Sinop

Sunday morning we started early and drove north east to the Black sea coast again. Our goal was a campsite near the town of Sinop. It was a pleasant drive along good roads through the country side and up and over a range of hills. Arriving at Camp Marti we were greeted warmly by the camp manager and directed over to the best spots by the waterfront. Our first day there we decided to do our washing and a good clean of the campers. The weather was sunny and warm with a slight breeze so the domestic duties were done with no trouble from the weather and we felt better for a bit of a spruce up.

P1050110 — Campsite Marti near Sinop. This day we shared it with the cows.

P5200006 — The Turkish lady preparing the dough for the bread.

P5200004 — Bread cooking on a round steel disk in the front yard of their house.

P5200009 — Here we are with the Turkish people who invited us for a tea and some home baked bread.

Camp Marti was a very quiet place to spend a few days, sometimes there was just us and the cows that roamed in. We had to keep shooing them from around the washing lines, as they seemed to move around not caring where they went, intent on the juicy grass and flower heads.

We wandered up the road the second day and encountered a friendly local who offered us tea. We decided to take the opportunity to meet with him and his family and were delighted to spend a good hour or so chatting and finding out how they lived. His wife was busy in the front garden making flat bread over a fire on what looked like an upside down plough share. She was pleased to show us what she was doing and gave us all a hunk of the delicious fresh bread. We sat and had tea with them under the shade of a fig tree and soon we were joined by his sister and another neighbour who seemed interested in meeting us. We had heard of the generous Turkish hospitality and it was lovely to experience it. We finally left and walked up to the mini mart to purchase a few items and it was as it said a MINI mart, not the well stocked shop we hoped but it was a nice walk and we bought a few things before making our way back.

The next day we caught one of the local buses (Dolmus) into the town of Sinop and spent an afternoon wandering down to the waterfront and through the streets. We decided to have lunch at one of the small eating places which was literally on the water, a small boat converted to an upstairs eating area and downstairs the kitchen.

P1050135 — Fisherman repairing his nets in the harbour at Sinop.

P1050142 — This house was built into the old wall of the city. Sinop – Turkey

P1050148 — Th old harbour at Sinop, on the Black Sea.

P1050152 — Just to prove we were there at Sinop.

Lunch done and we found the Carrefours supermarket, down stairs in an underground area, not big but shelves had enough on them that we recognised to resupply our fridges and larders. Next move was to find the bus stop back to the campsite, easier said than done until we found a likely looking bus shelter and a bus supervisor who let us know we were at the right place and when we could expect the next bus back.

A quiet night then was spent in our own campers and we packed up and left the next morning our destination Amasya.