After an awesome time in Tehran with Niloufar it has finally come down to our last few days in Iran, and we are back in Kerman packing up the bikes to head to the desert tonight for a night. Then tomorrow we will head down to Bam - an ancient city leveled in an earthquake in 2005. It is also where we will likely have to pick up a military escort for the next 4 days or so across to Multan in Pakistan.
My last post on here was that we had just had it confirmed that we had 30 days on our visa and were planning what to do next.
From Isfahan we traveled to Touleshk to visit Mohammad and his family who have for years hosting Cyclists and Bikers and showing them the village and surrounding area while also enjoying traditional Iranian hospitality. After a really nice night there with good food and watching one of the women making a rug (amazing - never seen someones hands move so fast!) we rode in the morning (with Mohammad on the back of my bike) to the sand dunes nearby.
This was my first time in the dunes and apart from coming off a couple of times I loved it, so far as I am concerned it is some of the best biking that can be done - the sand dunes become a playground! I just wish I had the correct set up to take full advantage of my bike - ah well, next time!
After being shown around the village and seeing the ingenious ways that they get cool water from the mountains to storage in the middle of the town we said good bye and headed east again to Yadz.
After lazing in Yadz, updating facebook and checking a few things on the Internet we finally got sorted and had a walk around the beautiful old town. I have found in Iran that even though the modern parts of the city are where all of the shops are the old towns where people still live in houses made of mud are the most atmospheric and interesting. From each street more and more veer off, often to a dead end or a small courtyard. To spend an evening getting lost in these places is a great experience, especially at the end of the day in Ramzam where people are all hurrying to prayers and then back home for food!
Our plan from here was to head down to Shiraz and Persepolis then from there down to Qeshm Island where we would do a few dives (it is possible to dive on sunken warships from the recent wars) and then head up to Kerman where the plan was to try and find a place to leave the bikes while we take the train up to Tehran to meet up with a friend of Georges.
To begin with the plan worked (in itself a miracle) , we left Yadz early and got on the right road to take us southwest to Persepolis. Arriving in the area of the Ancient city in the evening was breathtaking, after riding through the desert all day suddenly we arrived in a lush fertile valley that was fed by a river running the full length (100k or so) and was green with crops.
We turned up at Persepolis at 10 past 6. unfortunately the site closes at 6 pm and was not open the next day due to a public holiday in memory of Imam Ali's death. No amount of begging and pleading and eventually bribing would get us past the guards - even for a quick peak! We were not going to have ridden all this way just to get turned back at the last minute so we went for a look at the tourist arial map of the area and planned a way to get in in the morning. After camping in a nearby park we woke at 5 when it was still dark and snuck up to the city walls using every available shadow. From here we crept around the back of the guard barracks and climbed the only section of wall low enough, then it was a simple matter of jumping over the fence and we had the entire place to ourselves. I think we managed to evade the police for about 20 minutes before one of them spotted us and shouted for us to stop. We played it calm and kept taking photos like innocent tourists while he tried to phone his superiors. We were lucky that after showing us to a few more police (Including customs) and checking our cameras to ensure we hadn't gone anyplace we shouldn't (ie renovations) we were let go and just walked back out to collect our bikes , had breakfast with some Iranian tour guides (who just laughed at what we did) and then got on the road to Bandar Abbas.
The ride south from Shiraz was one of the most starkly beautiful that we have yet seen. Right from the city of Shiraz these amazing mountains appear where the ground has literally been turned on its side due to the collision between the Eurasian and Arabian Plates. These mountain ranges created many valleys and they were a very different experience to ride. For starters the temperature was somewhere around 45 degrees (so, hot!) and this combined with the wind caused hundreds of tornado's to form - an interesting thing to ride through on a motorbike that's for sure. After being batted around by these and exhausted from the heat we got near the coast where I was expecting it to still be hot but tempered by a sea brease - no such luck i'm afraid - It was just as hot, maybe hotter and instead of the dry heat of the desert it was humid. Not a pleasant combination and by far the hottest place I had ever been.
After arriving in the evening in a small fishing village called Bandar Khamir we asked a local where there was a hotel we could stay, after much gesturing we understood that there wasn't a hotel but if we followed him he would lead us to somewhere we could stay. This turned out to be a group of 4 small buildings in the park (luckily air conditioned, unluckily locked!) where he told us to wait (either 10 minutes or until 10 o clock we didn't know) until he came back. Typically he didn't come back and we spent 3 hours being pestered by people who wouldn't leave us alone to eat and we couldn't sleep there because everything was too hot - the floor, the walls, the air even the water in the taps was about 30 degrees!
Finally when I was away at the Police station trying to get us a cell to stay in for the night a family offered to take us in (the only English speaking people in the town I think). They were very good to us and provided food and a lovely air conditioned room to sleep in. We got on well with the family and they invited us to stay another night and would take us to see the Mangrove forests and other sights. We readily agreed and had a great time out on the boat swimming (in hot sea) and walking around the forests. Then in the evening we went to see the local hot springs, however there was no way I was getting in 50+ degree water when the outside temp was pushing 40 at night!
On the third day we made it to the island against all odds of being given the wrong boat times by everyone and having to import the bikes (even though it is part of Iran the island is a free trade zone or something - ie, its an island so there is dodgy stuff going on!)
Again, hot was the order of the day and I have never wanted to get inside more in my life. We had to enlist the help of some police to show us to a hotel (First they took us to the other side of the island and pointing at the sea proudly proclaimed "The Persian gulf" - oh so helpful!) then they took us to a big expensive looking hotel and despite our protests that it was too much promptly drove off! Anyway as we were there we decided to try our luck and as soon as we walked in the door the price dropped from $50 to $10 each. Done.
Kit off the bikes and cooled down by the air con we set off to find the dive centre and get ourselves booked in. It turned out to be in the second place we looked, a resort type place about 20 k our of town. The place looked professional enough and they were just back from a dive and all seemed alive so we booked in for 1 dive the next day (price was $60 rather than $30 like we had been told - still we had come all this way). That all taken care of we rode back to the hotel and again sat under the air con until it got dark and a tiny bit cooler.
Heading into town I got us lost in the old town but eventually made it to where we assumed all the restaurants would be - the waterfront. Apparently not as it turned out, all there was was a load of fishermen and smugglers who wanted to look at the bikes and take photos with us. Normally when surrounded by 30 guys in the docks area of a city its a course for concern but they were all very good and all smiles and it turned out that we had no problems (luckily).
Sorry, but i have to interupt this as it has taken longer than i thought. I will pick up when we next get internet access, prob in Lahore .
Wednesday 23 September 2009
Friday 4 September 2009
Hello from Iran
So I have to use Blogger now as Facebook is banned and all my (one) attempts to beat it have not worked - turns out the Iranian government is more advanced than Shaftesbury school!
We are safe -that is the main reason for this post - mum, dad, we will try and call again later but it seems that calls to the UK are blocked at the moment (at least from the Hostel). Apart from the barricade to the outside world, Iran is amazing. It is easily the best country I have yet been to and George agrees, the country is beautiful and the people are crazy friendly... so much so they will scream across 3 lanes of motorway at 140kph to wave and take photos!! Every time we stop on the bikes we are surrounded by people wanting to ask where we are from, what city (London, England is much easier) and wishing us welcome to their country.. in other places(Turkey) these are often questions pre some kind of con but in Iran they are all genuine, interested and above all.. polite.
We are in Esfahan at the moment.We have had a very interesting first few days in Iran. We arrived at the Turkey/Iran border at 10am as estimated after leaving Dogubayazit and got through the Turkish side of the border in maybe 1h 30 min - mainly because someone did not click something on a computer! typical, but were helped through by the border guard who left his post to help us through - at the expense of everyone else who needed this guys stamp!! The Iranian side was the usual beauraucy expected but was not too bad (total to cross both borders 4hrs), and all was going well until two guys at customs declared that out Visas ran out on the 8th of September!!! "sorry, what?!, no no no my friend, you are mistaken, we have 30 days in Iran" "No, you have 7" "Bugger!" everyone agreed that we had 7 days to cross Iran -doable but completely missing the country which is a massive part of the trip. We were convinced this was wrong as George had checked with Persian Voyages specifically to ensure the dates.. but as we had some doubt and the cost of overstaying is alot we decided to find out for sure at an embassy or something.
For this end we rode that afternoon to Tabriz hoping to find out there, we stayed at a hostel recommended by Lonely Planet that was fine (even though we were on the 3rd floor (we have about 70/80 kilos of gear plus tyres and clothes etc) and went out to see some of the city. The first thing was a security guard playing air guitar with his AK47!! haha, i wish we had a photo of that! We then had fun trying to figure out how to cross the street (answer, follow an Iranian, but them between you and the cars!) and trying to find food (really, it appears that there is nothing but biscuits). next morning we went to the Visa office and found (though lots of sign language) that we did infact have 30 days, problem was that this place wasnt very official and not clear.
Still thinking we had just 6 days left in the country we decided to head quickly to Tehran via a quick night at the Valley of Assassins and then the final 250k to Tehran early in the morning.
The Valley was amazing!
Entering it you come off the motorway at Qazvin and ride up a hill/small mountain, then comes 2 hours and 80k+ of hairpins, bends, twists hills and gorges to rival and even beat anything the alps had to offer, through the most beautiful landscape (huge craggy desert mountains and a lush fertile valley fed by all the streams and waterfalls, interspersed with tiny villages) until you arrive at a giant rock face, and perched on top you can just make out the ruins of a fort. As we arrived at the base of Almut Castle a man came running out to ask us to stay at his Hostel, about 100meters away. We jumped at this offer as we had spent the whole day on the bikes and the last 2hours had really finished us off. It was also now evening and we still wanted to climb to the fort. wow! it was worth it, amazing views up and down the valley as the sun was setting, amazing. We stayed up until dark and then navigated our way down the 400 odd foot stairway on the cliff.
For our early start to arrive early in Tehran we woke at about 5:45 and were packed and ready at about 6:30, very good, until George pointed out I had a flat rear tyre and my chain probably wouldnt make it to Tehran. I repaired the puncher and fitted the new sprockets just to find that the chain was about 6 links too long (note to Duncan, the reason i could wheelie better but you were getting better fuel efficiency is because i was running a 14! tooth front sprocket - now a 17 -big jump) Luckily the friendly Iranians came to our aid and took George to the town (Gazor Khan) to cut the links out and we were up and running by 11 am... bit later than planned and was still 4 hrs from Tehran, not enough time to get there before the Visa place closed and didnt open for 3 days... ah.
We figured that we should push on and get to Esfhan where we could sort the visa or if not still make Pakistan before the 8th. This meant just basting past Tehran which we both wanted to visit..
Fortunately or not (as we at least saw the city) we arrived at rush hour and promptly found that a city with 17million people and different climates due to the size, combined with a complete lack of useful road signs (no names of citys out of Tehran, only expressways named after famous people) and absolutely mental drivers, is very difficult to navigate.
We got lost, for 2 hours, in Tehran, in the heat, in the smog and cars just trying their best to kill us! Fun!
(a side note on Iranian driving, its bad, the best two examples are guys on motorbikes trying to read our speedos while we are riding at 60kph and the classic of a completely empty motorway, and 3 cars in the fast lane trying to overtake each other, and in the process pushing one into the lane divider!)
We camped on Thursday nigh about 50k from Qom in the hills overlooking the salt lake (very cool, very beautiful) and woke early yesterday to see the sunrise and get an early start to Esfahan, lovely empty motorway (extra good because Iran is limited to 200cc bikes, which are banned from the motorways for being slow, this means that when me and George turn up on big bikes the toll booths dont know what to do, so they let us on , for free! great!)
We arrived in Esfahan about 4 and quickly found the hostel (great city) and went for a walk to see the sights (Esfahan is the cultural capital of Iran). We went to the Imam Mosque (most beautiful in islamic world) and there were shown around by a local who knew the security guard and so let us in! cool. After being shown around for about an hour (free) we met some Austrian overlanders traveling to India in a caravan. Really nice people who we had a picnic with in the town park, and i hope to meet again in Pakistan or somewhere. As we arrived back at the hostel we met a guy pushbiking from Ireland to Thailand and saw (but not met yet) a vespa scooter from Italy.
This morning we finally managed to get to an open, official visa office and confirm with them that we have 30 days in Iran, now we can do some planning!
Sorry for that being so long, but I really cant describe how much I love this country, I will try to do some more, smaller and more regular updates while i am here, and maybe i can go back to the part of Turkey i missed out.
We are safe -that is the main reason for this post - mum, dad, we will try and call again later but it seems that calls to the UK are blocked at the moment (at least from the Hostel). Apart from the barricade to the outside world, Iran is amazing. It is easily the best country I have yet been to and George agrees, the country is beautiful and the people are crazy friendly... so much so they will scream across 3 lanes of motorway at 140kph to wave and take photos!! Every time we stop on the bikes we are surrounded by people wanting to ask where we are from, what city (London, England is much easier) and wishing us welcome to their country.. in other places(Turkey) these are often questions pre some kind of con but in Iran they are all genuine, interested and above all.. polite.
We are in Esfahan at the moment.We have had a very interesting first few days in Iran. We arrived at the Turkey/Iran border at 10am as estimated after leaving Dogubayazit and got through the Turkish side of the border in maybe 1h 30 min - mainly because someone did not click something on a computer! typical, but were helped through by the border guard who left his post to help us through - at the expense of everyone else who needed this guys stamp!! The Iranian side was the usual beauraucy expected but was not too bad (total to cross both borders 4hrs), and all was going well until two guys at customs declared that out Visas ran out on the 8th of September!!! "sorry, what?!, no no no my friend, you are mistaken, we have 30 days in Iran" "No, you have 7" "Bugger!" everyone agreed that we had 7 days to cross Iran -doable but completely missing the country which is a massive part of the trip. We were convinced this was wrong as George had checked with Persian Voyages specifically to ensure the dates.. but as we had some doubt and the cost of overstaying is alot we decided to find out for sure at an embassy or something.
For this end we rode that afternoon to Tabriz hoping to find out there, we stayed at a hostel recommended by Lonely Planet that was fine (even though we were on the 3rd floor (we have about 70/80 kilos of gear plus tyres and clothes etc) and went out to see some of the city. The first thing was a security guard playing air guitar with his AK47!! haha, i wish we had a photo of that! We then had fun trying to figure out how to cross the street (answer, follow an Iranian, but them between you and the cars!) and trying to find food (really, it appears that there is nothing but biscuits). next morning we went to the Visa office and found (though lots of sign language) that we did infact have 30 days, problem was that this place wasnt very official and not clear.
Still thinking we had just 6 days left in the country we decided to head quickly to Tehran via a quick night at the Valley of Assassins and then the final 250k to Tehran early in the morning.
The Valley was amazing!
Entering it you come off the motorway at Qazvin and ride up a hill/small mountain, then comes 2 hours and 80k+ of hairpins, bends, twists hills and gorges to rival and even beat anything the alps had to offer, through the most beautiful landscape (huge craggy desert mountains and a lush fertile valley fed by all the streams and waterfalls, interspersed with tiny villages) until you arrive at a giant rock face, and perched on top you can just make out the ruins of a fort. As we arrived at the base of Almut Castle a man came running out to ask us to stay at his Hostel, about 100meters away. We jumped at this offer as we had spent the whole day on the bikes and the last 2hours had really finished us off. It was also now evening and we still wanted to climb to the fort. wow! it was worth it, amazing views up and down the valley as the sun was setting, amazing. We stayed up until dark and then navigated our way down the 400 odd foot stairway on the cliff.
For our early start to arrive early in Tehran we woke at about 5:45 and were packed and ready at about 6:30, very good, until George pointed out I had a flat rear tyre and my chain probably wouldnt make it to Tehran. I repaired the puncher and fitted the new sprockets just to find that the chain was about 6 links too long (note to Duncan, the reason i could wheelie better but you were getting better fuel efficiency is because i was running a 14! tooth front sprocket - now a 17 -big jump) Luckily the friendly Iranians came to our aid and took George to the town (Gazor Khan) to cut the links out and we were up and running by 11 am... bit later than planned and was still 4 hrs from Tehran, not enough time to get there before the Visa place closed and didnt open for 3 days... ah.
We figured that we should push on and get to Esfhan where we could sort the visa or if not still make Pakistan before the 8th. This meant just basting past Tehran which we both wanted to visit..
Fortunately or not (as we at least saw the city) we arrived at rush hour and promptly found that a city with 17million people and different climates due to the size, combined with a complete lack of useful road signs (no names of citys out of Tehran, only expressways named after famous people) and absolutely mental drivers, is very difficult to navigate.
We got lost, for 2 hours, in Tehran, in the heat, in the smog and cars just trying their best to kill us! Fun!
(a side note on Iranian driving, its bad, the best two examples are guys on motorbikes trying to read our speedos while we are riding at 60kph and the classic of a completely empty motorway, and 3 cars in the fast lane trying to overtake each other, and in the process pushing one into the lane divider!)
We camped on Thursday nigh about 50k from Qom in the hills overlooking the salt lake (very cool, very beautiful) and woke early yesterday to see the sunrise and get an early start to Esfahan, lovely empty motorway (extra good because Iran is limited to 200cc bikes, which are banned from the motorways for being slow, this means that when me and George turn up on big bikes the toll booths dont know what to do, so they let us on , for free! great!)
We arrived in Esfahan about 4 and quickly found the hostel (great city) and went for a walk to see the sights (Esfahan is the cultural capital of Iran). We went to the Imam Mosque (most beautiful in islamic world) and there were shown around by a local who knew the security guard and so let us in! cool. After being shown around for about an hour (free) we met some Austrian overlanders traveling to India in a caravan. Really nice people who we had a picnic with in the town park, and i hope to meet again in Pakistan or somewhere. As we arrived back at the hostel we met a guy pushbiking from Ireland to Thailand and saw (but not met yet) a vespa scooter from Italy.
This morning we finally managed to get to an open, official visa office and confirm with them that we have 30 days in Iran, now we can do some planning!
Sorry for that being so long, but I really cant describe how much I love this country, I will try to do some more, smaller and more regular updates while i am here, and maybe i can go back to the part of Turkey i missed out.
Saturday 22 August 2009
Photos
Sorry, a bit of a cop-out here but since it is too much trouble to upload all pics to different websites (there is no excess space on the Eee P.C) I am going to put links to my facebook albums until i think of a better idea!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=129064&id=522102164&l=789c09079e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148199&id=522102164&l=95b86f34c6
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149813&id=522102164&l=8d2bfb341d
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=129064&id=522102164&l=789c09079e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=148199&id=522102164&l=95b86f34c6
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149813&id=522102164&l=8d2bfb341d
Tuesday 11 August 2009
Istanbul
Right, so its about time I did an update. I am sat on the roof of the Hostel while I right this with a fantastic view of Hagia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmed and the Bosporus. Have just had the evening call to prayer which still makes me look up and sends shivers down my spine. It really is an amazing place, even if a bit more European than I would like.
So i had better go back to the start and please be warned this may be a long post as I have been away for two weeks.
So Sunday the 26th, D-day. Went to Guernsey and picked up the bikes from the Full Boar clubhouse, they had been good enough to look after them and it was in town. We had lunch with Mum, Dad, Mara and Ray before getting final stuff (and a last minute panic for me when my sidestand broke just before we had to go to the boat - luckily Jim saved me by finding some spare bolts at M and G) Then leaving, I was sad to be leaving but I know I will be back and I am focusing on the present and the immediate future at the moment.
For our night in St Malo we rode about 20 min out to find a small restaurant that Ray knew,but no luck on that, fortunately we bumped into one of the girls from Victor Hugos that me and George knew and she and her friends found us a restaurant that was still serving and we had a really enjoyable night.
The first day riding was pretty uninteresting, just motorway across France, although Ray's GPS did throw in some good small roads in the evening and we found a decent place to camp in some woods near at town called Avallon south east of Paris and had a few drinks and a good meal.
Tuesday we headed out early onto the motorway and blasted towards the alps, which started with just foothills and then suddenly the mountains I had been dreaming about! I cant explain how fantastic it is to ride a bike in the Alps, they have to be about the best roads in the world! We made good time and ended up at Balmers in Interlaken, which is stunningly beautiful - summed up by the road in, twisting around the lake, embedded in the cliff - with mountains on one side and the incredible Sapphire lake on the other, surrounded by snowcapped mountains. It really was breathtaking and the road was great and no cars! amazing!
Me and George went down to the Bar/Club at Balmers, but were shattered and supprisingly there was not too much going on. Met a few american girls and chatted for a bit, but thats about it.
The next day (Wednesday I think) I spent the morning fiddiling with the bike and went for an explore in the mountains, which turned out great as i found a little dirt track that went up...and up...and up! I passed some loggers and stopped to see if it was ok to continue (I had ridden past a few gates by now) and one gestured to continue. It took about 30 minutes to get up as high as the path went and it finished on a little flat part with a fire pit about 3 quarters of the way up the muntain with a beautiful view of the city below and accross the surrounding mountains - I would have loved to sleep there but was looking forward to seeing Tunji who was coming up on the train that afternoon, so I reluctantly went back down and managed to oveheat my breaks which was a suprise to say the least when they suddenly didnt work!!
Had a great night with Tunji and Duncan and Oli came and stayed aswell, unfortunalty I crashed out and went to sleep early so missed out on alot of the night!
Thursday up quite early and said goodbye to everyone, Tunji went to catch the train home and me George, Ray, Duncan and Oli left to head east over some passes.
The first one was the Furka pass which going up was thick cloud and we could not see even 20feet infront of us, but once we reached the other side it cleared and it was amazing! the road was just Kilometer after Kilometer of hairpins down into a vally and then all the way up the other side - just astounding and really enjoyed it, even though I was not that good and the bike was not properly set up, so I got left behind the others (got some photos though). The other side (Grimsal pass) was once again in the clouds and we stopped for lunch at the bottom.
We rode the next pass (the Oberalp) and I was a bit quicker but still left behind! sods! after that we setteled in for a long streight and stupidly I was riding with my visor up, God quickly reminded me that was a bad idea by sending a bee at my face which got stuck under my glasses and stung me just on my nose next to my eye. The little bugger stayed in until I stopped, got my helmet and glasses off and got its sting out, by that time i had a huge headache and we pulled into a field next to a stream, where the little lump turned into a bump and then after twenty mintes my eye was swollen shut and I couldnt see! well that meant I couldnt ride so Ray and Duncan went looking for a place to camp nearby and George and Oli went to buy some food in the next town.
The next day it was even worse so I went to the hospital to see if they could do anything -A long shot- of course they couldnt by gave me some ice and some pills to stop the swelling.
Duncan and Oli were on a schedule and so they left to continue to Italy. Me, Ray and George went to find a proper campsite to spend the next few days in until i could see properly again.
It turned out the ice did the trick and by the next day I could see enough to ride even though my face was till swollen. We rode some wicked valleys and passes into Italy to see Robin and his Fiance and her family. Had a great evening with a proper Itialian family, food and wine!
The next day we split up. Ray and me headed to the Dolomites and George headed to libjuana, slovenia to meet some friends (Grega, Iztoc, Christina and Barbra). Unfortunaltly for me and Ray it rained pretty much as soon as we got to the mountains and after a day in the pelting rain I called it at 4 pm as i was not feeling safe on the roads, there was nowhere really cheap but we found what I think was the least expenive hotel in the area (still 40 Euros each) and we had a couple of pints and watched the rain in the cafe next door.
The following day it was better so we made a bee line to George and the sun! I didnt even realise we were in Austria until we were almost out! oops! still, it was nice fast A roads and we got onto the motorway and got into Libjuana about lunchtime where, happily, it was sunny! but by the time George dragged himself out of bed and met us in the center square the rain was coming in. We were spending that night at Grega's house about 30k out of the city, we were completly soaked by the time we arrived but the rain started letting up and Grega got a BBQ going and produced some beers so we had a good evening in the end.
Up late next day and did some work on the bikes (well George did, the rest of us drank coffee and offered suggestions)
Not much to say about the next 3 days as we just rode through the rest of Slovenia, Croatia and into Serbia (where we camped in a very poor town by the river in as far as I was concerned a frankly stupid spot! but as it turned out we had no problems and all was ok, took a bit of riding a 2 foot wide embankment with solid bushes on one side and a drop down a concrete bank into the river on the other (and of course we all rode one after the other with no chance of turning or even helping each other - it had been a long day)
We had planned on staying at (or near) a monastry near Sophia where they have taken an oath of silence but the road took longer than expected and we had to stop for me to replace my rear sprocket. So as night fell we stopped at a small restaurant for the most salty food I have ever and hope to ever eat! then camped by the motorway and next to a train track where it of course rained in the morning and we split for the last tim, George and me heading to Turkey and Istanbul and Ray going south to Greece and then by boat to Italy and up back to Austria. I wish him all the best and it has been great to have him riding with us (including the 2 hour shortcut that put us 20k back the way we had come!! - was a nice ride though).
We had a long day to the border of Turkey and fortunatly only about 20 minutes at the border so double quick time! next was 250k of stupidly windy motorway that we did as fast as we could but when we stopped it felt like I had been in the ring with a boxer!
Istanbul started about 40k out of the city, this place really is Massive! Had to stop a couple of times in the rush hour traffic due to my bike overheating and the driving is really getting bad now.
Anyway this has been a long and mostly boring post due to us rushing through Europe, but I know I will do it again some day and so look forward to that. We will likely be in the city until the weekend and i will try and get a post up before we leave
Now (hopefully) some pics
So i had better go back to the start and please be warned this may be a long post as I have been away for two weeks.
So Sunday the 26th, D-day. Went to Guernsey and picked up the bikes from the Full Boar clubhouse, they had been good enough to look after them and it was in town. We had lunch with Mum, Dad, Mara and Ray before getting final stuff (and a last minute panic for me when my sidestand broke just before we had to go to the boat - luckily Jim saved me by finding some spare bolts at M and G) Then leaving, I was sad to be leaving but I know I will be back and I am focusing on the present and the immediate future at the moment.
For our night in St Malo we rode about 20 min out to find a small restaurant that Ray knew,but no luck on that, fortunately we bumped into one of the girls from Victor Hugos that me and George knew and she and her friends found us a restaurant that was still serving and we had a really enjoyable night.
The first day riding was pretty uninteresting, just motorway across France, although Ray's GPS did throw in some good small roads in the evening and we found a decent place to camp in some woods near at town called Avallon south east of Paris and had a few drinks and a good meal.
Tuesday we headed out early onto the motorway and blasted towards the alps, which started with just foothills and then suddenly the mountains I had been dreaming about! I cant explain how fantastic it is to ride a bike in the Alps, they have to be about the best roads in the world! We made good time and ended up at Balmers in Interlaken, which is stunningly beautiful - summed up by the road in, twisting around the lake, embedded in the cliff - with mountains on one side and the incredible Sapphire lake on the other, surrounded by snowcapped mountains. It really was breathtaking and the road was great and no cars! amazing!
Me and George went down to the Bar/Club at Balmers, but were shattered and supprisingly there was not too much going on. Met a few american girls and chatted for a bit, but thats about it.
The next day (Wednesday I think) I spent the morning fiddiling with the bike and went for an explore in the mountains, which turned out great as i found a little dirt track that went up...and up...and up! I passed some loggers and stopped to see if it was ok to continue (I had ridden past a few gates by now) and one gestured to continue. It took about 30 minutes to get up as high as the path went and it finished on a little flat part with a fire pit about 3 quarters of the way up the muntain with a beautiful view of the city below and accross the surrounding mountains - I would have loved to sleep there but was looking forward to seeing Tunji who was coming up on the train that afternoon, so I reluctantly went back down and managed to oveheat my breaks which was a suprise to say the least when they suddenly didnt work!!
Had a great night with Tunji and Duncan and Oli came and stayed aswell, unfortunalty I crashed out and went to sleep early so missed out on alot of the night!
Thursday up quite early and said goodbye to everyone, Tunji went to catch the train home and me George, Ray, Duncan and Oli left to head east over some passes.
The first one was the Furka pass which going up was thick cloud and we could not see even 20feet infront of us, but once we reached the other side it cleared and it was amazing! the road was just Kilometer after Kilometer of hairpins down into a vally and then all the way up the other side - just astounding and really enjoyed it, even though I was not that good and the bike was not properly set up, so I got left behind the others (got some photos though). The other side (Grimsal pass) was once again in the clouds and we stopped for lunch at the bottom.
We rode the next pass (the Oberalp) and I was a bit quicker but still left behind! sods! after that we setteled in for a long streight and stupidly I was riding with my visor up, God quickly reminded me that was a bad idea by sending a bee at my face which got stuck under my glasses and stung me just on my nose next to my eye. The little bugger stayed in until I stopped, got my helmet and glasses off and got its sting out, by that time i had a huge headache and we pulled into a field next to a stream, where the little lump turned into a bump and then after twenty mintes my eye was swollen shut and I couldnt see! well that meant I couldnt ride so Ray and Duncan went looking for a place to camp nearby and George and Oli went to buy some food in the next town.
The next day it was even worse so I went to the hospital to see if they could do anything -A long shot- of course they couldnt by gave me some ice and some pills to stop the swelling.
Duncan and Oli were on a schedule and so they left to continue to Italy. Me, Ray and George went to find a proper campsite to spend the next few days in until i could see properly again.
It turned out the ice did the trick and by the next day I could see enough to ride even though my face was till swollen. We rode some wicked valleys and passes into Italy to see Robin and his Fiance and her family. Had a great evening with a proper Itialian family, food and wine!
The next day we split up. Ray and me headed to the Dolomites and George headed to libjuana, slovenia to meet some friends (Grega, Iztoc, Christina and Barbra). Unfortunaltly for me and Ray it rained pretty much as soon as we got to the mountains and after a day in the pelting rain I called it at 4 pm as i was not feeling safe on the roads, there was nowhere really cheap but we found what I think was the least expenive hotel in the area (still 40 Euros each) and we had a couple of pints and watched the rain in the cafe next door.
The following day it was better so we made a bee line to George and the sun! I didnt even realise we were in Austria until we were almost out! oops! still, it was nice fast A roads and we got onto the motorway and got into Libjuana about lunchtime where, happily, it was sunny! but by the time George dragged himself out of bed and met us in the center square the rain was coming in. We were spending that night at Grega's house about 30k out of the city, we were completly soaked by the time we arrived but the rain started letting up and Grega got a BBQ going and produced some beers so we had a good evening in the end.
Up late next day and did some work on the bikes (well George did, the rest of us drank coffee and offered suggestions)
Not much to say about the next 3 days as we just rode through the rest of Slovenia, Croatia and into Serbia (where we camped in a very poor town by the river in as far as I was concerned a frankly stupid spot! but as it turned out we had no problems and all was ok, took a bit of riding a 2 foot wide embankment with solid bushes on one side and a drop down a concrete bank into the river on the other (and of course we all rode one after the other with no chance of turning or even helping each other - it had been a long day)
We had planned on staying at (or near) a monastry near Sophia where they have taken an oath of silence but the road took longer than expected and we had to stop for me to replace my rear sprocket. So as night fell we stopped at a small restaurant for the most salty food I have ever and hope to ever eat! then camped by the motorway and next to a train track where it of course rained in the morning and we split for the last tim, George and me heading to Turkey and Istanbul and Ray going south to Greece and then by boat to Italy and up back to Austria. I wish him all the best and it has been great to have him riding with us (including the 2 hour shortcut that put us 20k back the way we had come!! - was a nice ride though).
We had a long day to the border of Turkey and fortunatly only about 20 minutes at the border so double quick time! next was 250k of stupidly windy motorway that we did as fast as we could but when we stopped it felt like I had been in the ring with a boxer!
Istanbul started about 40k out of the city, this place really is Massive! Had to stop a couple of times in the rush hour traffic due to my bike overheating and the driving is really getting bad now.
Anyway this has been a long and mostly boring post due to us rushing through Europe, but I know I will do it again some day and so look forward to that. We will likely be in the city until the weekend and i will try and get a post up before we leave
Now (hopefully) some pics
Monday 6 July 2009
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