D60 Turkey - Darende to Kahta Homestay

A Snapshot of Our Day

Photo 1 - On the drive from Darende to Kahta we saw dozens of tobacco fields, and many locals gathering their harvest. This region is well known for tobacco and for dried apricots, which cost next to nothing!

Photo 2 - I am loving the change in scenery; it’s very dry and today as we lowered in altitude it’s getting much hotter again, but I find the passing fields mesmerising. It reminds me of a Jinja Safari album cover, so naturally that’s who I chose as a driving soundtrack.

Photo 3 - It’s was Brent’s birthday today so at lunch Mete “surprised” him with a HUGE chocolate cake! Almost as good as a mud cake from Woolies! It had caramelised chestnuts throughout it and it didn’t last long between 11 of us!

Photo 4 - Mete had told us that the family that will host us tonight for the homestay are considerably poor, and are almost 100% living off their own land. We bought them a few practical gifts before we arrived, like washing powder, school supplies etc, as they are providing us with dinner, breakfast and beds to sleep in. Their house is a large two storey building, very basic in design with minimal furniture and lighting, with the kitchen doubling up as a laundry. Out the front of the large upstairs deck they have small capsicums, chillies and hollowed eggplants sun drying for use throughout the year.

Photo 5 - Plan A was to walk into the small nearby village and then to visit the family’s fruit fields. But we spent so long chatting, drinking tea and playing cards that we lost track of time! Plan B meant everyone being loaded into the family’s tractor, which was much more fun! Bumpy, but fun.

Photo 6 - The gang admiring the grapes; the two youngest boys were constantly running around looking for grapes to feed us with.

Photo 7 - Perfect organically grown grapes, warmed by the sun and devoured in seconds. We were all at capacity by the time we left, and that was before we got to the fig trees! The family don’t make wine, instead they produce grape molasses which they sell locally.

Photo 8 - I was too full but Ant really enjoyed his fresh fig, probably too much.

Photo 9 - Our host mother prepared for us a generous meal of lentil soup, vegetable stew, chicken with rice (we noticed a couple of chickens missing) and freshly cooked gozleme. We were given ayran to drink (yoghurt water with a pinch of salt) which acts as a probiotic and is perfect at settling a travellers stomach. The 4 younger kids rushed around to set the table which hardly took them any time; with they are clearly well trained and very used to visitors now!

Video 1 - The youngest child, and only daughter, Fathima is 8 years old and didn’t take too long to warm up to the crowd. It started with card games earlier today and then graduated to pure hilarity and nonsense tonight. She really loved Ant and he had a great time teasing her and also helping her with her limited English. She was like a little parrot and picked things up very easily - everyone got an “I loooove yoooou!” before we went to sleep.Читать далее