The Mediterranean at Last
Friday 26th September 2014
Well I guess it had to happen. I've been carrying the special BMW Heath Robinson puncture repair kit for years and never had need to use it. Until today.
Couldn't have been
in a worse place either, doing 140kph in the outside lane of the
Gaziantep to Mersin motorway when the front wheel deflated. Rapidly. For
a second I thought it was a side wind blast from the massive truck I
was passing as the steering went AWOL.
Charly was following me. He saw my frantic 'throat cutting' gesture as he flashed past and I veered through three lanes of traffic onto the hard shoulder. Accelerating hard he caught up with K-H and they both pulled up half a kilometre ahead.
While I am unstrapping the luggage to get at the repair kit they wait for a lull in the traffic and perform a nifty u-turn and ride back the wrong way down the hard shoulder to join me. You can get away with pretty much anything on Turkish roads!
So half an hour later Charly, who has done this before, has used the special tool provided in the kit to rive out the hole and force in the repair bung, liberally coated in adhesive. And glory be, Charly has packed a compressor so we don't have to use the tiny gas cylinders supplied to inflate the tyre.
And now 1,500 kilometres on, it's still holding.
From there on it's all plain sailing. As we near the end of the motorway we get our first glimpse of the Mediterranean. At first we dribble through a series of seaside townships but we are soon on the old coast road to Silifke.
We stop top photograph the twin castles at Kizkalese, one on the shore and the other out in the sea.
Then on through Tasucu where the ferry leaves for North Cyprus. I took this ferry a few years ago and it is where I first met the beautiful and talented Ms Shayna Wiseman (hope you're reading this Shae Weiss - buy her CDs folks!).
The narrow old coast road winds along the cliff side in scary loops, occasionally diving inland through a notch in the hills. This may be the last chance to ride it like this because a brand new highway is under construction, a broad strip of asphalt and numerous tunnels will soon whisk drivers along the Turquoise Coast with ease.
With the bright setting sun making riding seriously difficult K-H finds a hotel sign pointing down through the trees to the beach. The Gunasti hotel is faded rococo seediness in spades, but it's right on the beach and for the first time since leaving Kusadasi I can swim. The sea is slightly warmer than the air temperature as the sun falls down behind the western hills. Wonderful!
Well I guess it had to happen. I've been carrying the special BMW Heath Robinson puncture repair kit for years and never had need to use it. Until today.
 |
| Hole through the centre of the tyre |
Charly was following me. He saw my frantic 'throat cutting' gesture as he flashed past and I veered through three lanes of traffic onto the hard shoulder. Accelerating hard he caught up with K-H and they both pulled up half a kilometre ahead.
 |
| Not the ideal place to stop for repairs |
While I am unstrapping the luggage to get at the repair kit they wait for a lull in the traffic and perform a nifty u-turn and ride back the wrong way down the hard shoulder to join me. You can get away with pretty much anything on Turkish roads!
 |
| Charly gets to work |
So half an hour later Charly, who has done this before, has used the special tool provided in the kit to rive out the hole and force in the repair bung, liberally coated in adhesive. And glory be, Charly has packed a compressor so we don't have to use the tiny gas cylinders supplied to inflate the tyre.
And now 1,500 kilometres on, it's still holding.
From there on it's all plain sailing. As we near the end of the motorway we get our first glimpse of the Mediterranean. At first we dribble through a series of seaside townships but we are soon on the old coast road to Silifke.
We stop top photograph the twin castles at Kizkalese, one on the shore and the other out in the sea.
 |
| One castle on the shoreline |
 |
| ...and another out in the sea |
Then on through Tasucu where the ferry leaves for North Cyprus. I took this ferry a few years ago and it is where I first met the beautiful and talented Ms Shayna Wiseman (hope you're reading this Shae Weiss - buy her CDs folks!).
The narrow old coast road winds along the cliff side in scary loops, occasionally diving inland through a notch in the hills. This may be the last chance to ride it like this because a brand new highway is under construction, a broad strip of asphalt and numerous tunnels will soon whisk drivers along the Turquoise Coast with ease.
 |
| The Gunasti hotel - faded roccoco |
 |
| Time for a swim |
With the bright setting sun making riding seriously difficult K-H finds a hotel sign pointing down through the trees to the beach. The Gunasti hotel is faded rococo seediness in spades, but it's right on the beach and for the first time since leaving Kusadasi I can swim. The sea is slightly warmer than the air temperature as the sun falls down behind the western hills. Wonderful!
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