Is a sense of direction a muscle that withers if not used frequently? In our case, yes! After a cool breeze blew in a week ago, the temperatures have again soared and we've been a very inactive household for several days. Our pool pump broke down on the first day of the Bayram Holiday so we haven't even been able to swim. Yesterday we decided to drive to the coast to have a sunset walk in the slightly cooler evening temperatures. Kisebükü was the chosen destination. A pebble beach, easily accessed by sea but down some 30 minutes of winding forest roads from our house. Hubby consulted Google maps and at 6:30 we set off. After 30 minutes and some heated passenger seat driving from me, we were in Mazı, which is way past the turning we wanted. Some 15 minutes later we found the missed junction and headed off to Çocukmezarı, (which must be the worst village name in the world - Children's Graveyard, no wonder they've dispensed with a road sign!) and kept going and going and going; no sign of the sea and the road getting more and more pot-holed and crumbling. I wanted to turn back but my other half is of the "I've started so I'll finish" school of driving so we carried on. Eventually we saw a moped and luckily my husband, unlike most of his gender, will ask directions. The owner of the bike had an accent so local that he was almost incomprehensible to us but he managed to convey his cheerful incredulousness that we'd driven so far away from Kisebükü. We eventually emerged in Ciftlik from a road I've often wondered about, so at least the drive had answered one question. We arrived home at 8:30pm without setting foot on a pebble.
Thursday, 23 August 2012
The Long and Winding Road
Is a sense of direction a muscle that withers if not used frequently? In our case, yes! After a cool breeze blew in a week ago, the temperatures have again soared and we've been a very inactive household for several days. Our pool pump broke down on the first day of the Bayram Holiday so we haven't even been able to swim. Yesterday we decided to drive to the coast to have a sunset walk in the slightly cooler evening temperatures. Kisebükü was the chosen destination. A pebble beach, easily accessed by sea but down some 30 minutes of winding forest roads from our house. Hubby consulted Google maps and at 6:30 we set off. After 30 minutes and some heated passenger seat driving from me, we were in Mazı, which is way past the turning we wanted. Some 15 minutes later we found the missed junction and headed off to Çocukmezarı, (which must be the worst village name in the world - Children's Graveyard, no wonder they've dispensed with a road sign!) and kept going and going and going; no sign of the sea and the road getting more and more pot-holed and crumbling. I wanted to turn back but my other half is of the "I've started so I'll finish" school of driving so we carried on. Eventually we saw a moped and luckily my husband, unlike most of his gender, will ask directions. The owner of the bike had an accent so local that he was almost incomprehensible to us but he managed to convey his cheerful incredulousness that we'd driven so far away from Kisebükü. We eventually emerged in Ciftlik from a road I've often wondered about, so at least the drive had answered one question. We arrived home at 8:30pm without setting foot on a pebble.
Ahhh! The joys of wandering off the beaten track and following the nose of 'he who knows' on the road to who-knows/nose-where. What you need is a boffer to point you in . . no, forget it!
ReplyDeleteEmbarrassing to get get lost within 30 kms from home.
DeleteOh dear...maybe next time you'll find the sea!
ReplyDelete(A little bit like our journey last week?)
Ayak, I don't think you and I got lost - we just had no idea where we were going.
DeleteQuite an adventure you had on the byways and the long and winding roads you traveled. I hope that the heat wasn't so bad inside the car that you went into a dither. And thanks for the lovely Beatles song. I've always so enjoyed it. Peace.
ReplyDeleteLuckily the a/c in the car is wonderful - so it's a good place to be on a hot day.
DeleteWell, at least it got you out the house ;-)
ReplyDeleteAlways look on the bright side of life.
DeleteWe get this here with Danilo at the wheel. He loves asking for directions, people love giving them and we end up seeing places we had no intention whatsoever of visiting.
ReplyDeleteAsking directions is always tricky here as you can get sent every which way.
DeleteSo you just added some 'heated passenger seat driving', eh? In your places, blows may have been exchanged in a car driven by us. Maybe that's why we stopped driving . . . . Sounds like one of those adventures better laughed about in retrospect. Thanks for giving us a laugh and a nice song.
ReplyDeleteNow it sounds like I had my passenger seat heater on - I thought it was a hot flush.
DeleteSounds like you had a very interesting drive....at least it got you out of the house.... maybe next time you will be able to step on to some pebbles.
ReplyDeleteWould give me the shivers to live in that village with that horrible Village name....Children's Graveyard.
Thanks for sharing your name.
I meant...***thanks for sharing your story and not name.... it was too early for me I guess and in a hurry.
DeleteI've always fancied living in Piddle in the UK - great name for a village.
DeleteGoodness, you did have an adventure - glad you got the a/c in the car! Good to be back and catch up with your posts;)
ReplyDeleteAre you back in the UK? I enjoyed your posts from Istanbul.
ReplyDelete