Sile - Göksu Nature Park

Good morning from Sile by the Black Sea!

To start off, a correction: we were not 200 meters away from the Black Sea as claimed, but at most 61m away. Thus, we could have also awoken to the sound of the sea. However, this sound was drowned out by the voices of the film crew, who obviously wanted or had to shoot at exactly this beach segment today. While we sorted ourselves out and set up chairs for our first coffee in the sun with a view of the set, a whole group of scouts marched past us towards the beach. Despite their enormous backpacks, they moved very lightly, leading us to assume they must be extras.

We then enjoyed that coffee in the sun, which we desperately needed. Murat, the landlord of the site, had either hidden the single-digit temperature of the shower water from us last night, or there had been a translation error. I love a cold shower about as much as I love offal or blood pudding.

We first headed toward the coastal area around 11 o'clock and then to Kefken. There, we wanted to organize some money and breakfast/lunch. The journey took almost 90 minutes and thrilled us both equally. We were treated to wonderful views of the Black Sea again and again. We drove through various landscapes and through small and tiniest villages. We allowed our eyes to roam, grinned to ourselves, and shared our excitement repeatedly. Beautiful.
Kefken welcomed us with the typical hustle and bustle of a Turkish small town. In the small center, there were numerous restaurants, bakeries, and shops for daily needs, as well as knick-knacks. All road users moved in their respective lanes, so pedestrians and scooter riders along with all sorts of vehicles with more than two wheels managed to pass each other without any collisions. Unfortunately, Kadir's idea of dining at a restaurant by the water could not be realized due to a lack of alternatives. As mentioned, there were still other possibilities. Once we had pide, once köfte plus ayran, and of course, cay at the end. I paid here directly to the boss. He apparently sits at a desk in his restaurant all day long. Here he keeps everything in view, with several calculators in front of him, and takes payments. Happily full, we also paid a visit to the bakery next to our parking spot and took six simit with us. Thus, our supply for the rest of the day was secured.

Still in the restaurant, Kadir called the camping site we preferred for today and received positive feedback. So we made our way over Bolu to the national park to Göksu Nature Park. Luckily, Google Maps indicated a significant delay on the planned route, so we decided to detour. I would have been thrilled to see the route view while sitting on the Africa Twin. However, the Benz was now facing a special test. Several hundred meters of altitude wanted to be climbed, and we pushed the fuel consumption into unimaginable heights with over 50-60l per 100km at times. However, we crossed wonderfully diverse landscapes and various villages on this route, much to our delight. By the way, the dogs lying on the road or sleeping are always fascinating. Apparently, they haven't had genuinely bad experiences with it yet.

The last 15km led us over gravel paths in a high plateau at nearly 1400m. Finally, the Benz was in its element. It rattled and clattered behind us continuously, but the final inspection revealed no losses or damages to the inventory.

The camp was located in a pine forest right by a lake. We could choose our spot and decided on a view towards the lake. Even though not much daylight was left. The operator opened the power box at our spot and showed me the sanitary facilities. The local toilets come without seats, and to my surprise, he locked the only shower again. However, he told Kadir something like, “tomorrow morning someone will come and open the shower.” Whether this situation truly occurred and how our morning visits to this department unfolded will be revealed tomorrow on this channel...

After we arrived at the camp, in shock, we couldn't even spot any signal bars on our smartphones. However, Kadir had at least something like Edge and 3G. So we let ourselves be entertained by Frank Farian and Milli Vanilli. On the last walk of the day, we enjoyed the great view of the clear sky and counted shooting stars. Then it was really time to crawl into our bedrooms.