Turkey Bimble 2014

Friday 19th September 2014 Okay, it's 5:45am on the west coast of Turkey and pitch black as I fix the luggage onto the bike. It is almost 900 klicks to Cappadocia via Izmir, Afyon, Konya and Aksaray. The plan is to set off early and see how far I get before tiredness wins out. Konya, the religious capital of Turkey, is the primary aim, but let's see how it goes. I head over the mountains to the west of Kusadasi as the sun starts to make inroads into the gloom. It's a windy mountain road until I hit the motorway and turn north for Izmir. This road is new and has an electronic toll system that is a complete mystery to me and presumably for any other foreign visitors.   Always a friendly welcome at pitstops I reckon it is controlled by some sort of transponder in or on your vehicle, but there are no explanation signs, no evidence of a method of purchase and no personnel manning the barriers to provide assistance. The upshot is that...

Saturday 20th September 2014 There is a knock on our hotel room door at ten to five in the morning. I am up and about but the other two are still asleep. Come, Come the balloon bus is waiting. It's our early mornIng wake up call. The silly old Germans have forgotten to put their phone time forward one hour since we entered Greece, and so are are snoring on, blissfully unaware of the time. I thought 4:45 was the wake up time, not the actual bus time. As for that much vaunted German efficiency, it's not present and correct today at least. So it's a pair of pretty sleepy fellows who stumble out of their respective pits and clamber onto the bus, hastily stuffing shirts into trousers and checking they have cameras and money.   The Goreme open air museum In the event it's a completely busted flush. The weather looked ominous last night with thunder and lightning, though not much rain. This morning the sky is overcast and more importantly, it...

Sunday 21st September 2014  This morning everything runs smoothly. The balloons will fly at dawn, around 6am here. We are all ready for our  04:50 pickup. Because of yesterday's cancellation Charly and I will fly with Kapadokia Balloons and Karl-Heinz goes with our original company, Göreme Balloons. After a simple breakfast we are bussed out to the take-off field where lots of balloons are preparing to fly.   Majestic sight Chocks away It is still dark and blasts of flame spit noisily from burners as the balloons start to inflate. There are maybe 20 balloons at this set off point and it is an extraordinary sight. At first they take shape lying on their sides. Then as the hot air is directed into them there comes a point where they rise majestically to an upright position for all the world like giant beasts shrugging off sleep and lumbering to their feet.   Looking down Underneath hangs a basket, aluminium struts with thick leatherette p...

Monday 22nd September 2014  Sleepy heads Not for the first time Charly & K-H snore away as I get on with the serious business of getting this blog together. It's quiet in the heart of the city this morning, though as usual I am awakened by the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer. Breakfast is the normal Turkish, lots of variety, and good bread today, not the flat bread that is more and more common this far east.     Good Turkish breakfast at the Hotel Mahd We leave  Elâzığ at 09:30 and head back onto the D300 east, through Bingol and Mus to the shores of Lake Van. Much of the road is new and fast, 4 lanes with just a strip of tarmac separating, no barrier.    Near Bingol Vast Anatolian plains - watch out for flocks of sheep Frequently we must slow or stop because a shepherd is guiding his flock across the busy road. It's a dangerous manoeuvre but the truck drivers seem to respect the holdup and wait pat...

Tuesday 23rd September 2014  We have breakfast in the pink dining room of the Cevizlibag Otel and are away by 9am. Having failed miserably to pay the speeding fines at the Post Office yesterday, our first stop is at the town bank where Charly and Karl-Heinz waste an hour in a second futile attempt to pay the speeding tickets they picked up a few days ago. Being a good boy I have no fine to pay unlike my criminal riding companions.   Waiting for the criminals to pay for their crimes Erik contemplates Lake Van Next to the service station for oil. The bike has used half a litre and needs a top up. It costs 25TL (£6.80) for a litre of semi-synthetic. Our route takes us along the north shore of Lake Van then north and east to the Iranian border. The landscape is chilling. There was a huge earthquake in this region in 2011 and recovery work is still ongoing.   Adventure rider Charly Kaller Earthquake country The road is wide...