Day 13

The most eventful day so far....

Started with a search for a suitable mechanic to deal with the Baja's many leaks and a scout around the part dealers of Kesan for Beetle rear brake shoes and Land Rover brake pads and oil and fuel filters.

The first gave a diagnosis of a loose oil filler which was tightened at no charge. We weren't convinced.

The spares weren't very successful but LR pads were obtained.

So we left Kesan heading for Istanbul but only managed about 15km before there was clearly as much oil leaking from the Baja as before. Team Baja returned to Kesan for more diagnostics, while the other two vehicles continued east.

Lonely planet doesn't list any camp sites around Istanbul so we decided to go a little north of the city and try to find somewhere along the Black sea coast as close as possible.

During this search there was a brief return of the non starting problem of the van and a minor collision with a local who turned into the side door of the van. This meant sitting around for two hours while all the formalities were completed and the local military police completed their report (we are apparently in an area of Turkey where the military have policing responsibility).

The one upside of this was that we were escorted to a suitable campsite by them.

Meanwhile the Baja had a more thorough investigation and a leak around an oil pressure gauge was found and another below the now unused mechanical fuel pump. Both were fixed, and along with a can of engine oil stop leak, the total cost was €110.

The Baja then made a dash for Istanbul and re-joined the group at 21:30.

Lat 41 11 N
Long 28 55 E
Dist 4100