You could have got visa here

I'm in Ankara. "You could have got your Iran visa here". Much easier and quieter city. Too late for that now, I'm here and on another quest. New tyres. Unfortunately it's Saturday night, shops now closed and wont reopen till monday. Bugger it, another day delayed.

So I take the time to catch up on some things but Im still anxious about having to drive back to Istanbul again.

Monday morning, I have my plan. I have several bike shops I can visit but the first one comes up with the goods. They don't have my tyres in Ankara, no one has, but they can ship in for me. In fact the owner suggests I get them sent to my next destination. Great that will do me, I can carry on travelling and hopefully all will be well later in the week. They even have new LED lights to replace the cheap hong kong ones that lasted about 2 weeks.

Yigit Yildiz my savour

The guys in the bike shop had "Sons of anarchy" leather waistcoats, which troubled me a bit, but then realised they were the nicest blokes, and helpful too. So Yigit's boss recommended I head to Anatayla where he will forward the tyres and other bits too. He has a contact there that can fit them for me. Problem solved then.

So Im heading south to a weird and wonderful place called Goreme in the Cappadocia region of Turkey.

head to Cappadocia first then Anatlaya later in week.

Goreme

So I'm chugging along quite happily listening to music. Pink Floyd stereo wandering sound effects around my head. I come around this bend and get an image of this. Moomin land,  Clangers, or Star Wars. If I was on strange drugs I'd be "wow man! look at those martians"! or something like that I imagine.
These lumps have been carved out as houses, people live in these. Great idea if you're keen with pick and shovel, it makes sense. The rock is so thick, they stay cool in hot summer days and help stay warm in the bitter cold nights here.

Lovely spot, although its full of bus loads of tourists from all over Europe. I meet someone from Perth Scotland, then another couple from Perth Australia. There I was thinking I've travelled the back n beyond to seek out new life, new civilisations, but the place is full of day trippers and camera snapping kebab munching coach riding adventure seekers.

Cave bedroom

I decide to slum it again and get my self a cave for the night. Its not much more expensive than camping and its bloody hot outside so cave dwelling makes sense. I feel all sort of at home here.

The staff of this place are more than helpful and I'm impressed with their hospitality. I find the local beer shop, a place to crash on the verandah and catch up with lovely couple Andrew & Louise. They live in London although Louise is originally from Melbourne.

I subject them to hours of waffle, a sort of therapy for me, I haven't had a good chinwag for so long and before I know it 3 hours pass. This is proof to me that I need people contact more than I thought, not just, "Hello", "Goodbye", "How much"? etc but a real conversation with people who appreciate the same. At least I hope they do. Tongue in cheek I thank them for the therapy session and they head off to dinner, later than planned I think.
It's hard to be funny to someone when they don't understand your culture or language. I think its important to laugh a lot and believe having very simple dull conversations are meaningless unlesss at work for example. Anyway, strangely enough, after this I feel a lot a happier and crash into bed earlier than usual but I'm quite happy .... until 2am

The uncooked chicken kebab I ate earlier in Ankara has overcome my digestive system and I'm up sitting on the toilet with eyes half shut wondering why it took so long to poison me. This repeats every hour until 9 when I admit to failure sleeping and get up. Not as if I've really went to bed.

Goreme

I did manage to get out today and managed to make it around some of the tourist circuit whilst carefully planning strategic toilet stops. After 2pm I'm strangely knackered and head back for a break from the heat and for a seat on my favourite porcelain. This sets the scene for the rest of the day.

Its now 10pm, I've managed to eat some fruit which hasn't exploded out the other end. I have emergency imodium at the ready and anti-biotics in case it gets worse. I might need it tomorrow as I'm up at 4am to take a different ride.

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Up there? No problem! Down there? No worries mate!