Fat and in Ruins

I have had an interesting couple of weeks since last posting. I  spent most of the time trying to cycle my way around the Aegean coast of Turkey, visiting its many ancient ruins  whilst waiting for news, on whether Tehran is willing to issue me with a visa or not. It has taken me 2 whole weeks to travel less than 300 miles  visiting the ancient ruined cities of Troy, Alexandria, Assoss, Pergamon and Ephesus  whereI am now.

 Let me explain. after 2 weeks in Istanbul and a few nights in Canakkale  holed up in avoidance of the terrible weather, I eventually managed to get back on the saddle. the first day was torturous and I paid dearly for the kilos of Turkish delights and Baklavas I had eaten during my relatively sedentary previous weeks. the hills felt like I was pulling a laden cart up them and my knees began to become irritable under the pressure, I was really out of condition and though the weather was glorious with little headwind , I think I only managed 50 or 60 km for the day and spent a good part of the rest of the day looking around the ancient ruins of Troy to give my knees a bit of  rest. On day 2 things got worse as my gears started to slip badly, at one point forcing me off the road and causing me to get a puncture. It took about 20 mins to replace the tube and get on my way again, fighting my way through the crowd of spectators that had gathered to watch my roadside antics. within another few miles my gears began to slip really badly once again and I became really worried about continuing, though gingerley I persevered. About 500 yards from my final destination for the day (Assos) my gears slipped and locked my chain like a vice and in the process deposited  me at 15 mph onto the loosely graveled  tarmac below. I limped into Assoss with grazed knees and elbows, trailing the juice of a smashed melon which somehow still clung to my back bike rack. Assos was absolutely beautiful with a picture postcard Mediterranean harbour and extensive greek ruins at the summit of its endearing cobbled streets. the population of the town are mainly farmers and as such the hospitality is wonderful as is the fresh produce which is supplied to the local restaurants. In all I spent 3 days in Assoss partly because I loved the place and the overwhelming hospitality of its people and partly because I knew I had to do some serious work on my bike . I had lost all confidence in it and its  ability to get me up the incresingly large  hills of Turkey. I spent one whole day stripping my bike gears down replacing the cables and re- adjusting the front and rear derailler I was helped by the farmer who ran the £8 a night bed and breakfast where I stayed, he didnt speak a word of English but insisted on helping me, he even drove his moped to the next town to get the cable housing cut for me at an engineers. Throughout the day his wife kept bringing me out food and tea  even though it was Ramazan. She would not accept any payment from me.  In the evening I walked through the ruins down to the Harbour sat drinking tea with the locals and decided that I would have to push on the next day. I couldnt afford to lose more fitness by staying another day off the bike. On the way back up the steep climb from the harbour the local hospitality was in evidence again when Ishemel stopped and picked me up in his tractor and gave me a lift up the 2km climb. This was a real hair-raising experience, since it was Ishemel’s new tractor and he wanted to open it up and show what it could do on the steep cobbled incline. I clung on for dear life as did the old man  we ‘d picked up halfway along the climb . There we were a fat grazed cyclist and an old man in his late 70′s sliding around perched on the wheel arches of a shiny new red tractor, being bumped and  hurled up a steep cobbled hill past marble white greek ruins as the sun set  behind us - priceless!.

My next destination after Assoss was to be Akcay only about 70 Kms away, things seemed to be going smoothly, no problems with the gears, the sun was shining no head wind, flat terrain , perfect ,was this too good to be true. Something is wrong the back wheel feels funny, I had pulled off the road for a drink and within 30 yards of continuing I had a flat tyre. luckily there was a garage less than 100 yards ahead, the usual crowd of spectators gathered as i Pumped up the now extrtacted flat inner tube. as I fed it around in a bowl of water It was evident that this tube had about 9 punctures in it. On inspecting the outer tyre I found the culprits. The tyre had about a dozen cm long thorns stuck in it, this was quite unbelievable given that the tyres I am using are kevlar lined and supposedly unpunctureable. My little venture off road had been costly, since the tube was now beyond repair. With my last spare tube on I set off again, a little anxious that I if I had missed removing any of the offending thorns this tube would also be punctured within a few miles. I felt relief after an hour or so when the tyre was still fully inflated and started to relax into the ride again. Then it started to happen again, clunking from my gears and they started to slip again. I was once again more than a little  concerned. I pulled into Akcay , which is a pretty little holiday resort where the Turks holiday and  there are few foreigners, once again I m a bit disheartened with my mechanical problems and decide to stay put for a couple of days untill the festival of Bhiran is over and I can try and find a decent bike mechanic to look my bike over. I am a bit worried that I may need to replace some of the components and know that my best chance of doing that is in Izmir or Ankara. I spend much of my time in Akcay socialising with a Turkish couple who used to live in Leicester, they were a lovely couple and fun to talk with, we talked about many things including my bike problems and with their local knowledge and advice I decided that I would  take it easy on the bike and head for Izmir using the buses where more practical. Izmir is  Turkeys 3rd largest city where there are plenty of bike shops and where high end shimano components are readily available. On route to Izmir I cycled the short distance  to Pergammon where I spent a couple of nights so as to visit the extensive and impressive ruins there, It was here that I spent some time sitting with the old men at the tea shop buying rounds of tea and  talking with them through the interpretation of  a carpet shop owner who spoke some english. I  was shown by them how to sneak in the back way of the ruins and thus avoid the high entrance fees. However this involved a trek up through a gypsy settlement and though holes in fences and across chicken pens. I can imagine it was quite a humorous site to see a couple of old Turkish men and a pale middle aged Englishman acting like school kids jumping over peoples back gardens to the sound of squawking chickens and barking dogs. From Pergamon I travelled by bus, bike and all to Izmir where I immediately found an impressive looking  bike shop and left it with them to sort out. Whilst they got to work I went looking around. What a City , I loved it , so refreshing after Istanbul. It was cosmopolitan had a wonderful harbour and was less hectic than Istanbul, there was none of the “fleece the tourist” mentality of Istanbul, the Bazar was wonderful, the second biggest in Turkey but not just full of trinkets and fake designer clothes  to flog to tourists, this was a proper market catering for the local people, there was every thing to be had, I even managed to get tent pegs there, items that had eluded me in Istanbul .There was also a decent bookshop which sold good maps and a wide selection of  books in English.

My bike now has a new chain and all of the gears have been adjusted along with the brakes. I have 2 more spare inner tubes and probably 2 more spare tyres given the amount of Turkish delight i have eaten in the last 2 days , more tent pegs, a book, a new pair of sunglasses to replace the ones that i managed to sit on in the hotel. I also have a more detailed map, I have sussed out how to use the manual settings on my camera. I have also replaced the plug adapter which I left in the hotel in Pergammon. And most importantly I have a Visa for Iran which is waiting for me to pick up in Ankarra , which is by the way about 600Km away on the other side of the mountains.

I am now in Ephesus 70km up the road from Izmir getting ready to make the long arduous journey over the mountains via Pamukkale  and Cappadocia to Ankarra I have spent 2 days here now visiting the ruins of Ephesus. All I can say is wow! amazing , the scale of the place is breathtaking just wish I could be there on my own without the hordes  of guided tours and camera wielding tourists jostling for that perfect picture. I will leave it there for now, please keep your fingers crossed for me that my gears are now fully functional  as I have some bloody big hills to tackle in the next few weeks .

Ishemels Taxi

Assos Harbour

view from the stalls Assos amphitheatre

View accroos Aegean from Assoss

 

 

lots of hills

Ephesus

The usual , person stood in arch photo

Turkey

After crossing the steep green hills of Bulgaria and heading into Turkey we immediately noticed quite drastic changes. that is compared to the rest of Europe where country seemed to roll into country and minor differences would evolve  slowly along the way. Turkey overwhelmed us immediately. It was loud and alive every other car would beep us, the towns and villages were busy with traffic and people callling out to us. It is a land of noise, be it from the minarets calling people to prayer or from the general 24 hour lifestyle of  the Turkish people. the landscape was also different, gone were the green forested hills of Bulgaria we were now faced with a much harsher land, dryer with less greenery and more rolling hills much dominated  by grazing  rather than agricultural land. The roads were also a revelation, in short they were fantastic compared to what we had experienced within the former eastern bloc countries. the majority of roads had a wide hard shoulder and no matter how heavy the traffic, we managed to feel pretty safe on this lane. especially as there was a noticeable reduction in the number of roadkill animals encountered . On entering Turkey we headed Southwest down towards the Gallipoli Penninsula. It took us 4 days to reach this area and though the hilly terrain of Turkey made this heavy going, we really enjoyed the scenery and the wonderful weather. We were able to keep the tent packed away and opt for the luxury of Hotels, only costing us £10-£20 per night with Breakfast. The Gallipoli Penninsula was strange. It is a remarkable place where tens of thousands of British, Australian, NewZealand and Turkish soldiers died during the first world war. We followed the path of the Allied forces from the beach at Anzac cove to the surrounding hills where the extent of the allied advance was realised in a series of still visable trenches. It was such a confined area where so many lives were lost and the area is still littered with debris from the battles. It was a real sombre experience to be at this place, but also very strange since it is also a place of celebration for the Turkish people where they feel that their nation was born and the seeds of their republic were sown. Even so there is much warmth and freindship shown by the Turkish people to the many Australian and English people who visit to pay hommage there, even though are  doing so to the memory of an   invading force who were responsile for thousands of Turks deaths.

I had to spend a few days holed up in the Gallipoli penninsula with a chest infection, Jayne looked after me pretty well, I kept putting on my dying swan impression and sending her out for chocolate , crisps and coke, and we managed to get hold of some antibiotics. This is good if you are ill in Turkey, no need for a doctor to get a prescription, just diagnose yourself and go get what you want from a pharmacist (not good for hypochondriacs). What is not so good if you are ill in Turkey, at least during Ramandan, Is the guy who is payed to go through the streets at 4 o’clock in the morning banging a drum to remind people to eat before sunrise. nor is it good to have a hotel room which faces a mosque especially one which has a very large loudspeaker attached to it through which the call to prayer is emmitted complete with the whistle of feedback at all hours of the day. If you are really unlucky, as I was they will also set off loud explosions to remind you to eat after the sun has set. After recovering from my chest infection we were eager to move on and head towards Istanbul. We crossed the Dardanelles and headed Northeast for a few days battling intense headwinds before giving up and settling for taking the ferry for a couple of hunded miles to Istanbul.

Istanbul- Hectic/Mayhem DO NOT DRIVE THERE. I am so glad we never cycled into Istanbul, It was enough to cycle the 500 yrds or so from the ferry to where we managed to find a decent hotel. Istanbul is like many other cities chaotic, noisy, and to put it nicely a rip-off, every one is after your money having said that we did enjoy our time there, the sights of the mosques and the Waterfront are amazing, and you can spend hours immersing yourself in the sights, sounds and smells of the spice market, bazars and warren of streets. The food was amazing and we developed a liking for sitting in the local buffet style restaurants sharing plates of stuffed vines , rice and bowls of steaming harricot beans . followed by sticky baclavas and sneeking boxes of assorted Turkish delights back to the hotel to munch on during  frequent powercuts . In all we had a great 7 days in Istanbul. It was expensive but it would be  mine and Jayne’s last week together as she was due back in Jersey to pick up where she had left off.  My constant companion of nearly 3 months would be leaving me, This was going to be really strange and I knew I could never know how strange until she had actually gone. For 3 months we had lived in each others pocket, shared everything we had been exhausted together, felt that fear together when being chased by vicious dogs. we had argued we had laughed and we had ached and we had shared that most precious of commodity  time, something that very few couples will ever get to do so intensly for such a long period.  I know that I will miss Jayne’s company deeply and that it is gonna take some time to learn to be comfortable with only my own company.

Jayne flew back to Jersey on the 8th of September -

I have lost my St Christopher!  panic! not that I am too superstitious but, he is the patron saint of travellers. Since losing my St Christopher Turkey has been hit by the worst flash floods they have had in 80 years. over 30 people have lost there lives in Istanbul as a result of it. and now I am stuck here  because the rain has been that bad that my ferry ticket has been cancelled. Now I have to pay another 40 Euros for another night in an expensive hotel in Istanbul. The next day I find my St Christopher, The sun breaks through the cloud and I arrive by ferry at Bandirma. Back where I was almost 2 weeks ago minus a girlfreind. It feels really wierd not having Jayne with me, I am really going to have to get out and socialise otherwise I am going to go stir crazy. As luck has it that evening I venture out on my lonesome and get chatting to Emrah at his restaurant as I tuck into my favourite meal of haricot beans and rice. Emrah invites me out to watch the football with him that evening and we roll back worse for wear some time in the early hours of the morning. This was so welcome to me , I had just said goodbye to my partner a couple of days earlier and felt really low and wondered how I was going to cope with just myself for company. I am really indebted to Emrah for his kindness and hospitality on this evening and this made me realise I will cope, why? because it reminded me of all the kind acts and words that people had given along the way, especially in Turkey. I started to rmember all the people that had taken the time to engage with me, like the 2 Turkish guys who on seeing us buy a melon at the roadside , immediately came over and insised on buying us a further  3 melons ( yes we had to carry 4 melons on our bikes). or the truck drivers who would pull over and offer lifts up the hills. and all those people that called out and offered us glasses of  tea or the man that gave us bunches and bunches of grapes of his cart.

I have applied for my Iranian visa , It will take about 3 weeks to process if I am successful. I will need to pick it up from Ankara which means I have 3 weeks to travel around the South West of Turkey before heading to Cappadoccia and then on to Ankara. Only problem is , Its still raining very heavily, and I am now sitting in Cankkale waiting for it to stop. may build an Ark !

Turkey

Anzac cove

Front line to Suvla bay

The Blue Mosque- Istanbul

Hustle and bustle

dodgy balcony(but only £10 a night)

boxing Jaynes box up to fly back