To
Turkey and Asia
In the past
most of my bike trips were conceived in the pub, after a load of beer and
whisky we would decide where our next trip would be, sometimes we remembered
and it came off, sometimes we conveniently forgot. Istanbul stood out as a can
do trip within the realms of a generous holiday entitlement. I took a Moto Guzzi
1100 Breva and my wife Fiona her Kawasaki Er6
After several
permutations we came up with a plan, ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuiden in
Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey then
crossing over the Bosphorus into Asia briefly before heading back to the
European part of Turkey at Gallipoli, Greece, Italy, France, Belgium before
finally heading back to Holland to catch the ferry back to Newcastle
Having been
through most of the countries before one of the main things to get organised
apart from the obvious holiday insurance was to make sure my Insurer would
cover me in those countries and issue a green card for them. We had been caught
out in Bosnia Serbia Europe
that you insist on a green card from your insurers or you will have problems at
border crossings.
The
outward trip
We booked the DFDS ferry from Newcastle to
Ijmuiden in Holland and then on 15th of May we were off. The run
down to Newcastle
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| Water stop in Austria, hot hot hot |
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| Our campsite in Croatia |
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| Storks give it an authentic feel |
Leaving Sofia
the road towards Turkey was excellent and quiet, a motorway which bizarrely had
posters advertising Depeche Mode’s forthcoming Sofia concert, I thought they
had disappeared into obscurity along with bad 80’s hairstyles and shoulder pads
but obviously they are still a major pull in Bulgaria. The scenery was really
quite pleasant with snow covered mountains in the distant landscape and the
quiet roads meant you could take time to look around.
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| Sofia |
Eventually
the motorway just stopped and I took the inevitable wrong turning taking us
around 20 miles off course before taking to the small roads all the way to the
Turkish border, these were a mixture of good and Romanian type surfaces with
the inevitable unmade sections thrown in. There was virtually no traffic at all
on these roads or people for that matter, the villages all seemed deserted
apart from the odd donkey.
Our departure
from Bulgaria
We exited the
Customs plaza onto half a mile of unmade roads, welcome to Turkey indeed. The
speed limit for bikes in Turkey on the main roads is only 70Kmh so it was a
slow run to the town of Edrine, on the outskirts I stopped to do some filming,
the town is dominated by three huge mosques and on the outskirts on top of a
hill a huge prison surrounded by watchtowers, a very grim looking place indeed
and brought to mind the movie midnight express, mental note to self, behave,
behave, behave!
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| Almost there |
I missed the
turn off to Edrine and ended up on the toll road, luckily not too expensive but
a 30 mile round trip up and down paying in both directions just to get back to
where I started in the first place. Even though it hadn’t been a high mileage
day (just over 200) we were both getting fed up and were quite relieved when we
found the well hidden campsite. No food available on site so whilst Fiona put
up the tent I cooked up dinner from our stock of provisions (always carry
enough for a couple of meals, there isn’t always a Burger King available!) The
site was taken over entirely by Dutch campers, some of whom invited us over for
a beer so we relaxed whilst watching the sun go down on the huge Turkish flag
dominating the skyline. We talked about our respective trips and they told us
the night before they had been parked in a car park in Istanbul
After
enjoying a few beers and whiskies with our new Dutch friends we weren’t so
early on the road for our trip into Istanbul
The very
helpful and excitable caretaker met us and showed us where to park and put up
the tent, he spoke no English at all but had obviously had the same teacher as
many Brits in that he was from the school of if people don’t understand just
shout louder, most amusing. A foray to the local market saw us with provisions
for the evening and as we entertained ourselves in the company of Johnny Walker
we reflected on this most excellent adventure so far, 2000 miles from home and
fun most of the way, life on the road, simply magic!
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| Camping with this view, magic |
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| The blue Mosque |
The following
day was spent taking in the highlights of Istanbul, the world famous Blue
Mosque being our first stop, armed police seemed to be in evidence everywhere.
Istanbul was well worth a visit despite the traffic and the most refreshing
thing was that the hassle I expected from carpet sellers and street vendors was
not there, very nice people and if you politely say no then they take that as
no with no malice, a different experience than my visit to North Africa a few
years ago. Car accidents seemed to be
happening every 10 minutes the sound of police and ambulance sirens seemed to
me to be a regular background noise, competing with the calls to prayers
booming out from the Mosques, I’m glad we took a taxi in but the standard of
driving gave us a sense of foreboding for the next days trip through Istanbul
and over the Bosphorus bridge into Asia.
The run on
the motorway through the middle of Istanbul was as terrifying as we’d thought,
car drivers are simply just not used to large bikes on the road and literally
push you out of your lane, a three lane motorway becomes a five or six lane
motorway depending on the volume of traffic and on how much of a hurry
everybody is in, we did get some grief at the toll Booth just before the Bosphorus
bridge, the attendant tried to rip me off, however he quickly aggravated my Latin
temperament and realised he was on a loser. One regret was not researching this
part better, there are several bridges over this gateway to Asia and on this
one no place to stop and take the picture of the sign “Welcome to Asia”, oh
well maybe next time. As we cleared the built up conurbation that is Istanbul
(I measured it at 60 miles long and the population is reputed to be 18 Million)
the driving got no better but slightly quieter so near death experiences were
minutes apart rather than seconds.
The run along
the Asian part of the Sea of Marmarus was excellent and we stopped in the town
of Bandirma for the night after finding a small and friendly Hotel in the town
square. The people were friendly and a pleasant evening was spent people
watching, it was strange and interesting as a westerner to see the two sides of
Islam, the strict believers or conformists with their wives out for a Saturday
evening stroll wearing Burka’s, the more relaxed wearing more colourful headscarves
and clothes and then the young girls wearing much the same as young girls here
out for a Saturday night,.
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| Riding alongside the Marmaris on the Asian side |
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| Bandirma, magic! |
After
Bandirma we headed to Canakkale to get the ferry back to Europe at Gallipoli.
We were blasting down a quiet road at around 80Mph when I spotted the radar
gun, despite braking heavily there was no way of avoiding being pulled by the
Police. The roadblock consisted of the Radar gun operator the boss sitting in
the shade with the car and another guy with a machine gun, we stopped and I was
preparing to be fleeced when after some gestures between the three of them they
said “Go” , we hightailed it out of there (trying to keep to the limit ) whilst
all the time trying to convince myself we weren’t going to be shot making our
getaway. I’d read stories of the police fleecing tourists but they obviously
couldn’t be bothered that day.
We stopped in Canakkale for lunch and were
surrounded by about 20 school kids on a field trip to this very important place
in modern Turkey’s history, they were pleasant, well behaved and full of
questions about the bikes, our jobs and how much holidays we got. The girls in
particular seemed impressed that Fiona had ridden her own bike there. Maybe
that day we helped spark an interest in some of them to break out from the
expected behaviour, get a bike and travel the world.
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| Waiting for a ferry across to Gallipoli |
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| In case we forget! |
We camped in
a campsite in the Tarihi Milli park, it is an interesting area (full of WW1
history) and well worth a visit, the Coast road from Eceabat where the Ferry
docks to Kabatepe is particularly stunning. As I stood in the Fort overlooking
the narrow straight leading into the sea of Marmarus I wondered what madness
was instilled in the Commonwealth leaders who hoped to storm and destroy the
Turks here at Gallipoli, many Commonwealth troops and sailors lost their lives
here and of course the hero of the hour Colonel Mustafa Kemel, later went on to
lead Turkey as its first President and is still regarded as the father of
modern Turkey.
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| Into Greece |
The border
crossing into Greece just past Ipsala was interesting, there was a large
military presence at each side of the border, the countries separated (as is
often the case) by a bridge, both sets of troops seemed to be goading each
other, I suppose it keeps the boredom at bay.
We exited the
border and then we were on our way first taking the motorway then turning off onto what would have been the old main road
which hugged the coast, petrol had come down now from an incredible £1.50 a
litre in Turkey to a more manageable 85p a litre in Greece. The sun was
shining, deserted roads and the sea shimmering away on our left, perfect
motorcycling really. The Guzzi club in Thessaloniki came to meet us which just made the night there.
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| The guys came out to see us, the sling by the way is due to a wrist injury from doing an endurance ride on a Guzzi! |
We made our
way homeward across Greece to Igoumenitsa to catch the ferry to Italy in Ancona
then headed across Italy North through France to Belgium Holland and home but
thats another story!,
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| Italy! |
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| Barga for Ice cream |
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| Monaco for Lunch |
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| France for Champagne |
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| Belgium for the excellent BBA cafe racer meeting |
We had done
around 5000 miles in three and a half weeks but 3500 were done in the first two
weeks. The bikes were excellent, no issues with either apart from the chain on
the ER6 getting a bit dodgy half way up though France, oh and a headlight bulb.
The trip was a good mix of camping and self catering in the field with the
occasional hotel treat thrown in. A fantastic adventure which only makes you
thirst for more. Get out and explore the world on your bike but be careful, its
addictive!
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