By William Coleman
As we made our 184 mile journey to Istanbul from Gallipoli I saw some sights, weird policing, questionable motorway maneuvers and traffic like I have never seen before in my entire life.
As the drive to Istanbul took me onto the motorway I saw a very cost effective way of policing the roads. So, to stop people from speeding, while keeping costs down, the police have installed cardboard cutouts of police cars. This may seem a little bit on the random side but it actually works. From a distance you really cannot tell the difference at it does make you slow down, even though we were not breaking any speed limit laws. Another weird thing I saw was a mobile police office/container/station. They simply pull up and start policing directly from a custom built storage container.
As I approached we the city I got a harsh reminder of a towing rule I had all but forgotten. When going down hill with a cross wind and a huge lorry overtaking you take it slowly. The caravan was swinging like a pendulum and I was a little bit on the nervous side when I saw it out of the wing mirrors. I eased off of the gas and then the caravan corrected itself and all was well, thankfully.
About 2 miles out from Istanbul the traffic started to build up. I had heard that the traffic in this part of the world was some of the worst you can come across. I forget who gave me that little snippet of info but I would like to say that they certainly understated just how awful the traffic gets. It did not seem like it was due to anything but weight of traffic which caused such madness. The rush hour never seems to end.
As we got off of the ring road inn Istanbul a right turn may have been mistakenly taken and we ended up in the back streets of Istanbul, which is where the bulk of the shop trade is located. The streets are usually one way and very narrow. Then add to that a convoy of 2 tow cars, 2 towing caravans and a rather large motorhome. Now once that had been added multiply it by swarms of people who do not seem to know how to drive or cross the road correctly. One seasoned team member referred to the situation as a “nightmare”.
One thing that did make the time fly was the comedic usage of the walkie talkies. We had film and music quizzes as well as general banter about the horrendous situation we found ourselves in. Another great use for the walkies was to help guide and navigate through the streets. Without them the whole experience would have been that little bit tougher.
So a tip of the cap to CAMC Director General Nick Lomas, Truma’s Managing Director Martin Fitzpatrick and Bailey’s Marketing Director Simon Howard. They handled Istanbul like champions and did not even break a sweat.
So 5 and a half hours we managed to cross over the Bosphorus and were officially in Asia. Several thousands of miles have been covered and there are another couple of thousand to go before the team lands back in Bristol.
