Vanlife: Scotland to Turkiye

John O’Groats to Ishak Pasha Palace

Travel Planning for the Long Road

Ishak Pasha Palace [Photo by Suleyman Can Sezgi on Unsplash]

A Search for Vanlife Extremes

Sitting in John O’Groats, Scotland today, listening to the wind howl across the North Sea, there are few places more removed and different than the high deserts of northern Mesopotamia. This contrast is made even deeper by the sounds of familiar voices speaking my native tongue in a Christmas crowd, designed for a Christian holiday season. This casual ability to operate in a known world will soon be a distant memory, giving way to the Eastern cultures, religions and languages. We want to step out of the comfort zone of Western Europe to explore the people, the food, the heritage and the history of Anatolia, the Spice Route and ancient kings of a people different from us — yet warm and inviting, friendly and kind.

This isn’t our first trip to Turkey.

We’ve enjoyed the bazaars and food of Istanbul. We’ve met the wonderful Turkish hospitality in dozens of restaurants, hotels, and shops in one of the most amazing cities on Earth. We’ve crossed the Bosporus and seen two sides of a great world city, listened to the prayers calling from huge mosques and drank our fill of delicious chai, hot and sweet… served with a smile. This is our Turkey.

Achiltibuie, Scotland — the Ends of the Earth [Photo by David Daniel]

Slow Travel Fits Our Lifestyle

Some may think a drive from Scotland to Turkey would be the trip of a lifetime: a singular adventure to remember forever. As true nomads, we look at this as simply the next evolution in our life. We don’t lead a “travel life” — it’s more just “life” as we know it.

As we often remind ourselves, it is ALL part of the adventure, but not all parts of the adventure are good ones!

This is not to downplay the enormous undertaking this unforgettable journey will become! We savor each and every stop along the way (okay, except for Gela, Sicily) as our next “home” — if only for the night. These places, each historic and special in their own right, add up to the sum of the experience. It’s all part of the slow travel world.

Our route from the UK to Anatolia will take us through France, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Greece. In each place, we will visit with friends as well as make new ones. We’ve even planned out some deliveries that will catch up with us at the Italian home of people we’ve known from Britain!

The large world becomes small, when your options are many!

Durness, Scotland — The End of the World (sort of) [Photo: David Daniel]

A Place to Start: Durness, Scotland

It is always hard to tell if you are at the end of the road, or just the beginning. We’re here in Durness, Scotland looking ahead to see the possibilities and experiences to come. Some will be life-changing, good and even possibly bad. As we often remind ourselves, it is ALL part of the adventure, but not all parts of the adventure are good ones!

Without fanfare, we will start our journey south and east, to find the changing cultures, languages and cuisines laid out before us. The warm and friendly pub stop will remind us of our own British roots, French baguettes will bring us into each day with a smile, Italian food will fill us to a point we can barely move, with a Greek moussaka doing the same. Into Turkey, with its varied and wonderful culinary landscape; exploring each with their own specific history and tastes.

It is hard to overstate the happiness we have knowing what waits for us on the tables and street corner shops in our coming destinations!

Come with us, down that road… around the next bend.

It won’t be boring, that is a promise!