27 October

As we had to leave early, I woke early – at 0430, way too early. I tried unsuccessfully to sleep, and was finally up at 0530 to pack and the prepare for breakfast at about 0615. We left the hotel at about 0730 and retraced part of our steps beside the salt lake until we reached the road to Ankara. We stopped at 1045, 100 km out of Ankara for an early lunch. This was so we could see things in Ankara and depart before the evening peak and this spend a few hours looking at the tail-lights of cars in front of us going nowhere in a hurry.
After dropping those who weren’t on this tour in the city centre at 1215, at 1230 we arrived in the Ankara museum. After a quick introduction, we could walk around, but the sheer size and number of exhibits meant I couldn’t see everything before we had to depart at 1400. The Turkish Air Force celebrated the day with us by giving a flyover in our honour (really they were practising for their National Day, but that isn’t as exciting for us). We went straight to the Ataturk mausoleum, arriving at 1430 and as we arrived in the square, a group of scouts arrived to lay a wreath (actually done by soldiers, as you can see in the photos). I was amused after when I saluted one, snapping my heels, and he returned it in a good military salute. This happened a number of times.
I looked over the car museum, a museum of personal effects of Ataturk and then a museum of the wars between 1915 and 1923. Some of the dioramas were very effective. We were followed by the Prime Minister of the Ukraine, but we didn’t get to walk on his red carpet.
As we left, two things happened. A motorised squeegee scraped the surface of the square clear of water (I’d never seen one before) and a scout asked to take a picture of Robert and myself. Then he wanted a photo of us with him in it. We took a photo of him, then I gave him a kangaroo pin. HE thanked us profusely and headed off, as we did also.
Back on the bus we left soon and got to the centre of town by 1615 to pick up the others – fortunately they were all there. On the way to the hotel we stopped to pick up supplies (at a reasonable price) but after we had spent five minutes on what appeared to be a dirt track, we were starting to worry. Then our hotel appeared in sight and when we got there – rooms the size of bowling alleys, corridors you could play Australian Rules in and, fortunately for me, wireless Internet. This was only in the lobby, so after unpacking I processed the photos and went down to the lobby to send them. I only sent a few (enough to start the new set) and then it was in for dinner.
After dinner I went back to the lobby to send the rest – and got talking (?) to a group of young men interested in my laptop. I showed them what I was doing, then some photos of Australia and one of them wanted to see photos of Stockholm (his wife is from there). Then we got onto Bursa (our next night’s stop) and I found out they were all from Bursa – Robert Bosch employees here on a seminar. After a lot of fiddling (and finding good places an things to eat in Bursa), another came along who could speak good English and we went into kangaroos and Aborigines and boomerangs. After an hour they were heading off and invited me up for drinks, but I was too tired and had to beg off. Back in my room it was get ready for bed and then nearly straight off to sleep.