Turkey

Turkey - Kebabs, Bazaars, Kebabs, People, Traffic, Kebabs, Mosques, Food, Kebabs, Heat, Landscapes, Tea, Generosity. A few of the words that spring to mind on reflection. 

Our first night in Turkey was a bit of a shock. With Ramadan having just drawn to a close, the people were out to eat and be merry. We aimed to stay on the coast between the Greek border and Istanbul. All of the hotels we approached were full so we were forced to pitch the tents in an overcrowded car park with one toilet shared between five or six hundred people. It was this night that convinced us that carrying the extra weight of the tent was no longer worth the versatility in accommodation options, so we jettisoned it. 

Weary eyed from a sleepless night, we geared up to brave the Istanbul traffic that we'd been warned of. It turned out to be no problems, and we parked the bikes up for a three night stay in Beyoglu, just north of the Istanbul old town. Big expectations can sometimes lead to big disappointment, but Istanbul ticked all the boxes. We spent two days, walking, eating, drinking and general touristing. 

After saying goodbye to Paddy as he heads for Gallipoli and then back west, we headed for Bolu and then onto Ankara. Ankara found its way onto the itinerary as it has an Embassy of Uzbekistan, and we needed visas. We had a successful morning and walked away with visas in hand!

We have been receiving a steady flow of gifts from the generous people of Turkey....

Every time we stopped the bike, we were met with people offering help, tea, melons, bread, advice, olives and a general hand waving inter-language chat. The generosity, honesty and sincerity of the Turkish people really blew us away.

We'd heard nothing but great reports on Cappadocia, which became our next stop by default. After a straight and boring trip down a dual carriageway, we finally rounded a bend and found ourselves surrounded by a landscape of so-called "fairy chimneys". We stayed in a small village called Göreme and spent 2 nights in a cave-like room that had been carved into the sandstone cliff. Wanting to do a little exploring, we pulled the runners on for a bit of walking. There were lots of organised tours that we could have joined, but we liked the idea of going for a solo hike through the valley. After a little research, we were quite confident we could do the 2 hour 'Pigeon Valley' hike before the afternoon heat set in. In true 'us' style, we thought we would be fine without any maps or form of navigation. We set off up what we thought was the right valley - it wasn't. We came across a local who said we could carry on and we assumed it would meet up with the original path we wanted. He warned us that some parts could be difficult. It turns out that there wasn't really a path and we spent the next 2 hours climbing and crawling to cover a distance of a few hundred metres. A short 5 hours later in mid-thirties blistering sun, we had made the round trip we had planned. Sunburn and heat exhaustion aside, we were happy to have been a little lost as we saw some sights that were truly off the beaten track.

From Cappadocia, we had to choose a route. The choices were to head back up north to the coast or stay central and head in the south eastern direction. We decided to cruise straight through the middle and drop down south a little. Not really having any idea on this area, we just went day by day asking locals along the way for advice on places to see. Our first stop was at Kahramanmaras which is famous for its ice-cream, so naturally we had to try one. We also braved the local street food which was the best feed we've had to date (I (Nat) took a little convincing!)

Our plan was then to head to the mountains. We stopped in a town at a Honda dealer to pick up a spare part and an hour later we were convinced that we were a little too far south, which put us too close to the Syrian border, and they almost persuaded us to head straight north and bail on our original plan. After checking the news and the Smart Traveller website, we were reassured we'd be fine! We could sense the increased military presence but in a way it was nice to know they were vigilant against the morons trying to work their way north. Carrying on, we ended up at Nemrut Mountain where we climbed the hill to watch the sunset with some Gods whose heads had fallen off their shoulders. We stayed in a little pension with a family who looked after us very well with all our meals sourced fresh from their garden, chickens and all.

By this stage, we were pretty keen to make it to Lake Van, however it was just a little far to ride in a day. We stopped in a city called Diyarbakir and weren't expecting too much. Having no accommodation organised (this seems to be working best for us!) we rolled into the city centre and parked the bike. A local guy approached us and offered his house through 'Couchsurfing'. Turns out that he also owns a motorbike and is about to set off on a big adventure to the Arctic. Murat was extremely generous to let two randoms into his house and we were very grateful! He unfortunately got held up with his mechanic trying to get his heated handgrips fitted (understandable heading to the Arctic) which left us wandering the streets for a mere 11 hours in +40C heat. In true Turkish style, we met some local Kurdish men who fed us wine, told us stories of their uncle with 4 wives and 56 children, shared past girlfriend stories and generally kept us entertained for hours!! A stopover we will probably never forget...


We spent the next 2 nights in Van before heading to Dogubayazit- very excited to cross the border into Iran! Let the fun begin!!