Heavy Metal around Mongolia and Central Asia

Timolgra · Jan 8, 2010

It's time to head west again along the Black Sea coast road and it seems the others are now ahead of me not stopping at Trabzon...that was all the communication I'd recieved...something must have happened.

Turkish hospitality continued at every stop.

Eventually catching the others at a roadside cafe, I'm buzzing but the mood is sombre.
Baz's bad luck had continued, if that was possible.

Whilst crossing the rough route over the mountains in western Georgia, Baz's bike had come off the trailer causing a lot more damage, he'd been furious at the time of the circumstances leading to this latest blow and poor Rick had taken the brunt of Baz's frustration. :hide

His bike was a wreck, a first glance at the twisted rear subframe, dented fuel tank, mangled panniers was enough to appreciate their mood of the past few days.

We pushed on and camped in the grounds of a roadside cafe.
I found an old mattress and thought it a good idea to sleep under the stars. How romantic.

By midnight my down sleeping bag was covered in dew, as the sun rose I was saturated and freezing. Oh well it seemed a good idea at the time. :blast

Lovely evening though.

We regroup west of the Istanbul sprawl and cross the Bosphorus together, for better or worse, we've left Asia and are back in Europe.

David Nimrod · Jan 8, 2010

Timolgra said:
Baz's bad luck had continued, if that was possible.

Poor ol' Baz, that really is bad luck

Hope it gets better...

Timolgra · Jan 8, 2010

We've arranged to meet UKGSer, David (ExpatinIstanbul) whose sourced tyres for us and offered us accomodation for a few days so head north to his lovely village on the Black Sea coast.

He's going to be late, time for a few beers then an ice cream and some more beers. Dave arrives on his 1200GS...we drink some more beer before heading off to a restruant where Kelvin, another UKGSer turns up on his 1150.
He lives next door to David, his wife's away for a few days more in UK so offers us his house while he goes back to pick her up.

A good meal and more beers later we head off in convoy stopping at a shop for yes.....their entire stock of beer and somehow make it back in one piece.

With strict instructions not to smoke near the house, (his wife thinks Kelvin has given up), he has a last smoke, gargles a mouth wash and heads for the airport to fly to UK and get his wife.
Party time!

Baz has become concerningly unwell with a stomach problem and is losing weight, it's decided his bike is not quickly repairable with our limited time and resources anyway.
Pete and I fit fresh tyres, service the bikes and I discover my rear shock lower mounting bolt is snapped in two places. I'd been very lucky not to cause more damage but after a hot day of fixing I was happy my bike was now ok to ride home.

Time for a days sightseeing then.....

Timolgra · Jan 8, 2010

We'd spent the last ten or eleven weeks travelling in remote and empty places, Istanbul is a shock to the system.

The fifth largest city in the world with a population of around 13 million (approx. three times that of London), the Istanbul sprawl seemed to go on forever as our manic taxi driver raced to the interesting bit where we were to join throngs of phallic camera weilding Japanese tourists.

First stop, the Basilica Cistern built 'a long time ago' to provide water for some of the great palaces.

At the base of one of the columns a carved visage of Medusa.
Now Medusa is one of those women with a bit of 'baggage' and as a result became something of a man hater (does this sound familiar yet?)...anyway the enraged (ex)virgin goddess transformed her beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn a man to stone. (I bet it's familiar now!)

Luckily for us....and the Japanese tourists, these carvings had been inverted and placed sideways thus negating her power and we escaped to the streets above.

Heading for the Blue Mosque there's a distinct lack of Jap tourists, we head over to have a look.

We'd intended to investigate inside but the queues of guess who deterred us, so with increasing uncomfort amongst the crowds we walked through leafy parks to eventually negotiate an interesting taxi ride back. The driver claimed to be the Turkish equivalent of Lewis Hamilton but Hamilton was never that fast!

Baz had been resting back at the house and I think the rest of us wished we'd stayed there with him drinking cool beer.

We cleaned the house in time for Kelvin's return with his lovely wife. They cooked us a full English breakfast the following morning and were escorted out of Istanbul by the local GS'ers.

The route back was still undecided. The original plan was to head up the Dalmation coast but both Pete and Baz were now keen to get home asap.
There was a possibility I was going straight to southern Spain but that changed and we thought to head for Transilvania in search of Dracula......

mr_magicfingers · Jan 8, 2010

Timolgra said:
First stop, the Basilica Cistern built 'a long time ago' to provide water for some of the great palaces.

Wow, what a fantastic picture.

Timolgra · Jan 8, 2010

Skirting the border with Greece and we're into Bulgaria. The road north to Romania is closed for some reason so Transilvania will have to wait for another time and it's now looking like a straight run for home.

Stopping in Sofia and in a late night search for food we stumble across the perfect biker bar. The owner offers us his home made 'grape brandy', half way down the glass I'm ready to keel over where I'm sat having never drunk anything so powerful. Pissed as a fart doesn't begin to describe my state.

Encouraged by the others I down the rest and I'm gone. Rick and Pete are more hardened drinkers and manage another then they're gone!!

Stumbling back to a hotel of unknown location in the early hours we stop a taxi and tell him to keep driving. A 100 meters later we're back and shout him to stop, he's confused as to why we wanted a taxi. I find my way to the room where Baz is laid up.
In the morning I'm told of bouncing off the walls before hitting the sack.

The biker bar had promised us a Bulgarian breakfast, but not too early.
With hangovers from hell we returned and all was well with our new found friends.

It's now just a blast across Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovinia.

Near the border with Austria the heavens opened and we felt chilled for the first time on the bike in quite some time so stopped a while.
Rick and Baz, not wanting anything else to go wrong are going to stick to motorways and major routes with the Landrover towing the stricken bike.

Pete and I of course want to ride over the Alps so we arrange to meet...somewhere.

The weathers poor so it's not worth crossing the Alps tonight, we stay in a lovely small town with friendly Austrian girls, the hotel owner tells us we're safe now and we hit the bars. All's well with the world.

Next morning we ride over the Grossglockner Pass.

It's freezing cold at the top, we enter the bar, I ask a stunning Austrian woman with blonde pig tails and leather ledehosen pants for something warm to eat, "Ah apple strudel and custard" she smiles.

A wonderful but wet ride through Austria.

The road flattens out leaving the mountains behind, we're somewhere in Germany for the night where wealth and general high quality of life is striking different from much that we've seen.

Timolgra · Jan 8, 2010

Finding an interesting route to northern France and passing by the war cemeteries, thoughts turn to all those young men who never had the opportunies to take a trip such as this.
We stop in the beautiful town of Arras where Pete had previously visited on an archeological trip.
I think he'd fallen in love with a barmaid....as you do, we went in search of her but found only beer.

Timolgra · Jan 8, 2010

This ride report's been a long haul so we'll travel these last few miles with a large glass of single malt in hand.

Rick and Baz already have their tickets and been waiting at Calais for 16 hours in order we can all cross the Channel together.
Pete and I buy tickets for the same crossing and we're all directed towards the check in.

We ride where directed and board the ferry.
Upstairs on the open deck I'm waiting for Rick, who's sure to have a smoke up here.
Then Pete tells me he and I had been put on an earlier ferry, Baz's luck had struck again, we set sail leaving them in Calais.

With the white cliffs of Dover coming into view once again, we'd travelled for 3 months, passed through 22 different countries and covered 17,000 miles but most importantly had met hundreds of wonderful people.

They say travels broadens the mind.
What had I learnt?

Well, to avoid Russian truckers and Azerbaijani ommelette makers obviously!