Meet the Flintstones

After leaving Veysels we made our way to Olympus, a hippy village near to an ancient hill site called Chimerea where small fires burn on the hillside due to the natural gas that seeps out. Olympus is something of a hippy village, populated primarily by Austalians, New Zealanders and Annoying Americans who always have the habit of declaring who they dislike at the beginning of any conversation. It turns out people from Jersey are T*ss*rs according to Uncle Sam.

We went to see the flames after dark and after a 1km trek up the mountainside were greeted by a crowd of people crowded round what looked like a few camp fires. Although interesting, I didn't find the fires too spectactular, that was until I discovered it was possible to freak out the Japanese tourists by blowing out the fire they were taking a photo of, then re-lighting it with a lighter. Much more fun and exciting once singed hair becomes part of the outcome.

My puncture had returned as predicted so I stuck a new tube in only to find that it went down instantly since I must have pinched it putting it in. George was an expert and patched it in no time. The next morning as we were preparing to go I was sitting next to my loaded bike inspecting the potential route on the GPS when a curious hissing starts eminating from my bike. For some reason the tyre decided to deflate instantly and after inspection and sticking one of Morgan's tubes in we couldn't find a single hole on the tube. Mysterious.

We set off a bit later than expected to make a 600km ride to Goreme in Cappadocia. A long day. It was very hot on the coast and full of suicidal tourist buses who cruise along happilly at 100km/hr and maintain that speed when approaching any hazard, including cross roads and traffic lights. Morgan was almost taken out by one idiot who decided to overtake him then pull in half way through the manouvre.

After turing off the coast road to ascend the mountains things got much cooler and before long we were in the Anatolian plains with straight roads lasting up to 100kms. Not too exciting but interesting to ride on. We arrived in Goreme shortly after sunset and made our way to a hotel George has stayed in prior to his trip to Cape Town, 2 years ago. Amazingly they remembered him and we were given a luxurious room carved into the rock.

The region was once volcanic and people here carved their homes out of the curiously shaped volcanic clay. Sometimes I have the impression that I'm living in a cross between Bedrock and a Quarry. We discovered more about the region after taking an organised tour yesterday which worked out cheaper than us riding around since petrol in Turkey costs about ?1.50 a litre. We visited an underground city, used as a haven against the invading hoards, which descends through 8 levels to 57 metres below the ground into hard rock. There are also a great number of churches with frescos in the area as well as a stunningly surreal landscape.

On the Irananian Visa front I have been in direct contact with Persian Voyages who appear to be doing everything possible to let me get through. I have created an itinerary which involves crossing the country in 12 days (possible but unlikely) and may require a guide for the duration of my passage. The only problem being that a guide costs $200 a day but no one will meet me at the border. The good news is that I have asked to collect the visa at Erzerum meaning I don't have to waste time and money back tracking to Istanbul.

In the event of being unable to obtain a visa my backup plan is to go to Tashkent in Uzbekistan and fly from there to India, but I have high hopes to visit Persia Inshallah.

Fun In The Sun

For the past few days we have been staying with Veysel, who George met riding a KTM 640 Adventure down through Africa a couple of years ago. His house and his hospitality are both off the scale. His pad is on the side of a valley hill overlooking a small town and the beach. His balcony is almost perfect, with a tree over it for shade and enough wind during the day to keep cool. I've been sleeping on it on an inflatable bed combined with a mosquito net which so far has kept me bite free.

Whilst we've been here we've been on a day trip to Dalyan and a beach where turtles lay their eggs. Morgan was convinced that after getting the boat to one end of the beach, there was a lagoon to swim in at the other end, and thus after 45 minutes of walking, in full motorcycle boots for me, we arrived to find that yes there was a lagoon, but no you cannot swim in it. We then discovered that the last boat, 5km back down the beach, left in a couple of hours, and thus had a quick dip and then set off back.

No lagoon here!

Just down the road from us is a beach where Kitesurfers on, where we have spent a couple of days relaxing. The road to it is gravel and sand, great fun on the KTM's but it shook my wiring loom about and caused a short, causing the indicators to make the rev counter blip, eventually blowing the main fuse and causing the alarm to go haywwire. After several unsuccessful attempts to fix it including individually wrapping each bare connection in gaffa tape and tie wraps I covered the entire loom in tape which so far seems to have solved the problem.

Morgan and I went out the other day to find some dirt roads which criss cross the pine mountains here. I managed to fall off a few times as usual, mainly during slow stuff where I try to slowly manouevre the bike over a lump and discover that my short legs can't reach the ground. Speed is the key, but I also reckon having almost bald tyres doesn't help either. I plan on getting as many miles as I can out of these before I change somewhere in Eastern Turkey.

After our short forray I returned to find that my front tyre had gone a bit squishy. After removing the tube I found that it was peppered with thorns, and thus after the use of a few patches spent 2 hours trying to get the wheel back on the bike only to discover that I was putting it on backwards. Hopefully the patches will work but I now have the feeling that I will lose a bit of pressure. Veysel mentioned that there is a tyre buring tool available that they use here which melts rubber onto punctures which I fancy getting hold of.

Abusing the locals!

My first flat change!

Anyways later today we're off to Olimpus to see the eternal flames there, then after that over to Cappadoccia for a few days. I still have'nt heard about my Iranian visa so someone in London will be getting an polite prodding phone call today. Hopefully if it comes through I can then leave the bike and get a bus back to Istanbul to pick it up.

More Pics

Turkish Delight

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100858&id=516323705&l=b50528bb5e

Pictures

Morgan has discoverd that It's possible to publicly share photos on Facebook so here goes.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=98780&id=516323705&l=136aee6c61

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=97210&id=516323705&l=93a5199927

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94737&id=516323705&l=499896d5f8

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94049&id=516323705&l=0ea226e503

Only Mad Dogs And Englishmen

We made a break from Istanbul on Sunday as soon as everyone had sorted their problems. My engine is now running as smooth as an LC4 can. We got the ferry across the sea of Marmara and rode south to some mountains about 20km from Izmir where we found a dirt track which came off the main motorway and went up through a village and some fields before reaching a pine forest at the top. This was my first real taste of off roading and although I dropped the bike a couple of times, mainly because I used the front brake at a stop which has no grip, I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are some fantastic photos of me riding over a crest with the sun setting behind me which I need to steal from George and Morgan.

We camped wild that night and just as it got dark were met by a bloke on a tractor with a shotgun. We shook hands and he managed to communicate to us that it was boar hunting season and we should flash our lights if we rode on any further in the dark, which we werent going to do. He went off and we wondered whether the boar would attack us whilst we cooked. George then decided to use his horn after we heard some rustling and I'm pretty convinced managed to clear the mountains of boar and cheese off a lot of hunters! The gunshots sounded into the night despite our rowdiness though.

The next morning we descended into a small village where a lady in a small shop made us some chay and refused payment. A couple of other people turned up and gave us some fresh grapes and pears which we scoffed.

We carried on towards Akbuk where Oli and his family were staying in their summerhouse. In the heat George had the amazing idea of riding through showers made to wash dusty car windscreens.

At the summerhouse we swam in the sea before being stuffed by Oli's mum's fantastic cooking. Honestly the best meal of the trip so far! Stuffed peppers, Kofke, Aubergene dip, tsatsiki, peppers, olives. Proper Turkish food.

The next day we were off to Veysels house, one of George's buddies from his ride to Cape Town in Africa a couple of years ago. We left in the midday sun, the worst possible time to ride, so before setting off doused ourselves and the bikes with the hosepipe to keep cool. We arrived after a ride along some fantastic scenic roads with variable quality surfaces - why an offroad bike comes in handy, and made our way to the Kite surfing beach. Morgan is looking forwards to spending a couple of days chilling and learning how to kite surf and I must now take my wiring loom on the bike apart again after the alarm decided to set itself off last night for no reason and refused to deactivate. Fun times!

Everything Happens For A Reason?

Well I found my valve nut after removing first the clutch casing then the cylinder head. We also found more exciting things, including a siezed intake valve rocker bearing which had worn the intake cam almost round! No wonder I had no power and the intake valves were well out! Ersoy, the best mechanic in Istanbul had never worked on a KTM before, but he took his time, tried to understand everything and used all his contacts to source a camshaft and bearings. The location meant that we could get almost anything made, bent, welded or pressed. The bike now has a silly amount of power with a really smooth delivery. The bike is now better than when it left the UK. Wheelietastic!

Ersoys location is; http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=41.1152,29.0189&ll=41.1152,29.0189&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
GPS Coordinates 41.1152,29.0189

Address is Ataturk Oto Sanayi Sitesi 2. Kisim 9 Sk. No: 294 Maslak, Istanbul.

Email akkartalersoy@yahoo.com

If anyone needs anything doing to their bikes he can do it.

On the Iranian Visa front I'm still waiting. I will probably be here for a few more days yet. Morgan and George may be off to Bodrum before me so I can catch up with them there, or even take my chances and go then get a train back to Istanbul to collect the visa if they issue it. Inshallah all shall be sorted soon!

The Real Istanbul

Although I've had a short walk around Istanbul as a tourist I've not found it that impressive. Generally its full of tourists who are being preyed opn to by random tat. For me my fondest memories will be the time that I've spent in what can only be described as an industrial park, about 10km away from the centre. This place, I have no idea what It's called, is essentially a couple of square kilometers of workshops, garages and shops where you can buy any took you want, get anything made, welded or bashed together for a really cheap price. Yesterday we spent a good 8 hours sorting things out on the bikes. I changed my oil and filters and attempted to find my missing nut in the engine using a telescopic magnet we constructed with no success. We reckon it may have falled down the cam chain hole into the sump so are going to lean the bike on its side and take the clutch cover off in an attempt to locate it. I will also get my sidestand welded. I'm also waiting for an Iranian visa. I have hope since a british guy on the Hubb has just gotten his from Persian Voyages. Hopefully everything should be sorted by the weekend Inshallah.

Pics

A few pics. Pretty much all my pics are on Facebook - or will be - since it's a bugger to upload them here. I might have a mess around using Picassa and Google since I can't be bothered sitting in front of the netbook for hours on end uploading one photo at a time.

Who needs breakdown cover?

Oli and I made the Turkish border after a good motorway blast on Sunday and after an hour of formalities were eventually in Turkey. We decided to push on south to Galipoli from where he could head straight home and I could backtrack to Istanbul making it our longest riding day of 550km.

Turkey at last

In the morning we split off after visiting one of the memorials. After 30km my bike decided that it wasn't happy and promptly lost power and died. I pushed it back to some shade and set to work. I knew that It was the intake valves which were probably slack again and found that one of the valve nuts had worked loose and disapeared into the rocker head. Bugger. I tightened up the other valve and loctited them in place. All i needed was enough power to make the 300km to Istanbul.

Roadside maintenance

Managed to ride without problem mainly sticking to motorways. I encountered some dodgy looking Turkish chav at an automatic toll road ticket dispenser who demanded 20 Lira to Istanbul. I told him to bugger off and got a ticket. I thought It was a pretty good scam but the carrier bag in one hand gave it away.

Istanbul.

After some hectic riding through Istanbul I arrived between the two mosques at Sultanahmet where George met me where I got a couple of photos before being moved on by the police. George and I rode on to the Orient Hostel after a quick shortcut through the pedestrianised square between the mosques. Rules of the road here include making ample use of the horn together with finding a gap, and making it big enough to get through. Kicking helps. Being on offroad bikes means that we have a trick up our sleeves whereby we can avoid traffic jams by blasting along the pavement and jumping off the kerb which can be a good foot and a half high.

Yesterday we tried to find a garage location I had in my GPS with no look so I spent a good few hours sorting out the bike. Things on my todo list include:

Brake Service - done
Oil & Filter Change - Going to a Turkish BMW R1200 riders garage today for some free work space - beats taking the bike apart on an Istanbul backstreet.
Spark Plug Clean - done
Valve Check - done (found the stray nut in the engine but dropped it again so am hoping it bounces its way back to where I can grab it so only running on one intake valve - small loss of power)
Sort out chain oiler - done
Weld Sidestand after it broke in Greece - I have now figured out how to jump on and off the fully loaded bike without dropping it.
New screen after my toll booth barrier encounter - the stupid thing came down just after I had paid and was going through.

Had an evening wander around the European side of Istanbul. Am hoping to cross the Bosphorous on the bike to the Asian side - a symbolic event.Am spending 2 more nights in Istanbul and will hopefully be able to sort my Iranian Visa.

The Edge of Europe

I've made it to Galipoli in Turkey with minor incidents including being bashed by a Greek Toll Booth Gate. The bike seriously ran out of power over the past week so a hasty valve check in a campsite saw the intake gap to be 4mm rather than 0.15. Still not on full power but will be in Istanbul tomorrow for a full service. Will try to update more from there over the next few days.

Slack valves!