in Cyprus meant we were a little limited in choice of spare parts. We could either opt for an original Toyota cylinder head at some ridiculous price tag or a cheap Chinese replacement. Being a bit fussy about the replacement parts that go into Bee-bee having made the mistake of buying cheap Chinese parts in the past we decided to see what was available back home. With a little research on the Toyota Hilux Surf forum we managed to source a replacement AMC cylinder head from the über helpful Barry at RoughTrax and got it shipped out to Cyprus. The AMC cylinder head was a proven choice being tried and tested by many of the forum members.

Water Pump

3 years ago when we removed the air conditioning unit I checked for movement in the water pump bearing, it had the tiniest amount. We decided to leave it but carry a replacement with us in case it went whilst on our travels. Replacing the cracked cylinder head was the perfect opportunity to switch it out and put the new one in.

Radiator

Way back in 2012 in a state of paranoia after reading many horror stories of cracked heads I decided to swap out the old radiator and replaced it with a new one. In my naivety the replacement was not an OEM part but a substandard spare from the Far East. Ironically my paranoia probably did more damage than good. I suspect this radiator was the root of the overheating problems that eventually cracked the head. It has now been scrapped and with a little bit of butchering has been replaced with a radiator with a much larger core from another newer 4x4.

Cam Belt, Glow Plugs and Fuel Injectors

Having just had the cam belt replaced it seemed a bit over-kill to replace the idler pulley and the tensioner. Instead we just replaced the belt. Whilst the head was being rebuilt we decided to put in some new glow plugs to make sure Bee-bee is fit for those cold high altitude starts in the Caucasus’. When we popped back to the UK at Christmas we took the fuel injectors with us and had them checked on a test bed by Brian the Dorset Diesel Doctor. He concluded they were knackered and so we promptly replaced them too.

Having racked up over 150 test kilometres I’m pretty convinced she’s running sweeter that she ever has. She starts on the button, no more black smoke and the temperature barely rises above 88°C. We took her (unloaded admittedly) on several long motorway climbs and up a steep 290 metre off-road climb without any problems at all. Fingers crossed.