Another great view from the ‘Penthouse’ at around 8am in Eastern Turkey.

Inland / Eastern Turkey is quite different from the beach-resorts that dominate in the west and the south. More rugged, more mountainous and more unspoilt.

And more snow!

There’s precious little to do here for tourists, but somehow that makes the place more interesting and more attractive – whether it’s the cliffside coastline, covered in switchback roads (there are no main roads as such) and huge terraces of banana plantations…..

….the inland pastures where everything is still done on a small-holding scale……

…..or the coastal ports where it seems only the occasional Turkish tourists visit and most of the locals’ livelihood still comes from the sea.

I guess the only occasional blight is either one or two tourist resorts or, as you come round various rocky headlands, what looks at first sight to be a flooded plain. As you near it though, it turns out to be mile after mile of polly-tunnels where one valley will be dedicated to tomato growing, the next will be cucumber, the next strawberries, etc. I guess Sainsbury have to get their low-cost veg from somewhere!

A really attractive part of Turkey (other than the ‘Sea of Plastic‘), where the people are friendly, the food is good (and cheap) and the countryside is largely undeveloped.
Another great, fresh and simple meal for 2 people for less than the cost of a gallon of diesel – hot pickled chillies, skewered lamb & chicken, pickled cabbage, fantastic Tzatziki (yoghurt and cucumber), rice and fresh flatbreads. You can’t beat that easily.