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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..

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

After being in Istanbul for 8 nights it was time to move on. Our route from Istanbul was to head south west along the coast to the Dardanelles and Gallipoli. As we started to leave Istanbul the weather forecast appeared to be right, storms. As the storms came in..  we just missed them. We followed the sunshine south. The heat intensified as we got further away

Road to Gallipoli

from Istanbul’s storms.  It reached around 36c.. In the heat we found a place to camp just near the a “beach resort” and bar.. Finally we got our opportunity to have a swim in the sea.. Wow the water was warm but nothing like the 24c that at the Black sea.. If I had to guess it was probably around 20c. Either way it was a welcome change after riding in the heat. It was nice to get out of the water, have a beer and relax… After a beer we went back to where we had camped to find that there was a 100% fire ban.. That included all stoves due to a recent fire further down the coast. No Flameage caused us a few problems 1) no restaurant and 2) can’t cook.. Luckily the guy who ran the beach bar could cook us up some fast food.. In the end we had about 4 double gin and tonic’s while eating some quality chicken nuggets.. hmm healthy food… It was worth it.. until we had to get back into our stinking hot tent… In the process letting loads of bugs into the tent which all had a field day with Heather… we now call her James’ insect decoy. We ended up waking early completely dehydrated, with nothing to drink except a few mouth fulls of water… (Because in the drunken state the night before “we” (Heather) spilt it over James’ sleeping bag.. Oh well.. time to do the

View from a bar on the beach near Gallipoli

next bit of our ride to Gallipoli… This is where our second food saga began.. Unfortunately there was nothing open that served food at 9am in the morning.. a few places served beer but not food.. thinking that hair of the dog was probably a bad idea we just ordered some drinks from the restaurants and had a late… late.. late brunch while we waited for the ferry… Anyway back to Gallipoli.

Gallipoli has become somewhat of a “right of passage” for Aussies based on what we read in the aussie news in London..

Lone Pine Memorial - Gallipoli

Actually when we got there we didn’t see any Aussies.. It seemed to us that it was a melting pot of Turkish people going to see where the Turkish had one of their great military battles of the 20th Century. I am probably guessing that most of the Aussies who come only come around Anzac day.. Every other hotel or motel has some Aussie name like “Sydney Hotel” or “Sydney Aussie Place Hotel”… Most of them seemed from outside appearances to be pretty dodgy.. much like our camp site of the night before..  After our drinks of coke and water for breakfast we headed out to Lone Pine.

View on the Dirt Track to Lone Pine - Gallipoli

On the way up the dirt track from the coast I had just finished saying to Heather over the bike to bike radio’s that this dirt track was likely to be snake infested… bingo around the next corner a big black snake about 1.5 meters long trying to get out of the way of my bike as I rode past… Luckily I just missed it.. It still gave me a rude shock. Lone Pine is one of the key Australian battle memorials of the conflict. Something like 4000 Aussies died for the biggest advance that the ANZAC’s made in the entire conflict. It must have been pretty terrible as soon as they got to the top of lone pine there was yet another ridge higher only a few hundred meters further back.. Bob Hawke opened the memorial there while he was prime minister of Australia. The views from the memorial are fantastic along the coast with the brilliant blue waters.

View from Lone Pine - Gallipoli

After having a small break in the shade at Lone pine we headed back down to Anzac Cove. Having heard the stories about the beach landing its very difficult to comprehend how steep it actually is until you see it in the flesh.

Landscape of Anzac Cove - Gallipoli

The beach is pretty steep just by itself.. Then you take into account that there is yet another 200 meter slope just a short distance further.. It would have been a real shock for the troops.

Anzac Cove - Gallipoli

After our stay at Gallipoli we headed towards the Lunch, Ferry and onwards to Troy.. The Ferry crossing was smooth and quick. Costing us 8TL each for the motorcycles it was nice and cheap. The ride from the ferry to Troy was steaming hot and there is no accommodation  worth mentioning near Troy. It seems most people take Dolmus (shared taxi’s) from the town where the ferry crosses. A guy found us sitting in the shade looking for accommodation and asked us if we needed assistance. He directed us to a place where we could sleep/camp on the beach.. YAY..

Sunset over the Aegean Sea - Near Troy

That was where the fun began. He gave us directions to the beach and said that the French stayed there.. After riding for about 20km along a dirt track we decided to do a U-Turn… Right at that moment a car with French number plates drove past.. we decided to do an about turn and follow the car.. Thankfully we did and found a nice beach where we swam for a few hours to cool down in the late afternoon… We later pitched our tent on the beach… ahh Relaxation. Our second swim for the trip, This time in the Aegean Sea… The water was beautiful and warm. The sunset was fantastic. The following morning we woke early to go and sea Troy before the heat set in… We managed to get there around 9.  We ended up hanging around an official tour so we could hear the inside story. te he he.. After this we headed out by about 10:30 to a cafe near by so that we could plan the next section of our journey.

Ruins - Troy

After the mosquito infested campsite we decided that we would make a quick exit from Hungary and head into Romania.  Hopefully to warmer and mosquito free weather.. It was a good plan.. We got to the boarder with Romania with ease… It was rather amusing to see how long the queue space for the boarder crossing was.. It must have been 5-10km long.. eventually we arrived at the crossing and had our passports stamped and made a quick exit from the boarder crossing.. After crossing into romania you see immediately that there are all these people trying to attract you to their “booth”. However the Romanian Vignette (road tax) is not required for Motorcycles so we sped past. Don’t listen to any of the scammers who are waiting for you at the boarder to 1) change your currency, 2) get you to buy a vignette.. Its cheaper to buy the fuel, currency and vignette (if your driving a car or truck) away from the boarder.. You can get them about 5km up the road at a service station for a better price with less hassle..

As you travel further into Romania the price for fuel drops significantly.. I think they expect everyone to think wow this is cheap and then buy.. The price difference can be around 20cents/litre away from the boarder.

The road from the boarder into “greater Romania” was pretty boring across a huge flood delta where there was nothing at all worth seeing.. There are ATM’s to take cash out about 5km from the boarder too so you can get the money for your stuff there without paying the crazy exchange rates.. often 25% less in your favour.

After hearing that the roads in Romania are really really bad we found that the main route in from Hungary to Romania was actually just recently fixed, with freshly painted lines. It was really nice riding despite being boring and flat across the flood delta. We headed further into Romania and found that there is a real shortage of camp sites.. Or at least there are no camp site signs. We eventually found one really nice camp site which is run by a Romanian man and his Dutch wife. The money from the camp site goes to a local orphanage (childrens home) which is a great cause, the kids also help run the site. Everyone was really friendly and I would highly recommend it to anyone that is travelling through Romania and wanting quality affordable accommodation. Their web address is www.routeroemenie.nl. Fundatia TDS, Cornel en Anna Tarniceri, Minis 298, 317137 Minis – Romania. Telephone 004 0742768111. Email : Camping.route.Roemenie@gmail.com. There is a huge list of things to do in the surrounding area so you can stay for several days and really enjoy the area. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay for more than one night as we needed to get to Istanbul for the 6th of July. While camped we met a dutch couple that had spent the last few months (may and June) travelling around Turkey in their VW camper. They gave us some awesome tips and places to stay while travelling through Turkey. Its one thing that has been really good. Friendly campers at many of the sites giving us tips and tricks to avoid being scammed or show us where to go or not to go.

Another break on the side of the road in Romania

At the campsite we also spoke to a Belgian guy who had been spending his summers travelling around Romania for the last few years. He was telling us about the wolves, bears etc and how its not wise to camp in the forest in Romania. We also read more in the news about people being mauled by Romanian bears.. not something that we wanted to really experience so we have decided its going to be only proper campsites for us.. at least until we get to the coast.. We have never heard of bears swimming in the black sea.. although maybe they do! who will know until we actually get there…

After heading out of that campsite we headed to Deva and onwards to Sibiu in the heart of Transylvania. We found a wonderful campsite just outside of the main city where we have decided to rent a cabin and stay there for a few days to take in the area and explore (read meat drakula.. aka DrakHeather). Unfortunately its not a full moon.. dammit maybe next time.

In the previous post we made comments about the Hungarian Drivers.. Well that is nothing.. since getting to Romania they must seriously have a death wish their driving is horrendous. We have seen so many completly wrecked cars and several accidents where cards have swiped eachother.. Everyone tries to drive in the centre of the road which is horrid as they just try and push motorcycles off the road.. not by intention I hope but its crazy. And the over takes are shocking.. We just have to give them space and let them past so we don’t get caught up in their shit driving skills. At least we are staying carefuil and hopefully it will improve as we head towards the coast and Bulgaria and Turkey..

Romanian Scenery near Sibui

Michelsberg Burg Tour

The Romanian Countryside has been very beautiful. With many people waving as we ride past and everyone has been super friendly so far.

Michelsberg Burg view

I think the Romanians are very proud people and their history is very rich. So far Romania takes the cake as being our top country so far on this trip. While staying we visited the Roman Basilica Michelsberg Burg.

After waking up after a night with our joyous money experience we had our priority to find some Hungarian Florint and fast.. We needed to pay for the campsite and get some money so we could actually Live.. The one good thing was that we stocked up on food before we left the Lakes in Croatia.. At leat we could eat.. After going back to all the banks in Town to see if it was some error the night before, unfortunately the banks in that town all sucked big time. All the ATM’s said they accepted maestro cards.. Unfortunately they just don’t accept UK cards. After hunting around I was directed to a place that would exchange our Croatian currency for Hungarian Florint.. Finally we had some cash that we could pay for the accommodation with and live with… It was time to clear out of the place and start heading towards Budapest and onwards to Romania..

After such a long day getting from Croatia into Hungary we wanted to have a fairly short day and relax in the afternoon.. We came across a little town that we later found out was about to host a Hungarian Festival. We decided to camp there for the night and see what the festival had in store.. Unfortunately when we found the campsite it actually looked more like a umm… construction site or maybe more like a ghetto.. anyway we headed back to Information to find some alternative place to stay. We ended up taking a room in a guest house just down the road from Information right near the centre of town.. what a great place to stay the room was huge with a nice balcony and free washing etc.. It was a great place for us to spend a few nights and relax and see the festival. In the end we caught up with all our chores and did the washing etc.. no more stink.. Whooo Hoooo.. The festival was very traditional Hungarian and was very local centric. It was nice to see such a display and to really recoup after our long day and bad weather in Croatia. It was such a nice change. Every day in Hungary we would have steaming hot weather with huge thunderstorms in the afternoon to cool things down which was awesome to see the storms roll in..

After this we moved on staying in the biggest mosquito infested campsite to date… I guess we can call it preparation for Siberia.. The area of Hungary we now found ourselves in was full of thermal pools and beautiful country side.. It was also our first run in with the Police.. Whoo hooo.. I was shitting myself as we didn’t know what he speed limit was in this area of Hungary.. Luckily for us they just wanted to give us some random breath testing.. This was a huge relief. They checked out our passports, bikes and then our alcohol blood level.. I think it was Heathers first RBT.. We both came back with 0.00% blood alcohol which was nice given that the allowed blood alcohol level in Hungary is 0.00%.. Onwards we went through the lakes and to the campsite. We spent the evening through the now regular storm playing cards and drinking tea.. After the storms had passed we went for a walk around the Beautiful little town near the campsite. It was nice to see that the Hungarians really take pride in their towns and everything was very neat and tidy.. Unlike Croatia…. okay enough croatia bashing..

The one thing that we have been finding as we head further east the driving becomes more “special”.. we thought that the German riders in the Alps took the cake.. unfortunately that was just a taste test of what was to come.. In Hungary we have witnessed so many close call head on accidents at 100km/hour + between impatient drivers trying to over take trucks only to realise they have no power half way through the over take.. shit there was a few moments where I thought I was about to witness a massive accident. One in particular the truck had to swerve off the road as the trucks the car was trying to over take had to break hard to let the over taking van get in.. it was so close im pretty sure it was less than 50cm between a fatal accident and a complete mess where we would have surely been hurt.. So far we have seen 3 cars that have crashed down an embankment or into a tree or slid down a slope in Hungary.. not to mention all the dodgy over takes..