Hot in Turkey

An early start today from Mount Nemrut as we had to make a ferry, there was little option in different routes so we basically rode as a large group - apart from 'TimsTours' who prefer their own u-turning route. The first hour took us winding down the mountain on gravel trails through a number of tiny villages, passing the villagers taking their cattle to grazing;

Once at the lake, we waited for the ferry;

Once the ferry arrived, we particed the art of 'English Queuing' - it looks like it'll be tight to fit everyone on board, so we upped the anti to 'English Pushing-in' - a few beeps of the Turkish horns, and not a lot of progress. So, the final push - a full scale attack. We managed to take the last few places on the ferry, which meant the bikes had to go on in reverse - so much lifiting and hauling of the bikes, and finally we were on..

Once off the ferry, it was the long haul to Erzerum - a ride which took us within 80km of the Syria and Iraq borders. The landscape was pretty barren - sandy and rocky, with the temperature hitting 45degC. Stopping for photos etc was not a valid option. Turning north towards Bingol and the terrain turned in more arable land - still very dry and yellow - but full of crop fields; combine harversters working the fields, and people shoveling the harvest into sacks to be loaded onto trucks.

Climbing higher in the mountain range, the military presence was more and more obvious, with more road blocks (none of which we had to stop at), and finally at the summit, a huge military base (again, for obvious reasons, no photos).

Once over the summit, the scenery changed - green hills, meadows, wild flowers, lakes, bee-hives - the difference was astonishing;

Turkish Delight

After a fantastic evening at the 'Hotel of Caves' - literally built into the cliffs, drinking beer and watching the lightening strike over the rocky hills opposite the town of Goreme;

Another long day (500+km) from Goreme to Mount Nemrut took us over seven 2000m passes, and we spent the majority of the day at an altitude of +1000m. Below is 'Erciyes Dagi' (3917m) the highest mountain in the range;

The scenery through the mountain range was pretty awesome, although the peak temperature hit 42 centegrade;

We then climbed for an hour an a half to our accomodation just below the summit of Mount Nemrut;

6 Turkish Lira allows us up to the summit;

Statues built by King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene in 62 BC

Mid Turkey is all motorways - even if they are unfinished

Another long day 450km to Goreme. It should be a fairly straight forward run. The first 200km was a long a fantastic motorway which wound it's way across a fantastic hill range, very nice views of a vast countryside.

After a quick coke stop, we veered off the intended route, onto the D260, a motorway which was still under construction - all 200km of it.

Luckily I was leading so I didn't see much dust along the whole route, pity the same couldn't be said about Caroline, who rode in the dust for the whole 200km ;-)

Still, at least she found a new development project for next year;

The driveway could do with some work tho';

Still, plenty of neighbours;

And this is what it could look like;

Camp Green Thai Curry

Leaving Istanbul was much easier than the arrival - we jumped on the ferry which was within 100yds from the hotel, from Europe into Asia. £1 and we were out of Istanbul and onto the motorway.

After commenting how much safer (but fast, very fast) the drivers are in Turkey, we were held up on the motorway by 2 accidents - 1 unfortunately fatal.

A quick 200km along the toll road, and we re-grouped ready for the offroad route to a wild camp in the Turkish hills;

My office for the evening;

And finally the best green thai curry chefs in Turkey;

Turkey - the calm befor the storm

Leaving Gallipoli we backtracked up the peninsula, diverting off to Anzac bay - the site of landing of troops in the Gallopilli campaign in the first world war.

Rather than take the main road to Istanbul we diverted off up the coast road, a gravel track that clung to the edge of the clifs, offering great views across the Sea of Marmara.

This was certainly the calm before the storm - entering Istasnbul...

Without any GPS mapping nor paper maps of Istanbul, it was a case of following the direction indicator on the GPS to the waypoint marked for the location of the hotel - easy ?

It would be easy in a logical street grid layout city, or indeed one without roadworks, deadends, market streets, suicidal drivers. oh, and 38deg heat..

We stopped at the city limits (5km from the hotel), and gave ourselves 1 hour to find the hotel, otherwise we would hail a taxi and follow that. The plan was simple, the 3 of us would keep close together, blocking out any cars from separating us, very early use of indicators to show intended direction changes, and if the hazard lights were used then we had know idea where we were, or where we were going.

After 45 minutes we were 800m from the hotel, it then took a further 30 minutes to 'home in' to the hotel - hazard lights on all the way !!

The route of choice (??!!) took us into the Grand Bazaar, down the pedestrian streets (shoppers didn't seem to bothered!), and through the markets. We had pedestrians helping us to turn the bikes round on steep cobbled streets and street vendors moving their stalls to let us through. A beer was very welcome when we finally reached the hotel :-)

Spot the 2 silver crash helmets in the crowd...

Where is my pilica....

Pilica (or something similar) we now know, is Turkish for registration (as in vehicle registration number).

Our first real border crossing was a test of patience. First we had to battle past the 2km (or so) line of queueing lorries. Then exit Bulgaria via a passport booth and a vehicle check booth. Then it was on to Turkey.

The first booth in Turkey was to photograph the vehicle occupants, and take the registration details - simple, huh. Then off to the next sequence of booths (with many cars queued up in the stifling heat). First stop, passport check, where you are told you don't have a Turkish visa (we knew that), so off to booth 92 (about 100m away) to buy the visa (in English Pounds), then back to the second booth to get the visa stamped in the passport. Then to the next booth to get the green card insurance check (no we knew we didn't have that either), so off to booth 91 (about 90m away) to get the vehicle insurance, then back to the third booth to get the insurance stamped in the passport, then off to get cash (booth 89 - 80m away), then off to customs to check the bikes.

All was going well, (processed in around 1 hour), and only one final check to go.

BUT.

At the 3rd booth inline, Scott's registration details 'did not compute' - we now realise that blokey in booth 1 had mistyped the registration details, so the final check could not be completed, as the registration numbers were mismatched.

Queue a Basil Fawlty hour long episode of Scott running from booth to booth, in reverse order, then correct order, then random order, whilst at the same time the border officials were in the middle of some sort of change in shift, meaning, of course, zero continuity.

Well, after 2 hours of Basily Fawlty activity we finally exited the border crossing, and number 1 priority - a kebab;

Then it was a mere 200km odd to Gallipoli for an overnighter by the Dardanelles Straits.

Balkan Mountains

Leaving the touristy area of Veliko Tarrovo we were soon into the Balkan Mountains and the first closed road of the day. The diversion took us higher into the Balkan Mountains, then the second closed road (on the diversion) took us down to the plains - on route we passed this monument

Once down onto the plains, we managed some decent progress until the third closed road of the day at Simeonovgrad. Being able to read Cyrillic meant that the diversion signs were easy to read, and we managed to reroute to the partially built motorway, which terminated at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Bonus !!

Carpathian Mountains and Bulgaria

Leaving Bran we were soon riding over the Carpathian Mountains - more great roads, and fab scenery.

Todays route was off GPS, we'd managed to blag a more detailed Romaninan map, and this had plenty of minor routes detailed. This did of course mean no lunch stop - as we were pretty muc in the middle of a farming area - so were shopless.

A quick coke break at a charming bus shelter;

The farming route was pretty much one straight dirt road to the Danube (and Bulgaria);

On the plains we came across this brave soul, who live in a bee hive (the coloured boxes are all individual bee hives)!!!

Entry into Bulgaria was over a very crumply bridge spanning the Danube, into Ruse - a very rundown port town. A very quick blast across Bulgaria and we'll be entering Turkey tomorrow - destination Gallipoli.

The true Romania (and Transylvania)

The mad driving of yesterday disappeared today - although we still witnessed the aftermath of a number crashes, including an upturned lorry complete with driver casually sitting on the armco-barrier awaiting collection.

The scenery very quickly changes as you enter rural Romania - with horse and carts competing with cars and lorries for the same stretch of tarmac;

The countryside seems to be left to it's own devices, most farming land seems to be shared amongst the people - with some fields being tended by hand (scything and raking grass, to be collected by horse and cart), with neighbouring fields farmed with basic machinery (tractors and hay bailers). The land further from the roads seem to be left to roaming sheperds and their flocks. Beautiful rolling scenery.

We are currently staying in Bran, overlooking Bran Castle hwich is meant to be some sort of touristy Dracula type venue - but walking around the only reference to Dracula is in the tat shops. The castle it's self is fantastic - well worth a visit.

Oh - and we've worked out the Romanian driving - it gets far worse in the afternoon. Must be something to do with the vodka consumed at lunchtime....

The Romanian demolition derby

Leaving Budapest, for Cluj-Napoka (Romania) was a 300 mile route, on the main road (well perhaps the only direct road), and as luck would have it, it started raining just as we left Budapest. Now Budapest has a fair few cobbled roads, and tram lines, and as any motorcyclist knows – (cobbles || tram_lines) + rain = motorcycle carnage. Luckily we avoided any such carnage. The route through Hungary was fairly uneventful, just one car precariously balanced on the Armco barrier….

A quick detour (I’ll hold my hands up to this one) down a pedestrian road attracted the attention of the local constabulary. A quick flash of the UK driving licence, a discussion about how we were lost on route to New York, and probably the clincher – it started raining, and the nice policeman wished us a good day, and left us to continue.

The Romanian border was soon upon us (below), after a quick flash of the passport (without removing crash helmets), and enquiry as to whether we were in ‘good health’, and we were allowed to pass into Romania.

The condition of the high rise apartments changed quite dramatically – a similar communist style as other areas in Eastern Europe, but in far worse condition.

The same could be said of the driving – I think ‘them Duke Boys’ must have been employed as driving instructors following the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ remake.

The driving was fast and furious, with many overtaking drivers forcing their way into the line of traffic after their overtaking manoeuvre, others simply forced the oncoming traffic to take avoiding action.

On one particular twisty road over a hillock, their were 4 separate accidents within a 2km distance – 3 off the side of the road and down the embankment, and one in the middle of the road – a little more considerate for the emergency services!!

On the approach to Cluj-Napoka, the undertaking (on a single carriageway road) was starting to get a little crazy – parked cars and pedestrians acted as chicanes.

One particular incident happened 4 cars ahead of us; 1 car undertook, the next car undertook the undertaker, and in doing so, mounted the pavement, which launched him ‘General Lee’ style into the air, landing in the passenger door of the car that the 2 of them were trying to overtake. He then bounced between the 2 cars until he had all 4 wheels on the ground – at which point he could slow down and pull over, to exchange insurance details (or left hooks??)

So we have another 2 days of Romanian driving – looking on the Brightside, it seems to be a good introduction to driving in Istanbul……

From the cool Mountains of Slovakia

It doesn't matter if you have snow or not - if you are staying in a ski resort - you _have_ to take the cable car to the top. Which is exactly what we did - to a summit of 1700m - not the highest resort in the world, but very beautiful, and very under-developed.

The cable car didn't quite get to the summit, so we started treking - we passed several Slovak ramblers who seemed bemused by our choice of hiking clothes. Personally I thought they were fine - goretex, durable, breathable, and stiff boots. Although DelBoy was a bit OTT bringing his crash helmet...

I think the ski-to-your-door in Slovakia is more 'bothy-style' than 'Courchevel-chique';

With the customary touristy bits over with, we got on with the serious (ahem) job of Round-the-World motorcycling, and headed off for Hungary.

Simon was certainly taking things very seriously, with hardly anytime to take his hands off the handlebars to clean his own visor, he enlisted some help when we refueled.

Trouble in Slovakia

The transition from Czech to Slovakia started well, some lovely roads through the forest, and then a self-induced detour looking for some excitement;

Although the excitement got a little too much, and we had to U-turn :-(

After some man-handling of the bikes, we managed to get them turned around, and back on route to Zilina.

A quick visit to the bank to wash some of Dave's dirty casino money, and off to the ski resort for a beer/ice-cream;

Church of Bones and the Czech Olympic Swimming Pool

After a lap of Prague (to buy some new waterproof trousers - to fend off the rain, rather than for wearing ;-) ), we headed off to the Church of bones - a church decorated in human bones from the 1500's - even the chandelier is made of bones;

Nettleton tours then took over and managed to find the 'green lane' function on the SatNav (Czech's haven't even heard of green lanes !!). Needless to say, in true 'green laning' style, we completed a 360 loop around Policka, and then ended up in farmyard !!

Once out of the farmyard a welcome coffee break was had alongside a local swimming pool (complete with sluice gate)

Next stop Slovakia - Spriggo, I'm heading to the bank - just for you.... I hope the notes are legit...