Laura's Travel Tales

18/09/2023

To recover from our traumatic border crossing 😅 and catch up with our gorgeous friends An and Yves ( ) we headed off to Lake for a few days. This was once the largest salt lake in the Middle East (and 6th largest on earth) and is now a dessicated lunar landscape thanks to over-drainage and the damming of all its inlet rivers. It's often described as Iran's most significant ecological disaster. With no internet, no crowds and no worries for 3 days, the four of us caught up, played frisbee, baked bread and cinnamon rolls, made fires and set our souls ready for our Iranian adventure. A wonderful start! 🇮🇷

13/09/2023

01/09/2023

07/08/2023

Relief from the heat comes at 2,400m. Thank dog for high altitude plateaus ❣️

03/07/2023

Nestled in the heartland of Turkey’s Anatolia, lies Çatalhöyük, a UNESCO-listed archaeological site said to be the bridge between our past and present. Çatalhöyük is a remarkable testament to the Neolithic period, a sprawling settlement of up to 10,000 inhabitants that thrived over 9,000 years ago. That’s 9 THOUSAND years ago!
Çatalhöyük is considered by experts to the oldest known city in the world – the first place where surrounding villages came together to create one single central location, which spearheaded the sort of urban civilization that dominates our modern world. In essence, this is the earliest example of humans evolving from hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers.
As you step onto its sacred grounds, you are transported to a time when civilization was still in its infancy, when the concept of community and collective living was conceived. What sets Çatalhöyük apart is its urban complexity. It was not just a collection of scattered dwellings but a cohesive and structured society, with an intricate social organization deprived of hierarchy. The absence of streets (as the houses were built side by side and accessed from the roof) speaks volumes about the intimate nature of their communal existence.
But perhaps the most profound significance of Çatalhöyük lies in its contribution to our understanding of human evolution. As archaeologists meticulously unearth and study its remains, a treasure trove of knowledge is revealed.

28/06/2023

Merhaba 🇹🇷
A few impressions from our first days in Turkyie 🥰
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13/05/2023

Spent the night among the ruins of , a 2,000yo city that acted as the 'toll gates' between verdant valleys for herding farmers. Framed by some of the tallest in the range, this is one of the most peaceful and glorious spots we've ever found in 😍

03/05/2023

After two months of R&R with family and friends in Germany, we are now back on the road. Our target? The Arabian Peninsula!
As you can see... We're swiftly back in business 😎😜

31/01/2023

I'm blue, dabadee dabadoo... 💙💙