My "Saharagelber" 300TD

Did I tell you that the turkish put the word Turk in front of everything? A turkish cellphone company called Turkcell, a gas station brand is called turkpetrol, some hotels called turkhotel and so on, ah well

After we woke up this morning and tried to clean the remnants of our rice fighting yesterday, we continued the coastal route. This route is indeed beautiful, if you happen to go to Turkey and you are somewhere around here, definitely check this out. After driving a while we took a small path along the rough line of the rocky coast and found ourselves a very nice place where we took the time to clean things up and for me to fill the jerrycans again and fill the car up with PPO. This cost us quite some time and it was getting dark already. Only 30km before Anamur we already had to stop, we were lucky and found a nice old hotel which was very simple and run by a turkish family. This place was very relaxed, with a view on a small beach. We went inside and a friendly turkish man offered us some turkish tea and by sign language we were able to arrange things. I parked the Benz next to his old W114 Mercedes, which was in the family for all its time, something like 32 years if I remember correctly. It seemed we were the only guests. We had our tea in their restaurant in front, and he and his family were watching TV. We were sitting under the TL lights on plastic chairs and tables with white-red blocked patterns, really cosy There was also a shower in their restaurant, for roadtravellers stopping by and need to refresh. The rooms were okay, he told us the showers were hot, ah yeah, we heard that before

Taken by Fedde, after our Termessos ruins visit

74062km on the clock, travelled 4094km so far.

In the morning we arranged to meet each other on the square, we lost half an hour, because there were two squares After we found each other we left for the ancient city or Termessos. After about 40kms from Antalya you enter the national park. We parked the car on the parking lot, which was already full with tourist buses, hmmkay. We walked through those ruins today, it was quite impressive to see this, but unfortunately, most of it was completely or mostly destroyed, as is oftend the case with ruins of course, but we hoped for something more after we read about the enthousiastic review in a travel guide from Fedde.

Some info about Termessos:

Termessos is perhaps the most interesting ancient city in Antalya region. It is a Psidian city built at a height of 1050 meters in the Taurus Mountains. Termessos constitutes an unusual synthesis of a large number of rare plants and animal species, which are under protection in the Termessos National Park. When turning off the Antalya-Burdur highway (11 km.) in the direction of Korkuteli, the Termessos signpost will be seen 14 km. further on, and Termessos itself is a further 9 km. A visit to this site requires time and the stamina to walk uphill, because Termessos is built entirely on a mountainous area difficult to access.

See for more info: This article @ Antalya-ws.com

Termessos has a lot of tombs	The amfitheatre

Amfitheatre again

After the ruins we went back to Antalya, we passed the big Kipa supermarket and wanted to check-out if they had vegetable oil. We wered stunned how big this place was, a gigantic K-mart like warehouse. I was glad to see they had 5L bottles of sunflower oil, that’s a whole lot better than the 1 liter bottles. In the supermarket, after I filled the shopping cart with 135 liters in total the turkish people around us were stupified. We saw them watching like “What is this guy doing with that stuff?!?”. A turkish man couldn’t restrain his curiousity and walked towards me and asked what I was about to do with this. He only spoke turkish and no english or german or french, but he was so amazed, he just *had* to know (otherwise he probably couldn’t sleep I made some gestures by virtually steering a car, and I guess he’d understand At the parking lot of the Kipa, Fedde helped me with filling the car up. After that we had to separate, we brought Fedde back to the Citadel of Antalya and we were heading east in the direction of Anamur. It was already past 7pm, so we tried to make it to Side and look for a pension/hotel there. We didn’t want to drive in the dark as we sometimes do, because the coastal route of Turkey is amazing.

When we entered Side in the evening, it looked awful. Side only seemed to exist of awful gigantic resort buildings, the part of side along the coast that is. After looking for a while, we found a small one which was okay, and not too expensive. Melis didn’t want to spend the night in the car, because the lack of water to wash ourselves with. In our room we Melis made a dinner with rice. We had a lot of fun tonight, this time it resulted in a rice fight, we bombarded each other with rice, too much fun we had Tomorrow we depart again to continue the coastal route.

Wondering what we are going to do with it..	Fill ‘r up!

Filling her up again	Manavgat falls

On the road to Side (Manavgat)	Along the coast

Around noon we entered the square, for the big event. There were some people already, mainly local people. That’s nice, instead of only eclipse travellers. We walked the edge of the square and were very surprised to meet Gert, an old man who was part of our group on our Africa Eclipse trip in 2001, he was part of our group then. Such a coincidence, to meet him here on this particular square in Antalya. We had a nice time with the three of us and again there was a real odd eclipse atmosphere. After a short time the first side effects were already noticable. The strange light, the moon which was already covering a small part of the sun, the sickle shades, and the mountains across from the bay which were exposed to this light.

The public square in Antalya, our eclipse base	View from the square

Fellow eclipse watchers	Melissa and Gert watching the eclipse

Sickle shades	Strange light just before the eclipse

Me watching the eclipse	100%

When enjoying the side effects and approaching the big moment, most people still locals and a lot of young people were already getting excited, for most of them it will be the first time of course. When the sun was completely covered by the moon the crowd was cheering and “Wooow”-ing. Such a great experience again, I again was stunned and I had this strange eclipse feeling again, it is unbelievable how excited this phenomenon actually is. Full 3,5 minutes length, no clouds and again fantastic, it’s the third time we experience this, marvellous!

After this we’ve spend some time chatting with Gert yet, and we all agreed, it was again a success. We had still some time this afternoon, we said goodbye to Gert and we took the car and went up to the mountain chain near Antalya, in to the heights, we might spot some snow maybe, that would be cool! The route itself was beautiful. On the top we indeed found snow and I plunged into it. Strange feeling, 30 degrees a couple of minutes ago, and now lying in the snow in my t-shirt. After Melis and I had our fun we drove back to meet Fedde the boomerang man and agree about the departure time in the morning the next day to see the ancient city of Termessos. After this exciting day we walked through the cosy old part of Antalya, had a vega pizza and in this nice restaurant we both agreed that Turkey is one of the most relaxed countries we visited so far, the people are so sincere friendly and hospitable. We didn’t come across the so called nice chats to get you into their shops, no hassling while walking through the streets and no tedious offerings of “services” you don’t need.

A nice example; when walking the tiny streets after our relaxed dinner, we couldn’t find our way back. A nice turkish fellow was asking as if we were lost, because we passed his shop twice. I told him we would find it, because I already suspected some service offer, or leading us to some place else, where some familymember of friend of him has a hotel or something.

But no, he was really friendly and decided us to show us the way, because he really wanted to help, he asked someone else and walked us to the hotel, during the walk we had a nice chat and when we found the hotel we thanked him very much and he just said goodbye. He told us some people had helped him in the past, and he did like it so, he want to offer help as much as he can to others, how sweet
We like the turks and felt very relaxed here in Turkey. Cheers to the turkish people!

Pictures from our trip to the high mountain chain near Antalya

After waking up from 5 hours sleep, we were quite exhausted now, my legs hurt from all the driving, we already drove 3200km and almost continously. We left the gas station. It was already quite warm and today we only had to drive 250km. Around Antalya the landscape was getting beautiful.
The eclipse is getting closer now! We entered Antalya at 2 o’clock pm, this town was very busy one, we went on in the direction of the old part of the city. We found a nice small pension, so that’s settled then, no problems at all. We did account for the fact that everything was full during this time, in that case we had to sleep in the Benz, but this was not necessary. The Saharagelber was parked at a guarded parking lot. We found a nice public square and we decided to watch the eclipse over there. We met two dutch guys and with one of them we had a nice chat. We agreed to meet up here after the eclipse (he was watching the eclipse somewhere else) and then go to the ruins of Aspendos. It was nice, this guy was a boomerang man and was demonstrating his boomerangs on this public square. It was all quite relaxed, we were planning to skip the tourist place Antalya as much as possible, but we actually find it a very nice place to be, the turks are so friendly, the old citadel is very, very nice and the first real impresssion of Turkey is a very positive one! In the evening Melis and I had dinner in a very cosy place on a terrace.

This restaurant was cosey, but the food was very bad, I won’t waste anymore bytes on this We had fun about it though and we finished the night wit a nice walk through the old tiny streets of the citadel. It was so nice to relax after a 3,5 day drive of 3450km.

A couple of kilometers from Antalya	We did it! Bright on time.

Sunset, Antalya, view from the square

A bit stressing this morning, we gave 2 Euro to this boy at the toll ports, but now I had 2 euro less, which was exactly the amount I needed to pay the 25 Euros. We had to leave early and there was no bank within 25km. This guys who was there this morning was a different guy and did not speak english, only a few words. I was able to make clear that I didn’t have the right amount, but for the 2 Euros he could keep the breakfast, after a lot of hands and feet communication he understood what I meant, but he said we could still have our breakfast, so, that was nice. So, the hotel paid this poor fellow from yesterday, was our theory.

In the morning at the hotel near Pirot, Bulgaria

At eleven o’clock we entered Bulgaria, and at this border we had to pay for a (worthless) desinfection cushon and a vignet, but we were out of Euros and didn’t have any bulgarian money. The dismal woman at the desinfection ticket window said that we had a problem, would they stop us for this? I wanted to start complaining but her collegue said it was okay, pfoeh! Neat.

The first option to buy this vignet of only 4 Euros could then be bought in Sofia, some 80km away, we had to risk the 100Euro fine until Sofia. We managed to get to Sofia and at a Shell station I was able to buy one, for only 3 Euros by the way.

Again the funny amount of 2 Euro’s which seems to be a magic amount

We saw some of Sofia which was quite impressing. Some streets of sand in the suburbs of Sofia and also a lot of poverty. At the gas station a man was looking at the Benz and said it was a marvellous car, he wondered what it would have cost.

At 16:25hrs we entered Turkey! And this was quite a difficult border, we had to pass 5 ticket-windows in total, we were a bit stressed because we have some medicines with us which we want to bring to the foundation in Rhodes, which we are going to visit and help for one week.
We again had a problem: We had some Bulgarian money now but no Euro’s and there was no way to pay the 2 visa for us. The man at the ticket-window wouldn’t sell us 2 visa, because he didn’t know the currency of the Bulgarian money. Argh, and Bulgaria is only your neighbour… The clerk was helping other people again and there we stood. “Oh no, not this, not this! After the whole trip we did, will we miss the eclipse for this? The clerk who did not speak any word english or german seem not to care about this problem.
Finally a man in a suit which did speak some english was able to help us out and he and the clerk were finally able to find out how much it’s worth, and did not account a bad commission, so we were done with this too!
After a luggage check we left the border again one hour later, we could go on wit the trip! We had to drive the whole night until early in the morning, this way we would earn back some time so we will have the relaxed “being on time” feeling.
We we in need of some diesel again, and thought we would have a gas station on the road to Istanbul, where we were also able to withdraw some money there. Well, this border-Istanbul toll road is very long, which nearly no gas station and certainly no bank automate. We managed to withdraw some money, and had something to eat. After 250km we found out the toll roads were not expensive and we made it. Then after getting some fuel near Istanbul (72889km on the clock) we drove through Istanbul over the main highway road. This is a real stunning experience!! I have travelled through quite some countries, but I never saw something like this! All cars and Trucks are passing on both sides, driving very fast and careless switching lanes all the time. I couldn’t find a safe place, when driving left, cars are constantly driving behind you, claxoning and light flashing.
On the right of the road you’ll get crazy of the cars joining and leaving the highway. In the middel it was very crowded, trucks passing other trucks and cars and motorcycles passing the cars on their left or the truck on their right. The middle of the road was the least disturbing option, so I chose the middle most of the time. We stopped for the night 70km above Afyon at 4:00am, drove 19 hours today, eek! We did come quite far actually, we’ve put the car away at a gas station and slept on the seats. We are going to make it, that’s sure for now.

In the morning we left from the parkin place near the highway, the trucker behind us was also still asleep. Luckily we were able to wash ourselves in the toilets so that was a bit refreshing after two days living in the Benz.

Oh yeah, we are we again.. ? Ah, indeed.	70 before Budapest, Hungary

At about one o’clock we entered Serbia, for some reason we didn’t come very far today and in the evening we found a hotel in Serbia (Yugoslavia), it was an old hospital and the friendly man told us he had a room for us, happily we followed him to our place for the night. Still 25 Euro’s for this place, but hey, it’s okay. At least they should remove the mould, if they ask such a price. This night we talked about the poverty we saw today, we didn’t actually know the situation was so bad in some places we passed today.. At one of the toll ports on the road today we were asked by a young fellow (about 20 years old?) to help him, he told us about his sister which had a disease which was expensive too cure and he was raising money for her by asking all the people in the row for the toll ports. We were not sure if it was a hoax or not, stupid that one have to try to figure that out first, is it real or not? We gave something and thought if it actually was a hoax, it’s still pitiful he had to do this to earn his money, so it’s probably still well spent.
I was counting the time we still have to get to Antalya to see the eclipse, we lost a day because of delay and today we only did 700km, tomorrow we have to drive really a lot, the total is 3450km or something and we only did 2119km yet.
72087km, 2119km

Our place in Hungary in the morning.	At the hotel near Pirot, Serbia next to a nice W123 coupe

Yesterday we travelled only to Frankfurt because we just left home @ 21:40hrs. We slept for some 5 hours or so. Just after our departure, after one hour drive, we passed the 70000km.

Right after departure: I passed the 70000km	Near Frankfurt whe had our first sleep

Neben der Autobahn where we slept in the Saharagelber. We slept perfectly well on these seats in backward position.

We left again at 7:30am to drive to Hungary today. Near Regensburg we filled the Benz up with some rapeseed oil of the tanks and bought a lot of rapeseed oil at the Lidl. Somewhere in the night we stopped again for a bit of sleep, this was some kilometers after the border, only 70km before Budapest. Hopefully we will enter Turkey tomorrow. Melissa slept in front while I made some room to sleep in the back.
71373km, 1405km passed.

Buying fuel at the supermarket	Having coffee

Wow, finally we’re ready for take off, only 12 hours late, so we’ve got to go tonight, otherwise we need to hurry, and that is the last thing I want. The 29th of march we will (hopefully) be in Antalya, to see the Eclipse.

I had too many things to do, and that’s mainly why I’m so late, but there was a slight little problem too with the car, I hate to say it, but the Benz is not perfect. There was a air leakage in the headlight height change switch, or whatever it should be called. Anyways, the whole vacuum was disturbed, and hence the automatic gearbox was not functioning properly anymore, so that is a real bummer then, some hours before departure. But it better be here instead of when were in, say, Hungary or Romania.

Anyways, tihs is how the car looks like, we’re ready now, we’re finally going!

Departure mileage: 69968km

Preparing the jerrycans for the vegetable oil

In about twee weeks Melissa and I are leaving for Turkey and Greece, first we are going to check out the eclipse, and then we start the tour trough Turkey, maybe we will visit Iran too, but I think we have to do that another time, because we have so much to see and do in Turkey. We want to drive as much on PPO as possible, not sure how we succeed with this yet, because it might be difficult to get and we can’t spend too much time searching for it.

The track to drive seems unlogical, but first we need to drive straight to the 100% zone of the eclipse, after the Eclipse we go back to the Istanbul area and continue the tour by exploring the West coast, then then underneath to the East – South-East. The we’re going up North via the middle regions of Turkey. I’ll write about our travel plans later, or maybe during the journey, but I won’t spend much time in updating the page, when I travel I don’t like to be busy with

these kind of things too much. After our journey through Turkey we go to Rhodos for one week, to do charity work (Melissa works for http://daps-gr.com).

Maybe we are going to catch some dogs with the TD too
We will explore Rhodos in our free time, and I like the idea to drive around there, I always went to Greece by plane.

Red = Trip to and through Turkey.
Green = departure from Turkey and drive to the boat to Rhodos
Yellow = Trip back to the Netherlands, alternative route

We’ll see how it goes. We will spend a month in total, so maybe we can’t do it all, but that doesn’t matter, we’re still young and have plenty of time to revisit. Maybe next year when we may do the Silk route to China.
I am so enthousiastic about this trip, can’t wait! But I’m very stressed too, the car is not ready yet and there’s still much to do..

Yesterday I removed the dash, so I could continue today with the install of the new one.
So, today I installed my new dashboard, tried to get the Webasto working, which did not succeed yet. The second tank is also not finished yet, and I still don’t know how I can lift up the 300TD (she needs to get higher on her wheels), I also need to build in the middle console, adjust the automatic gearbox, install a stereo of some sort, adjustments of the valves, clean the interior and some other small things before we can leave to Turkey.

I’m _so_ stressed now, there is still so much to do, like packing and buying stuff for the trip. I am not able to do this all in time I’m afraid..

Driving without the dashboard is perfectly possible, even with a cup of coffee.

Continue work.

Today I did a major checkup of the car. Changed all fluids and filters, checked brakes, eventual leakages, and so on.
The second tank for the waterheater was finished, but still having leaks and Harrie decided it should be redone completely, because this is not going to work. I need to find out now how the Saharagelber can get higher on her wheels, because of the bad roads in Turkey. I had bad luck today, because the drain plug of the gearbox broke, I spent 12 hours in our company hall today, argh..

Changing gearbox filter and lubricant.

Yesterday I went to PPO-Systems to pick up the car. The nice fellow over there was happy to tell me all about the installation and the conversion. The installation of the Webasto was also finished, but he was not able to test it because Harrie and I need to finish the little 6L tank first. The install of both systems was very professionally done, great work, really, I was amazed.

Ready for SVO take off.

The installation was done like it is original Mercedes factory equipment, very, very professional and it all looks good. I also asked a lot about the system, what to do in case of problems, because I want to know what to do, when I’m in remote areas. A good thing is there are no intricate electronics, which Elsbett did on purpose, a regular technical person with basic knowledge should be able to understand and fix it.
Funny thing was that my car seems to be the first car which was converted over there, they usually do transporters/trucks.
However, things are changing now, the dutch are waking up. Prices and pollution seems to have reached a treshold among a lot of people. Yet the government, they don’t want to loose money, so they charge extra taxes for it, it is illegal to just put it in your tank, and not paying taxes. Hell with them, they should support this, instead of charging tax for it. The environment belongs to us all.

Great, I just gave them a call, the 300TD is ready, that is, the SVO conversion is finished and the Webasto is built in. So, tomorrow I can pick it up and this week I can connect our own fuel tank creation to the Webasto and finish the job. Then I got a whole todo list before leaving to Asia. The car needs to have a major check too (Oil and filter change, checking brakes, and so on). Tomorrow I’ll get an complete explanation of the system and I get all the paperwork, then I can hit the road again on Veggie oil.

Also, I’ll make an appointment with PPO Systems for a demo of the Eslbett System, for some of the W123 (and some W114/W115) club members who are interested in driving on straight vegetable oil and the Elsbett system. My car will be used as showcase.