In the morning, we headed back down with the camper towards Amasya and parked very close to the famous rock-cut tombs, the Pontic Royal Tombs. They are quite impressive even from down below, as they look like giant doors carved directly into the mountainside, suspended over the city as if someone had decided to build an impossible cemetery.

The humans paid the entrance fee and I, being the short, furry member of the expedition, got in for free again. Turkey is being quite good to me in that regard. We climbed a load of stairs to reach the tombs and see them up close. And honestly, it’s even more impressive when you’re up there. These tombs were carved over two thousand years ago for the kings of the Kingdom of Pontus, long before the Ottomans and long before any idea of tourism or selfies with a view existed.

The kings literally had themselves buried inside the mountain, in chambers hollowed directly out of the rock. Some of the façades look like small Greek temples carved into stone, and the entire complex dominates Amasya from above as if the ancient kings were still watching over the city.

Between the stairs, the views, and the exploring, we spent more or less an hour going around the place. And yes, it’s one of those sites where the more you think about the age of what you’re looking at, the weirder it all gets. I sometimes get confused about whether I hid a ball yesterday or three days ago, and here people are still admiring things carved over two millennia ago.

Afterwards, we went back to the camper and began quite a long day on the road heading east. We covered a lot of ground, well over two hundred kilometres, almost without stopping. We only made one quick stop to fill up with water, which is incredibly easy in Turkey because the country is full of fountains and springs. It seems completely normal here to find drinking water flowing out of a wall in the middle of nowhere.

Later, we stopped a bit longer to eat in the camper by a river, in a surprisingly beautiful spot, with an old stone bridge crossing the water. It seemed like one of those perfect places to stay the night—quiet, with shade and the sound of the river—but this time we had to keep pushing on. So, after lunch, we continued eastwards again, watching the landscape gradually change as the hours accumulated on the windscreen.

Finally, just as it was getting dark, we arrived at the spot where we’re sleeping tonight. It’s a huge gravel clearing near a reservoir. At the moment, we aren't quite sure what the place is really like because we arrived in total darkness, but it has one important thing: peace and quiet. And at this stage of the trip, that is often worth more than any spectacular view. Tomorrow, when the sun comes up, we’ll discover exactly where we’ve ended up.