Hi everyone. I can not eassily reply or view many messages, this small netbook is not easy to use and we have limited good internet access due to many travellers stranded here using one wifi connection.

We are effectively trapped in a very nice place - the Alp Pasha boutique Ottoman hotel in Antalya old city, the heart of the historic walled town. Photoworld magazine will be going out by mail right now. It includes an offer for the newly designed 'Alpha Male' and 'Alpha Female' T-shirts and polo shirts - and a reference to ordering from the website, which I was due to set up with buy it now buttons right now - tonight. But I can't, and anyone visiting the website will find nothing there. I do not even have image files on this machine I can post to show you. And we are not in Kelso to deal with orders.

This is wonderful place, the Turkish shopkeepers have lost all their customers, so instead they just call us in for a glass of chay (tea) because they know all the foreigners still wandering around are volcano victims. It is children's week and today there was a parade with all the kids from places like Khazakstan, Iran, Lithuania, Romania in costume (they are on one-week school family exchange visits which Attaturk founded - no wonder Turks love the man, he used dictatorship to command GOOD stuff on the whole!).

But - we are warned we may not be given flights home until MAY. We are in real trouble if this happens. Tomorrow we start exploring further afield on local buses and trams. 60GB of pix already on this HD... space will run out. So will the water in our pet chinchilla's cage feeder - and no-one can get in to fix that. Chinchillas are fine for a week on their own, and OK for 2-3 days without water (they are altoplano desert animals - very low water requirement) but there is a limit without distress.

David

It sounds like you are making the best of the situation. If you have to wait until May then maybe consider a long adventure making the trip overland. That would be cool.

Hope the chinchilla survives!

Good luck!

Sorry to here that, David. Is there no chance of renting a car or getting home on the train? If desperate enough, I'd even take a bus! I think that could get you home before May.

If your chinchilla is dear enough to you, can't your son, daughter or neighbor break in to feed it?

Best of luck to you.

Dusty

Try to get to Spain: the Royal Navy is taking civilians from Santander to England... The Eurostar tunnel is busy and I guess ferries from the North of France or Belgium too.


Nice little beast, the chinchilla... no way to contact your neighbors in order to take care of him?

hope to "see you" soon

saw this list on the news tonight before reading your post. you might have a wiondow to get home.

Airline news by country:
Turkey - All airports open. Planes flying out of the Black Sea cities of Samsun, Sinop and Zonguldak have been advised not to fly higher than 6,000 metres.

Britain - All UK airspace reopened at 21:00 GMT on Tuesday.

Hi David,

Looks like its all opened up again, so hope you will get a flight soon. For both you and Shirley and the Chinchilla's sake.

Sounds like you will be tied to the computer editing pics for a while when you do eventually get back.

Best wishes

Paul

I'd love to be in Antalya now, of course by my own decision... maybe one day I'll be there. From your description I understand you're really in Antalya. Often people say Antalya, but they're in on of the huge hotles, outside, in the midst of nothing, 50km away from town...

Yes, I hope to visit Turkey someday too!

Just waiting for news of flights now. Chinchilla being rescued today, but we may be home tomorrow anyway. It snowed near here yesterday - thunder, blizzards, torrential rain, gales. They had to clear the road near Kemer with snowploughs, and that was the coast road, not in the mountains. Today it is beautiful and clear sun. They checked us out, hoping for a flight, but may check us back in again.

Still about the best place to be stranded. Tomorrow is Turkish National Day with big parades. We may even get to see them. We are in the heart of the old city, not in a 'resort' thank heavens.

David

I'm glad to hear about your chinchilla--as you make the most of your time grounded there, it would be horrible to have that time haunted by concerns for someone left behind.

Hi David,

I'm glad the flight arrangements are imminent for you to return home. But you indeed are in a better place and weather than many of us. I heard and saw on the news last night that it actually did snow there for a short but effective time...That's how Antalya can surprise everyone.

The old part of Antalya is a nice and historic place and maybe you may even get interesting photos of the parades for your Alamy collection...who knows?

This vacation of yours was quite a different and memorable one for all the events and chaotic situations that got themselves attached to it due to circumstances.

I'm glad somebody is taking care of the chinchilla.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the stay and that everyone's helping out until you board your plane.

Yildiz

I'm happy to know your chinchilla is being rescued. I have a small rabbit myself (Holland Lop) and can't even think of it being alone and running out of water/food...
Hope you get your flight soon!

We get no information from Thomas Cook here, but I finally got through to the UK office when it opened at 8am this morning. They say they plan to get everyone home by Sunday. The flight times look like early morning departures.

We waited for parades yesterday, National Day holiday, but there were none. Instead everyone was taking a day off, local people taking boat trips and eating round the harbour - outnumbering the tourists right now. We did get more parades and kids in national costume earlier during the week.

I have too many shots. We started erasing the CF cards, after using the backup MS cards in the cameras. We have two copies of every shot, one on this eMachines netbook, a second on a portable HD. We started by keeping the original cards as well, but now we are using one for a second time. Now up to about 70GB of raw files...

David

Glad to hear things are getting sorted out with flights and hope you're both home safely soon. Looking forward to seeing some pictures as well

I second that.