Travelling south, we stopped at a camp site in Bergama, Nr Izmir. Tony was still concerned about the weld on the tail lift and the helpful site owner telephoned a fabricating company and within the hour we had a visit from their technician. He said he would return the next day with two steel plates which he would attach to the lift. He quoted a price of £20. It took the him a good three hours to complete the work the next day. Tony was very satisfied and gave him £10 extra.
The weather was dry and sunny but not too warm (4° min 14° max). The site cat was our constant companion, it waited patiently on the bottom of our steps and when all was quiet, it would climb the steps and attempt a break in. Our door was fitted with a fly screen and we were afraid the cat would tear it, so we constantly had to shoo it away. We double checked before we left that it hadn’t stowed itself away whilst we were packing up.
Meanwhile I was getting to grips with the Turkish language. Some of their vocabulary seemed to be based on French and some translations were intuitive, for example “resepsiyon” for reception. I added to this already considerable knowledge the word for wine – “sarap” and “bira” for beer and a beautiful word for bread – “ekmek”. We hardly needed anything else and, anyway, most of the younger Turks spoke pretty good English.
