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Diary
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Thursday, 11 July 2002 We are currently in Esfahan, central Iran. We entered Iran on Saturday 6 July so have been here for almost a week now. We have been on the road 66 days and covered 7391 miles (11 826 kms). After leaving Dogubeyazit, the last town of Eastern Turkey, we entered Iran at the border of Bazargan. There were few hiccups and we were through the border within 2 hours. We noticed an almost immediate change upon entering Iran. The people are extremely friendly to tourists and make you feel at home at once! They are not trying to sell you anything and they do not want anything from you, they simply want to speak to you and learn about where you are from and what you are doing in their country. We rode east to reach Tabriz, one of Iran's biggest cities, a good days ride from the border. Here we spent two nights hoping to extend our 5-day transit visa for at least 5 days, hopefully a few weeks. Within a few hours of arriving in Tabriz, we had made a few friends. Hassan, Majid, Mojtaba and Salman invited us to join them for dinner on the second night. We obliged and, 6 up in a traditional Iranian Taxi, the Paykan, we headed out for the night. They refused when we tried to pay for anything and we had Iranian pizza followed by drinks in the park close by. The hospitality is overwhelming when you consider how little these people have. Unemployment is very high and many people live on the breadline, yet they are so friendly! After leaving Tabriz, with no visa extension, we decided to try Tehran on the advice of the foreign affairs officials in Tabriz. En route to Tehran we spent a day at Gazvin, a bustling little town close to the mountains. The next day we did a day trip up to Alamut, a small village up in the mountains. The roads are awesome for a motorbike, twisting their way up over the pass and down into the valley in which Alamut lies. Here we visited the ruins of the 11th century Castle of the Assassins, set high up on the mountain overlooking Alamut. The castle is aptly named because Hasan Sabbah, Ismaili cult founder, doped candidates who wished to join him against the then rulers of Iran. They were then sent on missions to wipe out the opposition. We were treated to a royal visit as some 8 local historians joined us up to the summit where the ruins now remain. Afterwards we were invited in for tea and cherries, one of the many fruits produced in the summer by the village below. The region has only 3 months of summer when they harvest their abundance of fruit (apricots, cherries, rice, peaches, etc) and the population swells to some 5000. In the harsh winter this area is almost uninhabited, with only 200 people remaining in the village. The rest seek work in other parts of the country, mostly in Tehran. A 6am start the next day saw us reach Tehran at 9am and we eventually found the foreign office, after negotiating the Tehran rush hour traffic that reminded us of being in an arcade game! Lanes are not really adhered to in Iran; taxis, small motorbikes and local cars simply change lanes at will, finding the most aerodynamic way forward whatever the direction! We certainly had to have our wits about us on the motorway, as a car moving 3 lanes in about as many seconds is not uncommon! After almost 3 hours of pleading unsuccessfully for a visa extension with the government officials at the foreign office, we decided to get out of Tehran. Tehran to Esfahan is usually a good days ride at some 500 kms, but as we departed at noon, it was a long day for us. There is little in between Tehran and Esfahan so we rode non-stop through the heat of the day to reach Esfahan after sunset. This has been our longest day on the bikes so far, 400 miles (640 kms), and probably one of the most taxing too! But, as our 5 day transit visa was about to come to an end the following day, we had to no option but to try one last time in Esfahan to extend it or face the unknown at the frequent police road blocks. This whole visa saga has left a sour taste in our mouths and so here's a word of advice on anyone hoping to visit Iran: Get a 30-day tourist visa!! We have spent a day in Esfahan, half a day extending our visa at the (only!?) helpful foreign office and the other half sightseeing. Esfahan used to be the capital of Iran years ago and there are many palaces and monuments showing this, which are well worth a visit. Unfortunately our time has been cut short in Iran due to our visa complications. We had hoped to spend close to a month here but now we are forced to leave within 10 days. The people are so friendly, it is extremely cheap (petrol is 6 US cents per litre) and there is much to do and see but it's not to be for us. Tomorrow we will head south to Shiraz, where we'll spend a day, then we move east to Kerman, Bam and Pakistan over the border within the next 5 days. It has been enlightening to be able to visit Iran as we had heard so much about it. The roads are extremely good and the scenery picturesque. It is one of the few countries with such a variation in climate: In the north toward the Caspian Sea, it is warm in summer but very cold in winter. Here there are fertile valleys, where export quality fruit is grown and the Alborz Mountains are snow-capped throughout summer. Much of Eastern Iran is uninhabited due to the deserts, which take up most of its countryside. Tehran, in the centre, is the capital with 12 million people. In the south the Persian Gulf offers a coastal climate and has ports busy ferrying oil out to much of the world. Itinerary of the last few days: Saturday, 6 July Sunday, 7 July Monday, 8 July Tuesday, 9 July Wednesday, 10 July Friday, 5 July 2002 We are currently in Dogubeyazit, staying at Murat Pension. Dogubeyazit is the last town before Iran and we had planned to leave early this morning for the border. However, due to Dom having his credit card cancelled for some unknown reason and Gary being a bit sick, we will go to Iran tomorrow morning. We have now been on the road 60 days and covered 6233 miles (9973 kms). After leaving Tatvan on Lake Van, we rode up to the top of Nemrut Dagi, another similar named 2500m volcano to the one we saw a few days ago, that towers over Lake Van covered in snow. This region is really mountainous and from the top you can see many snow capped mountains all around the lake. We found a crystal clear, volcanic lake up in the huge crater of Nemrut and camped under the stars for the night. It was quite cold up on the mountain but extremely beautiful. We must have eaten something suspect over the last 2 days as Dom and Gary have had some tummy troubles but nothing to stop the hardy type! Yesterday we rode up from Tatvan to Dogubeyazit, mostly alongside Lake Van. The roads were great, lovely tar with very few potholes and we were able to sit at a comfortable 100km per hour most of the way. On approach to Dogubeyazit, Mount Arrarat towers up into the clouds above the dwarfed town. It is largest mountain in Turkey at a staggering 5137m. We met a Swiss couple from Bern staying at Murat who are doing a similar route to us by camper van. They will also be entering Iran tomorrow but their itinerary is somewhat different to ours, as they'll be heading up north to the Caspian Sea within a few days.
Wednesday, 3 July Thursday, 4 July Friday, 5 July
Tuesday, 2 July 2002 We are currently in Tatvan, camping alongside Lake Van in Eastern Turkey. We have made up a few days by riding all day over the past few days so now have a few days on hand to catch up with servicing the bikes and visiting the sites around Lake Van before heading for the border of Dogbayzit later in the week to enter Iran. We have now been on the road 57 days and covered 5981 miles (9570 kms). We spent 2 days in the Cappadocia
region and enjoyed the history the region has to offer. We stayed in Göreme
and hiked through the Rose and Dick valleys. The area was apparently used
in the filming of Star Wars due to its alien rock formation appearance.
The area has had numerous volcanic eruptions to form what are now hundreds
of mushroom shapes of rock. There are some tall, some short, some fat and
some thin. The region is well known for the ancient Christian churches and
underground dwellings that people travel from far and wide to see. Many
years ago when the Arabs forbade Christianity, Christians were persecuted
and so they took their religion underground. There are 2 cities built
underground into the lava around 35 metres deep. There are also many
churches built into the mushroom like rock. The Christians painted the
most exquisite emblems of Christ among others. Most of the faces on these
were destroyed by the Arabs but for a few. After leaving Cappadocia, we spent
the longest day on the bikes so far. We covered close on 600km to reach
Nemrut Dagi. We were up at 6am to arrive at 6pm halfway up this 2500m
mountain. The temperatures are well into the 30's now and with the tar
heating up the air, probably closer to the 40's out on the road! Our route
took us through some lovely authentic Turkish towns of Pinarbasi,
Karamanaras and Golbasi, though we didn't have much time to stop and
appreciate them. Nemrut Dagi is well known for the
huge statues that were carved out of limestone and erected at the top of
this great mountain. However, an earthquake had the upper hand and a few
years ago the statues were damaged, causing the heads and various other
parts to fall onto the floor. They are currently trying to resurrect these
to restore them to their original state. The heads alone are around 2m in
height and must weigh in excess of 300 kilograms. After the early start watching the
sunrise we rode all day to reach Tatvan on Lake Van. This lake is huge and
reminds us of Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe due to its size. Today is service day for the bikes as we have covered almost 10 000km since leaving London 2 months ago. We will be changing the oil and oil filters and cleaning the robust K&N filters that we have been sponsored. We met Joseph Pichler and his wife,
Renata, at the campsite in Tatvan. He is an extremely well travelled
individual with not much in the world he hasn't seen by motorbike. He was
very interesting to chat to and gave us a lot of advice for our trip
regarding Iran and India as well as general advice on where to go and what
to see. We will visit Nemrut Dagi (another one!) today. It is alongside Lake Van where there is a hot spring as well as some other interesting things of an historical nature. From there we will make our way over to the Iranian border of Dogbayzit. Itinerary of the last few days: Saturday 29 June Sunday 30 June Monday 1 July Friday, 28 June 2002 We are currently visiting the Cappadocia region and staying in Göreme in central Turkey. Since leaving Kusadasi we have followed the picturesque coastline until turning inland this morning. We have now been on the road 53 days and covered 5316 miles (8506 kms). After leaving Kusadasi we visited Bodrum, where Damian had some news that he had to return to London to sort out some paper work. Damian spent 6 days back in London, though it took him the best part of 2 days to fly back to London then back to Bodrum. Dominic and Gary, after doing a scuba dive with Balci diving in Kusadasi, got quite sick and had to spend a few days in bed to recover from the flu like symptoms they had. We can only put this down to poor hygiene on the part of the scuba diving company. Anyhow Damian was back in London and Dom and Gary were in bed so not all was lost. A bit of sightseeing was done in and around the Bodrum peninsula. Dom and Gary did a boat trip for a day and rode around the peninsula for a day on the bikes. Once Damian arrived back we pushed on to Fethiye, which is about 250km further down the lovely Turkish coast. This was similar to Bodrum in that it's purely a boating paradise with little room for beach activities. Our trip has had some influence from the World Cup in that we have at least something to talk to the locals about. Turkey reached the semi finals, the best ever performance by them in the World Cup. The Turkish flags have never been so prominent, they can be seen on t-shirts, car windows, restaurants, even the motorcyclists have them attached to their bikes! Our Turkish is coming along well and we can now greet, ask how the person is, say thank you as well as goodbye and a few other phrases we have learnt along the way. Here is our short Turkish phrase book (spelt as spoken - we have yet to learn Turkish symbols!) Merhaba - Hello; And last but not least (though we have not used it often enough…) Ruyalaramin Kadinusm - You are the girl of my dreams! We seem to pick up phrases almost daily and the locals are impressed when we speak to them in their own language. Whilst in Fethiye we did an off
road daytrip up Baba Dagi, a mountain almost 2000 metres above sea level.
It is a paradise for Para gliders as the view it offers is breathtaking.
We could count more than 30 thrill seekers in the sky after watching them
launch themselves off the almost sheer drop down to the Mediterranean. The
mountain overlooks Ouldeniz, a beach only a postcard can depict -
absolutely fantastic! The sea is turquoise and the beach like one from the
Caribbean. Pushing on along the coast we travelled past Antalya, touristy Manavgat and Alanya staying close to Anamur last night. The roads along the coast are quite hard work but really enjoyable. They remind us again of South Africa as they are built into the cliffs like Chapman's Peak close to Cape Town. They did take their toll on our concentration though, as they wind their way in and out with nothing but the sea down below, sapping the energy and requiring a few caffeine stops to keep us going. Today we covered more than 500km,
our longest day so far, to reach Göreme in the heart of Cappadocia. With
a 6am start to counteract the heat, we drove down the coast almost to
Adana before turning inland to reach our destination at 6pm. Some say this
is a holiday but days like this are damn hard work - the enjoyable type
though!! Today things seemed to have changed quite a bit on a few fronts: Weather: The humid coastal temperatures of the past few weeks are now cool and cloudy conditions with snow capped mountains close by; People: The beaches with local and
foreign tourists have changed to less wealthy, rural inhabitants. It's not
uncommon to see a family of 4 on a moped! Vegetation: The bananas, tomatoes,
cherries, olives that thrive in the humid coastal conditions have now
changed to maize and potatoes. We hope to visit the Derinkulu underground city tomorrow among the other touristy things this exquisite area has to offer before moving further east on Sunday via Lake Van. Itinerary of the last few days: Monday 17 June Tuesday 18 - Sunday 23 June Monday 24 June Tuesday 25 June Wednesday 26 June Thursday 27 June Friday 28 June
Monday 24 June - Turkey Following Karen's departure last Sunday we spent one more night in Kusadasi. On Monday we rode the 130km to Bodrum and arrived around lunchtime. Dom and Gary have been quite ill with a throat infection that we think has something to do with the diving they both did in Kusadasi. They've been recovering for a few days while Damian flew back to London on Tuesday to sort out some official business. Dom and Gary went on boat trip to one of the Turkish islands and have been riding around the area on their bikes. Damian rejoined the group on Sunday
night in Bodrum and they rode to Fethiye on Monday. The area is very
mountainous with snow on the tops on the mountains. It's quite a change
from the terrain of the last few weeks.
We have just spent a week on the beach at Kusadasi, a coastal resort about 100km south of Izmir on Turkeys' west coast. We have now been on the road 41 days and covered 4220 miles (6752 kms) and are currently staying in Kusadasi, a coastal resort on the west coast of Turkey. The past week has been an almost complete break from travelling. Karen, Damian's wife, has been with us for just over a week. She has not seen Damian since his departure from London so they are both very happy to have been able to spend some quality time together. It may be some time yet before they see each other again with Iran, Pakistan and India on the horizon! We travelled south from Ayvalik through Izmir to Kusadasi and found a very good hotel after some bargaining. We have been staying at Emek Pansiyon for the past 10 days. It is a clean, well-kept, self-catering block with a lovely pool and very hospitable owners. We each have our own en suite rooms with fridges and, as this is the first time we are staying in such luxury, we are not sure we want to leave just yet! We have done some maintenance on the bikes thanks to Karen bringing out some necessary spares. Damian and Gary have both replaced their front brake disks (bent by disk locks back in London) and the long awaited Öhlins shock has been fitted to Gary's bike. We have had a few day trips out
from Kusadasi as there are a few tourist attractions close by. Half a day
was spent visiting Ephesus, the largest Roman ruins dating back hundreds
of years. These were not as impressive as first thought, quite expensive
and took all of 2 hours to see. On Thursday we did a day out on the boat, across the huge bay in which Kusadasi is situated. The boat was quite spacious, fitting about 30 people quite comfortably. The highlight was stopping in a quiet, unspoiled cove and doing some snorkelling. Though this coastline doesn't seem to have much sea life, we did manage to see a few colourful wrasse, an octopus and the odd rock cod, tucked under the algae covered shelves. We did a daytrip out toward Cesme across the bay from Kusadasi on Friday. The weather certainly seems to be heating up and on the road the temperature was around 35 degrees. We stopped at a remote beach for some snorkelling and Dom thought he'd turn around on the beach itself! While turning around he got stuck with the back wheel spinning deep into the sand. As he signalled to the others not to join him Gary followed and got even deeper! Anyway with a few helping hands: Karen and Damian pushing from behind, we managed to launch the bikes back up to harder ground. Dom and Gary did a scuba dive early on Saturday morning. There is a small reef about 1km off Kusadasi that is at about 5 metres under the surface. There was not really much to see but a fairly large grouper did appear for a few seconds. The beach as Kusadasi is where we have spent a lot of time over the past 10 days. The weather has been superb, as has the talent, which daily lines the beach! Our tans have never looked so good! This resort seems to be filled mostly with local Turkish holidaymakers but there are a few European tourists about. It is not yet high season so perhaps that is all about to change? Next week Karen will be back in London and we will continue our journey south to Bodrum and continue along the coast.
Thursday 6 June Friday 14 June Other than that, no real travel as such but about 100 miles of odd journeys around this area.
Wednesday, 5 June 2002 - Greece/Turkey We have finally made it to Asia after spending nearly a month in Europe. We have been on the road 29 days and covered 3815 miles (5629 kms) and are currently camping close to Izmir on the west coast of Turkey. Our last few days in Greece were really great and we met some interesting people and visited some great places. We spent another day in Cavalla and then took a ferry to the Island of Thassos, just off the coast from Cavalla. In Cavalla we met a friendly Greek guy, Giotis, who recommended spending some time on the island of Thassos because, being an offroader himself (he has a Honda 600R), it's paradise for it's off roads. Thassos is beautiful and popular with tourists who enjoy the crystal clear waters and white sandy beaches. We camped close to the beach and spent a half-day swimming in the crisp Aegean Sea. The other half was spent doing some fantastic off road inland on Thassos Island. Here we found miles and miles of unspoiled rocky roads and we loved every minute of it. It had its thrills and spills but nobody actually crashed though there were some close calls! After Thassos we moved further
eastward, catching the ferry from Thassos to Kermati and rode to
Alexandrapoulis. Here we camped quite close to the town but met a local
biker, Telis, who invited us to have a few beers with them at their
motorbike clubhouse that evening. They provided us with some great
information regards travelling to Turkey and some maintenance for our
Africa Twins. Turkey We then travelled to Istanbul on the new motorway, which has been built to accommodate the Athens 2004 Olympics. It's a great road and compared to some of the others we encountered in Greece, probably the best we've seen. Our first real border crossing was a breeze and we had to provide our carnets for the first stamp. After about 45 minutes we were in Turkey without any hassle. On our way through Turkey, we had our fair share of corrupt policeman. The first "offense" was for speeding (we were travelling the same speed as the locals but only we were pulled over!) about an hour outside Istanbul. Here, 2 well-equipped policemen with brand new BMW bikes pulled us over and told us we had been speeding and the fine was 80 million Turkish Lira each (GBP£1 = TL1, 000,000). On opening our wallets this was immediately reduced to 20 million. No tickets were issued and the money simply went into the officer's pockets. They then proceeded to drive off, obviously to go and do a similar thing somewhere down the road to some other poor unsuspecting tourists like us! Once we arrived in Istanbul, we realised the change from 1st world Europe to 3rd world Asia. Every corner was met with some local trying to sell you something! Istanbul was quite a nightmare to find accommodation by motorbike. After asking several locals, who included a siren driver escort by a policeman who got lost, we were eventually rescued by a local friendly Africa Twin rider, Alisan Yargici. He led us to a friendly hotel in the heart of Sultana met, the touristy part where our friends Clive and Mandy were also staying. The Best Hippodrome hotel we stayed at is very reasonably priced; biker friendly and we certainly recommend it to anyone visiting Istanbul. They insisted we park our bikes right in front of the hotel and they were well cared for and guarded 24 hours. After settling into our spacious 3-bed room including bathroom, the best accommodation we've had in weeks, we met up with Clive and Mandy for dinner. The next day was spent site seeing around Istanbul where we visited the Hagia Sofia mosque, one of the largest of it's kind. We also saw the ancient underground Roman Basilica cistern, which was a secret water storage system many centuries ago. Istanbul is not Mediterranean; most people go out and eat early. By midnight things are very quiet but for a few tourists about. After dinner it's custom to smoke a shish (hubbly bubbly) in Turkey. As some of us had not done this before it was quite a funny experience to watch! Check out the photos of the "novice" shish smokers. We visited the Bosphorus, which separates Europe from Asia and crossed the bridge the following day on our bikes. In the evening we did a boat trip up along the Bosphorus up to the bridge and back. After leaving Istanbul behind, we
spent 3 days there; we caught the ferry to Bandirma. The 2-hour crossing
was in a large, high-speed ferry that would usually take 5 hours. It is
relatively cheap at TL 24 million (US$ 24) and almost like an aircraft
with business class and economy class seats. We continued south yesterday, down towards Izmir, where we'll meet Karen, Damian's wife, on Saturday. Today we are going to visit the ancient Acropolis about 50km from our campsite as part of a days sightseeing in this area. Tomorrow we will continue south closer to Izmir and hopefully find a cheap hotel in which to spend a few days at the beach. We also have one days maintenance to do on the bikes before Karen arrives on Saturday. We will be spending a week close to Izmir while Karen is here with us and perhaps visiting another Greek Island (perhaps Kos or Rhodes) if our visas permit!
Tuesday 28 May Wednesday 29 May Thursday 30 May Friday 31 May Saturday 1 June Sunday 2 June Monday 3 June Tuesday 4 June
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