TIMELESS TURKEY

Returning to a warm welcome in Turkey, Marcus, Kim and the children enjoy exploring ancient ruins in glorious landscapes

We all seek something different from our travels. For us, it’s become seeking not so much a sense of solitude away from the world, but rather a deeper connection with the places and people to be found away from the well-trodden tourist routes of Europe.

These connections tend to come about far from the crowds, where the surroundings are a little quieter, the pace of life a little slower and the willingness to accept each other for who we are a little more obvious. There’s no pretence, no feelings of being a visitor; instead in these places we are just people, our curiosity about where we are matched, and often surpassed, by that of the people we meet, who wonder why we are roaming so far from home.

Discovering the world

It’s for these reasons that our journey through Eastern Turkey, at times skirting the borders of Iran and Iraq, spoke to us as travellers, who have come to thrive on discovering a world outside of what many might consider normal.

Why else would we find ourselves camped under a walnut tree in Doğubeyazıt, overlooking the beguiling Ishak Pasha Palace? It’s certainly not a spot for the all-inclusive campsite entertainment schedule.

It’s not that we are against the ease and luxury that mainstream European touring and its many sites can offer, only that the further east we have ventured, the more travel has taken on a whole new meaning for us. It’s here we’ve discovered places where the focus is not on tourism, gaining genuine insight into the culture and the lives of the local people (as well as becoming something of an attraction ourselves!).

Sweeping switchbacks