3 May - Goreme to Lake Kelkit Cayt (Turkey)

Except for big Dave and myself the others, including Helen and Goran, were up about 4.30am to go ballooning. There were over 80 balloons in the air this morning. While they were gone Dave and myself prepared breakfast for their return and we left for Georgia by 9am. Me, being very bright in the mornings, did not realise it was my birthday until they returned to wish me a Happy Birthday.

Breakfast is ready

It was a sunny warm day and we stopped at Sekin for Helen to buy some bread for lunch. The next thing was that we were all invited into the supermarket for tea as the lady had seen other Odyssey trucks stop there before to buy bread as well. Besides us buying bits and pieces she was given some Australian tokens from the Australian ladies on the trip.

We stopped on the road for lunch, some taking time to use the swinging chairs. Lunch was embellished with Branston pickle, HP sauce and vegemite. A very up-market larder on this truck!

The bush camp for the night was at the side of Lake Kelkit Cayt. There is some confusion over this as there is a lake at one end of a dam and I am not sure if both are joined together or separated or even if we camped at the side of a dam. Not that it matters as it was a beautiful place to stop and obviously good for fishing with the number of fishermen around, even through the night so it seemed. We celebrated the delayed birthdays of Helen, Tom and myself with a fantastic meal and champagne (even if someone forgot the strawberries but we had them for breakfast instead). There was plenty of wine as well.

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