Changing Direction…!!

After one final visit to the Iranian Embassy in Istanbul to see if there was any other way of entering Iran without a Carnet, I finally gave up on my desire to ride through Iran… The Embassy officials were friendly, and although I could see they wanted to help, especially when they noted that I had already obtained a visa, they were adamant that without a validated Carnet, I would not be allowed to enter their country…

Staring into the future... It was time to get back on the road...!!

I had hoped to ride from South Africa to Singapore before having to fly the Big Fella to Australia, but it would seem that he was in for a little “air-time” sooner than I had planned…

On the flight back to Dalaman, and the bus ride to Marmaris, I mulled over the various options open to me, and decided that a flight to Lahore in Pakistan would be my first choice…

If that didn’t work out, then it would have to be Kathmandu in Nepal…

Back in Marmaris, I sat going over my plans for the next few weeks, and preparing myself mentally for being back in the saddle again… The break that I had needed was behind me now, and I felt that old excitement building up in me again…

I left Marmaris with the idea of making one long run to Silifke, to take the ferry over to Cyprus, where the Big Fella’s oil leak and another 10 000km service was due… It was hard to believe that I had covered almost 9 000 km since Warsaw…!!

For the first half hour, up through the winding pass that leads to Gokova, the Big Fella behaved like a horse that had not been ridden for a while…!! Or just maybe, it was me having to get used to riding a fully loaded bike again…!! Personally, I think it was the bike…!! He was skittish around the sharp bends, and often took the wrong line through corners…!! After a few harsh words with him, he settled down and we got back into our old riding rhythm…

We made quick time to Fetiye, choosing to go through the tunnel rather than down the narrow and winding scenic route that I had taken the last time I rode through the area…

We hit the high road in the mountains north of Fetiye...

3. The new highway that has been built to shorten the travel between Fetiye and Antalya...

Rather than ride along the coastal route to Antalya, I chose to go through the mountains to the north instead, and after just a few kilometres, was very glad that I did…

The road climbed steadily through a series of passes, and up onto a plateau that leveled out at about 1250 m.a.s.l…. It was a lot cooler up here than it had been down on the coast, but riding under the brilliant blue skies sent my soul soaring…

The landscape is stark up here, white mountains under a brilliant blue sky...

Nimble fingers are required to shoot pics on the fly...!! Especially when the biting cold means you have to wear thick gloves...!!

The fuel attendants at Duzlercami asked to have their photo taken with the the Big Fella... Who was I to deny them, after enjoying the usual tea-drinking ceremony with them...!!

I stopped to refuel at Duzlercami, where another bout of tea drinking was gently forced upon me by the pump jockeys, and while I sat sipping the sweet liquid, a group of guys gathered around the bike, counting the flags and reciting their names as they went… This took a while, as you can imagine…!!

Antalya was a lot bigger than I expected it to be… I stayed on the main road that ran along the northern edge of the city, and then swung back towards the coast and continued down to Manavgat…

The main road that skirts the large coastal city of Antalya...

It was here that I had a sudden change of plan…!! I was at a traffic light on the east end of the town, when I decided on the spur of the moment, to head up into the mountains and make a big loop towards Capadocchia… I had always wanted to see the Mushroom shaped rock homes that people used to live in, and in many cases still do…

Turning onto the D695, I looked up into the sky above me, and immediately thought that I was “meant” to ride this road…!! A huge “X”, made by the vapour trails of passing aircraft, was in the blue sky above the mountains to the north of us…

Sign in the sky... X marks the spot...!! We had no choice but to follow...!!

“X marks the spot…!!” I told the Big Fella… “Take us there…!!”

Konya was where we set my sights for...

The road to Konya was under construction in many places, and the Turks are a little tardy when it comes to cleaning up the road surface when sections of it have been completed…

Small patches of gravel have been left scattered across the surface, and on some of the corners, this caused a series of heart palpitations, as I felt either the front or back tyre “give” an inch or two…

Despite this, the road is in great condition, and with hardly a traffic officer in sight in this sparsely populated region, we were able to “clear the pipes”… At various points along the road, guys had set up little lean-to shelters, under which they brewed tea to sell to the passing truckers on this route. I stopped at one of them to take a break, and was immediately invited to join a group of these truckers…

Up on the plateau, in the middle of nowhere, small mosques such as this one have been built for travelers...

Not one of them spoke a word of English, but that did not stop us from chatting to each other for almost half an hour… I was plied with tea and bread, and when I finally indicated, by tapping on my watch and pointing to the sun, that I had to be on my way, they refused to accept any money for me, taping their chest in a sign that it was their gift to me…

This is what Africa had been like, and what I realized I had missed the most in Europe… That random meeting of kind-hearted folk who were as kind and hospitable as you can ever imagine… People who you would meet for only a few minutes in your life, yet would leave you with lasting memories of those moments…

We crossed two mountain ranges, the first taking us back up onto the high plateau south of Lake Baysehir, near the town of Seydisehir, and later, near Karacaorem, we climbed to still higher elevations, peaking at 1850 m.a.s.l, before descending into the outskirts of Konya…

Above the green fields, planted with sugar beet, more vapour trails cross the sky... Too many "X"s to follow now...!!

The Garmin Girl took us into a very dubious part of the town, down litter filled streets, among ramshackle buildings, before getting us in a busy main road that wound its way towards the city centre… I punched in a request for hotels, and the area that GG indicated there were any number to be had, was so run down and crowded, that I began to think of heading on to the next town over 100 kms away…

The shadows grow long as we make our way down from the mountains onto the Plateau where Konya is situated...

Then I noticed how dark it was getting, and also told myself that 645 km for a first day back in the saddle was more than enough to satisfy my desire to get some distance under my belt again…!! I decided to keep looking for a decent spot where the bike would be safe…

I turned down a narrow little street and saw the lights of the Nil Hotel blink on at the very moment I looked in that direction… A pyramid and camel motif was emblazoned in red and blue neon above the doorway, and I wondered when the heck I would finally be free of things Egyptian…!!

While I was un-strapping my bags and gear, a waiter came out of the hotel with a cup of coffee on a tray, and I stood on the bustling pavement drinking coffee, and chatting to all the folk who came up to greet me and ogle the bike…

“Where you from?” ; “How much this bike?”; “Where you going?” and the usual; “Why you do this?”… All the usual questions that I now answer in the usual fashion…

“South Africa… It’s an old bike, maybe $5000… Syria, Jordan… To meet people like you and learn about their countries…” This last one always gets a huge smile and a handshake…!!

Ali, the manager spoke perfect English, having lived in Southampton for 8 years, before deciding that he could no longer “live among the Englishman”…

“They have too many bad habits for a Muslim boy like me,” he told me… “So I returned to Turkey to live amongst my own people…!!”

In the gloom of the early evening, we arrived at the Nil Otel...

He gave me invaluable information about the roads leading to Capadocchia, and a warning about the cold… He also arranged for a meal to be delivered to the hotel for me, and I was amazed that it cost less than half of what I would have had to pay in Marmaris and Istanbul… Everything was less than half the price I had been paying… I bought four large bananas from a passing vendor for less than R5.00…!!

Being back out in the countryside, among the “real” people of Turkey, was a delight, and I looked forward to the next day, when I hoped to experience more of the same…!!

©GBWT 2010