Beautiful Antalya

Antalya

I didn't exactly get the best feeling whilst driving down to Antalya. I was tired, tummy bug and driving at night. All guaranteed to make you grumpy. When I arrived at my hotel I simply went to bed.

Next day I was determined that I'd have a nice day but had to get my tyres fitted, hopefully they turned up at the garage on Saturday morning. Sadly, they didn't. I'd have to wait till Monday now. Another two days delay. With that, I had no choice but to enjoy the days there, and I did.

Rengin, Andrew and Jacqui

I met Andrew and Jacqui from UK, lovely people, Andrew is called the Colonel as he was in the army and the name has stuck. Jacqui flies with Thompson all over the world. We were all staying at a beautiful place called the Kaucuk Otel run by one of the nicest people, Rengin. This is not her day job though, she works as MD for a large banking group in Istanbul. She pours her heart into this place and it shows. The staff are all lovely and I feel I could stay here for weeks.

Kaucuk Otel Gardens

I've bumped into some really nice people here. Whilst wiring up some new lights on the bike, a local man saw that I'd prepared to change the engine oil. He went away and returned with tools to do the job. Before I know it he's changing the oil for me. How good is that?

 

My Mate Jeroen in Iran has a broken KTM and asks me to check with local dealer in Antalya for some parts. When I get there I see they are also dealers for Triumph. This is rather surprising as according to Triumph website, there is no support in Turkey. I buy a new oil filter and a spare chain. Anyway, I can't help Jeroen as it would take 3 weeks for the bits to arrive. I ponder the idea of staying ... , nice place to stay but I must go.
 
Up to the local bike shop and thankfully the tyres arrive. The owner then shows me where to have fitted, drives across town and leaves me at tyre fitters. Another kind chap!

South Turkey coast on way to Iran

So that's it. No more reason to delay, lets Go Iran! So the next few days are easy across south coast then up to the border.
 






Next:
Rough camping for beginners.

Hardest decision and other more important things.

I haven't mentioned before. I have been struggling with a black cloud hanging over. My dad has been I'll.  He was diagnosed with cancer in May. I flew over to UK to see him and spend some I've together then. We never discussed it  but since I was heading off on this trip, I felt it may have been the last time we meet.

I received the news that he was admitted to hospital and wasn't good. Tonight I talked to him over the phone in hospital. Just before i dialed him I struggled with what to say. This was the most horrible and wonderful moment. I'm not feeling wonderful. Imagine you could have a chat with your relative just one more time.

With this in mind I'm pondering if I should go to see him or not. I suspect he might tell me to bugger off on my trip.

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

OK its stupid o'clock in the morning and the bus driver seems to forget me but in the end all is good and we set off to blow up some balloons. None of this childish stuff, real hot air balloons.

Now I must admit, a few of us were showing signs of apprehension getting in the basket, myself to some extent a little. Forget all that! Once this ancient craft lifts off, it's the most serene flying experience you could imagine. Although I'm still sort of tired and slightly grumpy from dodgy tummy,(the Imodium seems to have worked so far). This suspended basket drifts upwards in silence (with exception of the the noise from the occasional gas burners) in such a gentle and relaxed way. No one is stressed, if anything, any trepidation is long gone on the faces of the other 8 passengers. Amazing experience..

David from Gold Coast

David is the Aussie pilot. He's shows us that its easy to hug the contours of the valleys. We're a few feet from the edge of many of the weird shaped rocks and hills below us. We can ascend amazingly quickly as well. No worries mate.
I'm still in Goreme, a weird and wonderful place where some houses have been  carved out of the rocks. The strange upward rock formations are lava deposits from the nearby extinct volcanoes, eroded by millions of years of weather.

Goreme from the sky

I've also made a momentious decision. Well it's not that major but I've been pondering this since I hit bumpy roads of turkey. I've decided to lose as much weight as possible, no not me, thats well overdue. Lose some weight of my noble steed. I reckon the bumps and extra weight are going to wreck the suspension so when I get to Antalya it's all being sorted and stuff sent home.


So anyway, I'm way behind schedule so decide to take a long drive to Antalya, 8 hours. It turns out much much more. My faith in trusting the maps loaded to my gps is lost after it attempts to take me 300kms  further north than I need to be. Its getting late and the GPS says arrive 11:30pm. That can't be right.

So I stop roughly half way to see what the problem is. Then when I try and fix the now failing touch screen and start the bike. Nothing happens.

The alarm immobilizer thing has done its job. Immobilized me and alerted everyone in 50 mile radius that I'm stealing my bike. This is at the side of a busy road, it's hot, I'm not feeling well and the f$%kin bike won't start.

I throw a tantrum, my sunglasses, gloves and swear a lot.

Suddenly, this guy appears from the nearby gatehouse of a restaurant cafe complex with a chair and a cup of tea for me. He says, "here, you sit. sugar"?
I'm gobsmacked and speechless. I'm just standing there staring at my gloves and glasses he's picked up for me.

puzzled security guy with tea

If I saw some foreign nutter throwing stuff around whilst dancing to the police siren sound, I'd stay well away and report him to the authorities. Not this guy. "here, you sit, have tea" and walks away.
I add the two sugar cubes, sit down and sip tea whilst staring at my dead bike.
Thats lovely but tea won't start the bike. I'm still getting my head round this weird situation.

Anyway, a cup of tea, a desperate phone call to my support crew in Australia and UK. (my wife and the guys at Youles in Manchester) I've been given the instructions on how to remove and bypass the alarm system.

the bloody alarm system

I hack the bloody nuisance alarm thing and connect the wires. Check and double check. The guy offering tea wants to help but I have to assure him I know what I'm doing. So why so nervous when turning the key for the first time then? I decide to record on video some more swearing and hand the camera to the tea guy. I turn the key and it works! I'm elated.

Meanwhile I'm I baking heat, feeling I'll from my tempestious Turkey toilet tour and now dizzy to boot. I really don't feel good but the engine running makes me feel a lot better, even if I don't seem to have much strength left. I need a rest but have 5 hours to go, according to  my gps. This will be hard.

I thank the tea guy for his amazing kindness and carry the chair back to the gatehouse with tea cup. I better get a move on.

I hate riding a bike in the dark. It gets dark.  Now I've learned the wonderful 7000k super duper blue light bulb I bought in Ankara is as good as a candle in a brown ale bottle. I cant see a thing. The roads have faded markings so their whereabouts are a guess. I have to keep close to the other nutters in white transit vans to stay alive on the road. Then again maybe it's safer I stay away from them. Many times I gesture obscenities to the others behind me keen to get a ride on my back seat. I'm going at 150 kph and these guys have to get home for a nice cup of tea and a kebab before it gets cold. I swear they are 2 inches from my back wheel.  I also swear a lot.

I coax the gps to find me my hotel, booked earlier that morning. I'm so pleased to see the wonderful crisp sheets of white Andrex in the bathroom. However, the pure white sheets of the bed linen worry me and I have scary thoughts about how I will explain to the chambermaid next day that I've not been well. Vegemite and chocolate come to mind.

Despite all this and not feeling the best, I have the most wonderful time in Antalya, meet the most amazing people and make one of the the most difficult phone calls of my life.

Next:
Keep going or not?

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.

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

Stuffed in Turkey?

I saw a Turkey, well a lot of turkeys in cages on the back of a truck just after I crossed the border. This one great big Turkey was staring at me. I've never been stared at by a Turkey. I spent the next 50 kms thinking about this Turkey and the fact I was now in Turkey. what the hell are you thinking Steven?  Plug in some music for god's sake! My old beaten ipod gives me "George Michaels "Last Christmas" Honest!

That was last week.

This week;

I gave myself a slap! I've been in a weird state of mind of late.

I find myself on this amazing adventure and all I can think about is all sorts of crap like new tyres, leaving on time, arriving on time, worrying about the bike, getting caught tortured and killed by Taliban, (well yes that is acceptable surely), will my wife leave me, will my business go down the plug hole, will I get all video good enough for national TV, will I crash and die, will I get bored, will you get bored ..... the list goes on and on.

Ted Simon said to me, "I learned to stop worrying, all will be okay"! When will I think this way Ted?

For those of you who don't know Ted Simon is the bloke who in 1973 drove a Triumph Tiger around the world, taking 4 years to do so and wrote a well celebrated book, Jupiters Travels to suit. He was brave enough to do the same in 2004 and pops up in Long Way Round, in Mongolia. (If you don't know Long Way Round, where have you been?)

Ted and me have two things in common, I'm taking a Triumph Tiger (allbeit a newer sportier model)  and we both like good quality red wine. I could add that Ted seems to have beautiful women follow him everywhere he goes but that's where my rock star status ends.

If someone else was riding with me they'd say "Seriously, you have been a bit of a pain in the arse and need to fix your attitude" Agree. I do. I'd put it down to being alone for too long or something but for some reason I've seen the dark in all things of late. So I have come to the conclusion that I need a really challenging off road section where I come blasting through the dust like a hero on his bike to save the damsel in distress, or perhaps just get through the dust without falling off perhaps. I need that sort of day when I can feel good about acheiving something. All I've done so far is drive. I may as well get a bus.

view from my cheap room

Ah! I have to tell you, I'm sitting with a glass of wine. That's not unusual but I'm in a hostel next door to my hotel. It has a sign in the bathroom saying "Don't put paper down the toilet"! Where the hell are you supposed to put it. I ignore the sign and nothing horrible happens. Talking of horrible, that reminds me. My first arrival into Albania was scary, well, the petrol station toilet was. There was this horrible smell. As I was busy in the loo I realized what the smell was. The bucket next to the toilet hole in the floor was full of paper. The top paper faced me and it was all used. The shiit faced me and transmitted the smell directly to my face. It was the most offensive thing I've come across but I had the choice. Stop peeing? No , first thought was ... Go with the flow so to speak. The smell was still horrible and I shut my eyes and held my breath but the shiit covered paper still faced me from the bucket. I nearly vomited.

Anyway, enough of that. So I'm getting frustrated with being stuck in Istanbul and I'm going to head to the North coast, the Black Sea and then perhaps onto Ankara. I hope to pick up some new tyres in Ankara. They don't need replaced yet but they will in Iran and I doubt I'll be able to ship replacements into Iran bearing in mind all the trade sanctions at moment so I'd better do now.


In my haste to get out of the city, I forget that East of here many parts and equipment are  not easily available. I'll be stuffed.  I find this out when I settle at my hotel and hear from many people telling me to pick up in Istanbul. No, I don't want to drive back there again! I ponder this idea for a while but decide in the need to progress East, I reckon I can maybe pick up tyres in Ankara. I'll try that, meanwhile aware that I may yet have to drive all the way back, 500kms!

Next:
Ankara. "You can pick up visa here"!