We used to have these flowers in our garden back in Beaconsfield

We used to have these flowers in our garden back in Beaconsfield, a photo by CharlesFred on Flickr.

We decided to take a car out for the rest of this week to explore the highways and byways of the eastern part of Turkey and after some frustration at Europcar's lack of orgnaisation (again, just like in Oman), we had a black Chevrolet at our disposal. We spent the rest of the day following the southern shore of Lake Van from Van to Tatvan, where we are now. We picked up a hitch hiker on the way who turned out to be a totally charming Islamic teacher with limited English skills. He treated us to some great hospitality here in Tatvan until he went off to visit his friends' new baby in a local hospital. Just getting ready to find some dinner and hopefully a bar with beer and live folk music, which is the way we like to spend our evenings here.