Back across the Dardanelles
Wednesday 1st October 2014
Bob, Margaret and Mick must leave for the airport at 7am, so it's an early start this morning. I head for Selcuk and the Hotel Ave Maria, find the guys and we have breakfast together.
Then we head north on the motorway to Izmir - more alarms at the barriers - and then north, north, north towards the Greek border. I ride ahead and we play leapfrog for a few hundred kilometres. I recorded the ferry location in Cannalkale in my navi on the way down so I find the ferry with no problem and cross over to Eceabat.
I assume the other two are somewhere behind me so I sit at the ferry port cafe for a couple of hours and monitor the traffic, looking for them.
Eceabat is not a bad place for hanging around. It is very sleepy most of the time but every thirty minutes or so all hell breaks loose as a ferry pulls in and a chaotic scene, all hooting and revving, ensues. Five minutes later we all fall asleep again.
At 6pm I decide enough is enough so I check in at the Grand Eceabat Hotel just across the street from the ferry terminal. It's a lovely old fashioned and elegant hotel with a rooftop restaurant, cost is just 70TL (£19) for bed and breakfast. Can't complain at that!
I can see the ferry terminal from my room on the third floor so wnenever a ferry docks I look out for two German registered bikes. but there is no sign of the others and my text messages go unanswered.
I can see my bike too, parked below my window by an imposing statue of Ataturk outside the hotel's main entrance. The sun goes down with no sign of my mates.
Bob, Margaret and Mick must leave for the airport at 7am, so it's an early start this morning. I head for Selcuk and the Hotel Ave Maria, find the guys and we have breakfast together.
Then we head north on the motorway to Izmir - more alarms at the barriers - and then north, north, north towards the Greek border. I ride ahead and we play leapfrog for a few hundred kilometres. I recorded the ferry location in Cannalkale in my navi on the way down so I find the ferry with no problem and cross over to Eceabat.
 |
| On the Dardanelles ferry |
I assume the other two are somewhere behind me so I sit at the ferry port cafe for a couple of hours and monitor the traffic, looking for them.
Eceabat is not a bad place for hanging around. It is very sleepy most of the time but every thirty minutes or so all hell breaks loose as a ferry pulls in and a chaotic scene, all hooting and revving, ensues. Five minutes later we all fall asleep again.
 |
| Keeping an eye out for Charly and Karl-Heinz |
At 6pm I decide enough is enough so I check in at the Grand Eceabat Hotel just across the street from the ferry terminal. It's a lovely old fashioned and elegant hotel with a rooftop restaurant, cost is just 70TL (£19) for bed and breakfast. Can't complain at that!
 |
| My bike guarded by Ataturk on his pedestal |
 |
| Sunset over the Dardanelles |
I can see the ferry terminal from my room on the third floor so wnenever a ferry docks I look out for two German registered bikes. but there is no sign of the others and my text messages go unanswered.
I can see my bike too, parked below my window by an imposing statue of Ataturk outside the hotel's main entrance. The sun goes down with no sign of my mates.
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