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Houses in the volcanic rock Goreme - Turkey

After a few great days in Gerome it was time to move on. Our plan was to travel through Kayseri, Sivas, Refahiye, Macka. We had an unknown schedule for the ferry from Trabzon to Sochi in Russia because we kept getting different reports on when it actually sailed. Some said there was a daily ferry, Others said that there was only two ferries a week. Unfortunately the internet was only partly useful and we had to actually get to the port to find out when we could buy our ticket (or phone and speak to someone who didn’t speak any english). Our first day back on the road after Cappadocia was an interesting yet trip through more volcanic area’s where the scenery was dry and dusty with beautiful mountains jutted out along the horizon from time to time. (more…)

Puffy Eye

After a night looking at the stars and enjoying the panoramic views of Goreme from under our mosquito net. We awoke early to see that Heathers eye had swollen to such an extent it looked like she had been punched in the eye… her new name is now puffy.. the entire left side of her face had swollen around the wasp sting of the previous day. I said it was revenge because she broke her evil eye which was meant to ward away evil spirits. Her wasp sting was only the beginning of her bad luck.. now she had a swollen face, then the bungie cord snapped and the hook ripped through the skin between her thumb and pointer finger.. she had to wear sunglasses to try and hide puffy and she had dropped her bike three times in such a short period of time the day before..

Kaylaki Underground City - Turkey

When we checked into Panorama camping in Goreme the guy who owned the place gave us a map of a recommended tourist route. The route allowed us to take in as many sites as possible without back tracking on ourselves. Overall the camp site was fantastic and was crawling with other motorcycle groups. One Dutch guy who camped next to us was very friendly and was on route to Syria with a guy he met on the Internet. We shared loads of ideas of where to go and what to see and gave him the map we got given when we no longer had a need for it. I highly recommend Panorama camping in Goreme to anyone looking for a place to stay on a budget we paid 25 TL per night. The view/Location is superb and beats and of the Hostels in town. There is a Bar, Pool nice area to relax etc..

Kaylaki Underground City (Room) - Turkey

With Cappadocia on our must see list we had to make the most of our new map. There is so much history crammed into such a “small” area that it was going to take us a few days to really get out an explore it. Unfortunately we only had 3 days to really get the most of the area and only two remaining. Our first stop was to see the underground city at Kaymakli. It was built as a hide away to protect the citizens of the town from invading armies. The earliest such cities date back at least 4000 years. Kaymakli is one of the largest going down 8 levels and spread out some several hundred meters in each direction from the entrance. We bought a tour guide to explain all the different rooms etc and how the systems in side the cities worked. It was well worth the 35 TL that we paid for it despite having a very rushed feel. After visiting the city we headed towards the Ihlara valley which is an oasis like canyon that comes out of nowhere. Its very beautiful and has thousands of small

Ihlara valley - Turkey

houses/homes built into the cliffs over the years. The area above the canyon is very dry which is a complete contrast to how lush and fertile it is at its base. A very welcome surprise from the dust on the way there. The canyon itself is not that long but what it lacks in size it makes up for in history and beauty. The journey to the valley was filled with yet more cities of a bygone era. It seems in this area of Turkey especially its a dime a dozen. Around every corner or on every mountain there was another city or fortress just waiting to be explored. Many of which are completely free and open to the public. Some of the more spectacular ones require an entry fee.

Right before the wind blew the bike over

After a four days relaxing, two sets of new tyres and two serviced bikes it was time to keep moving south east to Cappadocia. We had decided that Goreme was going to be our base for a few days of exploring the surrounding area. Goreme is only around 250km from Ankara but we decided to take an extra night so that we would arrive early in the morning to make the most of the day. The ride out of Ankara was frantic with the “normal” traffic of Turkey plus the Ankara special…. running red lights. As we travelled further south east the terrain started to become more rocky and exposed. This is where heathers superb skill of being able to secure items to her bike became a jinx.. while going over a rough section of road all her water bottles fell off the bike rolling down the embankment.It was too unsafe to go fetch so that was the end of our water for the evening.. We decided to turn off from our back road blitz onto an even more minor road… this was where the fun started. We pulled over to take some photos on the top of a ridge which had really great panoramic views. The wind was so strong that it blew over James’ bike.. This caused us a few issues.. not only did it get blown over it was now down a small slope almost upside down.. after trying for some time to pick the bike up without any success we started to unpack it. As soon as we started to do this two Turkish men on a little moped appeared out of nowhere.. they stopped and helped us pick the bike up.. much to their amusement and comments about us having too much gear haha.. all the same they took the opportunity to have a few cigarettes and admire the bikes.. during this whole scenario our small digital camera was broken… more than likely it was trodden on when it was on the ground after the bike dropped…ohh well down to only the SLR which makes taking easy snaps a real pain.

Wild Camping near Goreme - Turkey

About 2-3km further down the road Heather found a small dirt track leading up to an ancient burial mound. There was a Turkish camp setup next to one of the lower fields and the track looked fairly well worn. After about 500m the “well worn” nature of the track became more than apparent.. “well worn” by the rain creating some very interesting riding up a steep sandy track covered with loose rocks. Getting up was a challenge, any challenging riding we now call preparation for Kazakhstan and Mongolia… but it was fun all the same. We ended up stopping on a flat patch to do a reccy (reconnaissance) of the track further up the hill. We needed to make sure it was possible to get up AND back down with fully laden bikes. After a short walk we decided that we had gone far enough. Camping on the top of the burial mound would have to wait until another day… Where we had parked there was a nice patch which we decided would be our accommodation for the night around 1600meters above sea level. With a beautiful view out over the mountain and surrounding valleys it was perfect. The wind was still strong but we decided to erect out mosquito net between the two bikes and sleep under the stars. The night was clear and there was a real bite to the cool dry air.

Sunrise before Goreme

Perfect for sleeping… well actually it was not so great.. We both kept waking during the night thinking that the bikes would blow over… two squashed peas in a mosquito net pod. Ahhh the vision… I could just imagine the perfect headline.. two stupid Aussies squashed by own bikes in turkey.. another one for the Darwin awards. After a pretty weak nights sleep we awoke at first light to pack and get back on the road early so we could make the most of the day… (and so that we could vacate the area before anyone came asking why the hell we camped on their land).. This is where Heathers “fun” began. Going up the hill to the spot where we camped was fairly easy.. all the weight was on the rear wheel no problems.. However now that we had to go back down the mountain the weight was now on the front wheel.. This meant that the front wheel would basically guide our fate… into the ground that is.. It was very slippery and the front wheels kept on loosing traction and sliding out.. After several “almosts” it became a whoops.. drop number one for Heather. Caused by her bike sliding and her back wheel hitting a boulder forcing the weight to go off centre.. Luckily the bike fell fairly easily and the speed was low. The only real damage had been to Heathers confidence. The track down for James on the heavier bike was just as interesting having to ride slowly with the ABS off so to not slide out. All up to go the 500-800 meters back to the road it took around 30minutes. When we hit the road it was time to make way to Goreme…. After 2 minutes further down the road it was drop number two for Heather.. Two drops in less than an hour making it a new record. This time it was the sound of a little girl in the ear piece as she frantically tried to pull over.. However the only place to pull over was a gravel section on the side of the road.. The wheel went in and over she went.. she was screaming running around doing some sort of voodoo dance trying to get her helmet off.. It turns out that she was stung by the same type of wasp that James had the pleasure of a few days ago.. and geeee.. it really hurt him.. and this time the wasp had got her on the temple. We picked the bike up and pulled what was left of the wasp stuck to heathers temple out. Applied some cream.. Of course this being Turkey a guy on a donkey came past right at that exact moment and offered his assistance.. This time we didn’t need it. The sting had started to swell slightly but Heather said she was okay and we continued on our way.. or way to getting lost at least.. the road signs in turkey are completely stupid. What looks like a LEFT actually

Night over Goreme from Panorama Camping

means straight ahead.. at least that is how it was for Goreme. After going left for about 10+minutes we decided to do a U-Turn and go back to where we saw the last sign. Unfortunately the road was gravel and Heathers U-Turn was drop number three.. She just wasn’t having a good time of it. With damaged confidence and a poor nights sleep its so easy to screw up.. We eventually made it to Goreme and found a camp site with a pool to relax and enjoy the view over the town..

Street Art - Ankara

Before coming to Ankara (The Capital of Turkey) we had read in several guide books that it was not all that great. Coming here with low expectations has been something of a godsend. So far Ankara has really exceeded all my expectations. Despite being inland its been cooler and the air is much dryer. I guess this is because its quiet high. I think its around 1000meters above sea level. This makes the city much more pleasant and the city has a real energy in the area we are staying Kizilay. It appears to be the main shopping, night club, pubs, restaurant area which gives you some amazing choice for what to do at all hours of the day. Its could have been unfortunate that we are on a tight budget except for the fact that all the food etc here is so cheap. 2TL for a Chicken Donner kebap is just one example.. that’s around 70-80p or around 1euro. Ankara feels very young and happening, Istanbul on the other hand was very relaxed but it felt much more established as a city. I would recommend anyone travelling through turkey to spend at least a few days here, even if its only to relax before going on to other destinations.  Apart from that we walked around the city and didn’t really see much that was of interest to us.. except all the shops and places to eat 🙂

Kocatepe Camii Mosque - Ankara

The reason we came through Ankara was actually so that we could get the bikes serviced and buy new motorcycle tyres. We took in the R1200GS first then when that was complete the F650GS Dakar. Both bikes got done at
Borusan Oto Çankaya
Uğur Mumcu Cad. No: 8 06700 G.O.P. Ankara
Tel: +90.312.459 8080 Fax: 436 4010
cankaya@borusanoto.com

However their service centre is not at that location as we found out the hard way. The service centre is at the following address

Borusan Oto Servis Tic. AŞ

Birlik Şubesi

Birlik Mah.7.Cad.No:43 06150 Çankaya ANKARA

Tel: +903124541500

They can supply Metzeler tyres at reasonable prices based on what we found while searching around. For a pair of Karoo tyres it was 250e which was more expensive than the UK but cheaper than many other places in Turkey. If you need more than one set you can negotiate.

Heather not exercising and gettnig a few spare tyres

All up the level of their service was excellent.  Anyway enough about the service. We thought that the driving in Istanbul was nuts.. and it is.. however in Ankara nobody gives a shit about red lights.. It seems that red just means go.. Couple that with the fact that the roads here are soo slippery from the light dust its like riding on glass.. There have been several hair raising moments where the back wheels have slid out.. Thankfully we have not had any accidents yet (touch wood)… Its something that came as a bit of a shock to Heather when she was doing a U-Turn for the first time..

Anyway there has been very little happening over the last few days.. more to come soon!

Planning our route - Troy

After troy we had planned to follow the coast road down to Hierapolis to see more archaeological sights.. Fortunately we decided to ditch that idea and instead focus our riding on heading somewhat directly to Ankara. In doing so we cut several hundred kilometres off our total journey distance. This was welcome news as the heat was forecast to increase along the coast… After a long break at a small cafe just outside of  Troy we had come up with a plan. That plan was to head towards Edremit and on to Kutahya. The plan was to now take 3 days to ride to Ankara where we would get our bikes serviced, receive some packages with some spare parts and organise some other bits and pieces before we embark on the next stage of our journey.

Finally cleaning the Bikes

The first part of our plan was to fill the bikes with fuel.. My bike was reporting on the trip computer that it had less than 2miles of range remaining. Heathers bike had a similar story with her fuel light showing as being on and had done so for about the last 40km… The only problem was there appeared to be no petrol stations along our route. Luckily just as we turned on to a more major road one appeared. We had some kids fill up our bikes while we relaxed for a while. Heather then realised that there was an area for washing cars.. We enquired how much it would cost to use… the response FREE… we jumped at the chance to wash our bikes for the first time since Austria… The thick coating of dust on the bikes made us look even more like hobo’s than usual… It was really just an excuse for us to play with the hose and cover ourselves in a nice dense spray of cool water… oops and clean the bikes.. For the first time we could actually see the plastics properly on both bikes.. The local kids at the service station also helped out in little bits and pieces which was nice. Very friendly.  Everyone loves the bikes the number of people waving at us as we pass has been amazing since Romania.

Shortly after our petrol, bike wash, wet t-shirt competition I was attacked by a wasp while riding the bike.. thankfully I didn’t crash the bike as it stung me several times on the neck. Each time it stung I could feel it go right up into my head.. I managed to pull over and kill the wasp.. Started riding again only to find the pain too unbearable and have to pull over again and put some cream on it… I think its time to start wearing my neck protector…. oh well maybe some other day when its not in the high 30’s… Heather only noticed that something was wrong when she heard a girly scream through the bike to bike communication system… The scenery as we followed along the road was fantastic. With beautiful winding roads and coastal views along large sections of the ride to Edremit.

After Edremit we headed inland heading towards Balikesir along the D230. It was a very nice ride… until we needed to find accommodation.. Unfortunately there was nothing for over 100km. Eventually we got to Balikesir and found a hotel… That was only after we rode along a dual carriage way multi-lane 10+cm deep gravel “highway” for about 20km only to find the road went absolutely nowhere so we had to do a u-turn and go back to Balikesir… We should have guessed when several turkish motorists drove past yelling stuff at us and doing u-turn gestures with their arms out the windows… who could have guessed what they actually meant??… At the end of this mammoth piece of engineering work the road literally stopped and turned into a shitty sand track. It would have cost a fortune to build the “road to nowhere”… we are still trying to guess why the hell the road exists. Maybe the surveyors screwed up and the road went in the wrong direction.. only to realise after they had spent all the money???

A Lake view from the D230 - Anatolia

After back tracking and getting to the hotel we had a relaxing meal and went to sleep early. The next day we wanted to get to Eskisehir which would be a longish day. This was something that worried us as the D230 had just disappeared into the “road to nowhere”…. After a quick investigation the following morning we found the sign post to Kutahya around a corner with no real road name signs. The road was terrible but the scenery was absolutely stunning. The road follows around the side of some mountains a river in the valley with small towns and farms dotted all along the side. The riding style quickly became dodge the oncoming trucks, while trying to avoid the sandy surface and potholes that could swallow your whole bike… It made for interesting yet very slow going. Despite the danger it was an experience I really enjoyed as it made the riding very intense. Every break was very welcome..

The view from our Mountain - Anatolia

After riding for a few hours we stopped for a Turkish bbq sis lunch.. wow it was awesome. And the bill was only 14TL (about £5)… By far the best Lunch I think we have had since we started this trip. It was just near Kutahya on the D230… Sorry forget the name of the place.. I’ll have to get the GPS references for anyone that is interested.  We then started to head on… At about 6pm we had been looking for a place to camp for some time.. Nothing was coming along.. After a while we saw a big hill start to emerge with some tree’s on it.. That looked like something that we needed to investigate. After exploring some random dirt trails we ended up finding a fantastic place to camp.. Being a beautiful evening we decided that we would camp under only the mosquito net.. Something that I have wanted to do for some time. It’s so much less stuffy in the heat and its awesome to look out at the stars. After an amazing nights sleep I managed to get this paparazzi photo of Heather still relaxing under the nets…

Wild Camping - Turkey

The view from our campsite Anatolia