E-I-E-I-Oh crap!

Eastern Turkey is very rural and heavily agricultural. People live in stone, mud and straw huts smaller than their neighboring mounds of manure. The roads in the countryside are often lined with farm animals challenging passing vehicles. There have been numerous incidents where our minibuses have bounced around, horns blaring, trying to get various herds, flocks and gaggles off the road. We’ve had near accidents involving eagles flying at the windshield, confused mules, turkey tossings, stubborn geese, dumb cows, and suicidal sheep. We’ve been on more buses and minibuses than I can count and they're anywhere from 2 to 16hr journeys. So now the maniacal driving, dodging of farm animals and other vehicles is just par for the road. Even armed checkpoints are blasé.