Month: May 2019

06 May – Turkey, 270 miles

A rather enjoyable day – I’e overheard a few people commenting it was one of their favourite days thus far. No real long motorway stretches, or super-twisty bits – just a lot of reasonable bends, a couple of rather high passes, and a LOT of potholes.
Many, many potholes – one would be cruising along quite happily, thinking the rough patches are all left behind – this stretch of road is looking rather new and fresh – come around a bend – and the two entire lanes of road are pockmarked in potholes, some very very nasty looking.
But – everybody made it through – although I was meaning to go down and check all the spokes on my wheels.
We’re staying the night at the main ski town of Turkey – Erzurum, 2,156 metres altitude, bits and pieces of snow around, none on the roads thankfully.

Also got stopped by the police, several times – the real police with assault rifles and what-not, not the Trafik Polisi I encountered the other day. Apparently we’re nearing the part of the country with some Kurds around – and the military and armed police presence is very very visible.
The first time – a roadblock in the middle of some back-country road – showed them my New Zealand passport, and the guy was very surprised, very pleased. A couple of other times – they initially pulled me over along with the car/bus I was behind – but then waved me through as they checked the other vehicle’s documents. One other time they started asking for passport, but decided against it when the other guy with me started pulling out his luggage from panniers to get to it. Instead, we ended up having a big chat, got a few photos taken, smiles, handshakes, etc. We left them rather confused after insisting they hold a small stuffed mouse for the photo opportunities – as the guy I was riding with, Dicky, has this mascot, from the children’s book he wrote, raising money for charity.
https://www.tommouse.co.uk/

05 May – Round trip, 161 miles

An optional ride-out to Mt Nemrut “Mountain of Gods”.
Some fairly twisty roads out to get there and some very small country lanes.
Visited some old Roman Bridge – where we were swamped by some school trip – about 2 dozen, or more, 9-10 year olds all wanting to practice their english. Most of the others managed to hide away, when they all converged on me… with the same questions darted at me from every direction, for about 10 minutes straight… “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?”, “Do you like Turkey?” – etc, etc. They took a couple of group photos with me and bike, and a couple of “selfies” – and I completely forgot to get one of the group photos taken with my own camera/phone.
Anyway – rather impressive bridge, considering it’s nearly 2,000 years old.
And – then on to Mount Nemrut itself – where the entire top cone is artificial – built by slaves carrying up rocks to make the mountain higher… and there’s a few giant statues of the normal stuff – gods, guardian eagles/lions, and the guy who ordered it built… rubbing elbows with the gods, obviously. Again – rather impressive.
And finally – some very very twisty roads to return to Matalya, including quite long stretches of gravel… slowly building up the experience which will be required all too soon.

04 May – Turkey, 250 miles

Leaving the hotel in Cappadocia, some Turkish journalists turned up – taking video and photos of us and bikes… a little late, as most of the group had left – but they seemed interested in getting footage of my putting-on-of-helmet. Maybe there’s going to be some Turk-TV somewhere starring yours truly.

The riding – rather good…
~55 miles of standard highway…
~30 miles over a pass – the highest we’ve been yet, I believe – 1990 metres
I think I got a little off-route after that, with some very small country roads, lots of gravel, lots of stopping and double-checking the GPS vs route-notes… about 15 miles of that
And ~150 miles of semi-motorway – lots of long curvy roads up and down gentle slopes.
Oh – and the first traffic police interaction. Apparently 3 other guys in the group got given tickets, but I just got pulled over, and given a friendly/jokey chat “Ah – you’re going to Beijing, we come with you, which country you from, what’s your name, etc…” and eventually “oh, and, by the way – up to 100, no problem… 101 – ticket” (the speed limit on single-carriageways is 90. I’m pretty sure I was going well over 100 when the radar clocked me).

Got to Malayta fairly early – I think I was in the last four to leave this morning, and maybe(?)first four to arrive this afternoon.
So – spent the afternoon using the decent internet to update some previous/missing posts (Istanbul, and Cappadocia) with photos/etc.
Another hotel where we’re staying 2 nights – with an optional ride-out to Mount Nemrut tomorrow – which I’m almost certainly going to do.

Two nights staying in a cave in Cappadocia. Quite a nice cave… spa bath and sauna in my own cave/room.

On the day “off” – first – balloon ride. Up very early, to then stand around waiting for a couple of hours, pending the “go/no-go” decision. We were the only ones who turned up so early – everybody else turned up an hour or two later – timed for the actual take-off.
Anyway… the actual balloon ride – I wasn’t too sure if I was too fussed about doing this… but am rather pleased I did. Spectacular, and with a very skilled “pilot” who took us down/up to just brush against trees and/or rock formations. Probably the most impressive bit – which observers on the ground got for free – was the sheer quantity of balloons… I counted 125, and am pretty sure I would have missed a couple-dozen.
And finally – the pilot landed us right on the trailer for the balloon basket… not bad balloon-driving. Especially compared to one we saw come in a few minutes later… which had to abort the landing – started climbing again… at the mercy of the wind – no idea where those customers ended up.

Back to the hotel – had a short look around the town of Ürgüp where we were staying… that took about 5 minutes. Lots to see around the area – but I couldn’t be bothered getting the bike out of the pack in the hotel car-park – so instead just relaxed, caught up on some sleep, and made use of the jacuzzi/spa-bath.

02 May – Turkey, 325 miles

From Safranbolu – a few twisty roads, across some high passes, long stretches of road-works (a long down-hill stretch of gravel – has been useful hearing how others coped with that), then some motorway to get the miles done.
A bit of poor weather in the morning – waterproofs on… I took them off around midday, then rode into our hotel several hours later just as a massive storm came in – lightning, gale-force gusts of wind, etc.
The hotel here – is based in some of the Cappadocia Caves… rather awesome. my own particular room, happens to have a spa bath, and a “Turkish Bath” (ie: sauna)… not all the rooms do (although apparently one has a 10-foot-squared spa-pool)… not bad for staying in a cave for a couple of nights.

Another non-riding break-day already – 2 nights here in the Caves… probably a balloon ride early tomorrow morning, weather pending.

01 May – Turkey, 264 miles

After a couple of days of non-riding, straight tourism in Istanbul – back on the bike. A ferry across the Bosphorus Strait – then a couple-hundred miles on motorway, before some nice roads to yet another World Heritage Site – Safranbolu – early enough to wander around the streets for a few hours.
I walked up a sizable hill when I saw the sign for the City History Museum – probably the most disappointing museum I’ve ever seen… just a house with any random crap the locals donated after the city was designated a Heritage Site by UNESCO – it seems. One highlight – an ABUS padlock, probably 80 years old at most, labelled “a door lock from the city of Safranbolu”.

Ferry,
~190 miles of boring Turkish motorway
~23 miles of highway
~23 miles of twisty roads, on some odd road surface – never knowing if it was slippery or good or pot-holes hidden in shadows
And finally ~28 miles of semi-highway to get us into Safranbolu