Turkey

When I started planning this trip I looked at the map and thought "UK to Malaysia? Easy. It's only about that far. Won't take long at all". Then I looked at Turkey and thought "Turkey, yeah right. It's tiny. I can completely cover it with my thumb. I could walk across that in a hour".

Ok, I didn't exactly think that, but I did assume that I would be finding German style motorways at least until Turkmenistan. The last couple of days have proven me very wrong.

The big job I had to do in Istanbul was get an Iranian visa. For one reason or another I was in the city for 5 days before it was even started, and then there was a 3 day processing time. So I ended up spending over a week there which meant I had to cut out much of what I wanted to do in Turkey.

But while I was waiting for the visa I headed out to Troy for a couple of days. When discussing the best route to take there I was convinced to take the coast road around the northwest of the Marmara sea. Sounds good. I like twisty mountainy coastal roads. Especially when the have a good surface.

Hmmm, I think this is another one of those Turkish "very good asphalt" things.

Turkey is a beautiful country.


And with my trusty Garmin never leading me astray

I reach Troy.

A lot of it is very well preserved, but after a while it just starts looking like a bunch of rocks on the ground.

Back in Istanbul I decide I need to gather a few spare parts for the bike so I head down to the motorcycle section of town. Yes, there really is a motorcycle section. A couple of streets with just bike shops. We need a place like that in Bristol.

And with the visa collected I leave town. I set myself the target of getting to Iran in 3 days. Easy enough. Even though I have had to abandon Cappadocia I though I would at least head up to the Black sea.

And this is when I really hit a problem with the Turkish roads. It seems the whole of Turkey is under construction. But they aren't very good at managing it. A road will suddenly and with no warning turn from perfect tarmac to gravel and dust. But the transition is so sudden that it must be a case of either somebody building a tarmac road up to a point then packing up and going home, or somebody picking a point on an existing tarmac road and digging it up from there. There is usually no warning about the change in surface or the massive drop at the boundary. After a running on to gravel with road tyres at 100kph I soon learnt to watch far ahead.

On this ride I notice a small but important issue with the GPS wiring I did the day before. Deciding it must be fixed I decide a campsite is the best thing since I won't be under any pressure to leave first thing in the morning. I scope out one on the map about 40km away. 40km? Easy. Won't take any time at all.

And that's not even the bad bit. The surface was falling apart. There were animals wandering freely on the road. People were trimming hedgerows and throwing the cutoffs onto the road. There were homicidal Turkish drivers coming the other way. And the last 10km were 'under construction'. But this was one of my favourite rides so far. Sure it took a long time (4 hours), but it was beautiful, incredibly good fun and the villages were full of the most amazing people.

On day 2, with 1300km still to do I decide to carry on along the Black sea coast for a few hundred km and then move inland. I had ridden a small stretch of the coast the day before which was brand new dual carriageway. Naturally I assumed it would be the same further up.

I didn't get lost (for once), this really is the road

The Black Sea - a clear case of false advertising. An arsey letter is on its way to the Turkish OFT.

Turkey is a beautiful country.

And this picture for me sums up the Turkish attitude towards road construction. I like to imagine there was a conversation in the planning office that went something like this.

Road Planner 1: Hey, there is a problem with that road we built last week. We did a really good job and it has a really nice smooth surface but we left 3 cm of gravel on top.
Road Planner 2: What's wrong with that?
RP1: It slows everyone down. The road is not being used to its full potential. It is dangerous and causes damage to vehicles and buildings.
RP2: So send the boys out again to put up a load of permanent signs complete with flashing lights for the full 30km stretch with a reduced speed limit and warning of loose gravel.
RP1: But that doesn't solve the problem.
RP2: Well what do you suggest? That we go out and clear up the gravel?
RP1: No, of course not. Don't be ridiculous.

RP2: Well I'm out of ideas.
RP1: Me too.
RP2: Signs it is.

Eventually I have to leave the coast and head inland. On the plus side the map says this new road is a major dual carriageway. This is bound to gain me some time back.

I'm getting really bored of this now.

Eventually I do reach the dual carriageway which stays that way pretty much until the Iranian border.

First rain clouds I've seen since France. And I'm heading straight into them.

The eastern part of Turkey is a high altitude plain. I do not have the words to describe how beautiful this part of the country is and a camera doesn't begin to do it justice.

Not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but Turkey is a really beautiful country.

They even have some very advanced anti-speeding technology.

And at the end of day 3 I have only 300km left to the Iran border. Not too shabby.

I even got to see mount Ararat.

Wow. Isn't it beautiful? I'm so glad it didn't turn out to be a massive disappointment after coming all this way.

I've met a couple of other travellers in this past week. There was Marko from Finland who, oddly enough, is a former NSN employee but has now sold everything and is riding around the world for the next 5 years or so.

Another guy from Austria had to turn around and head home after losing all his passports, documents, money, credit cards in a storm at the Turkmen/Uzbek border. Really feel sorry for the guy.


Having never been to Turkey before I had no expectations beyond what other people had told me. But everyone I know who has been there have only ever been to Istanbul or the coast. And there is so much more to Turkey than that.

Sure the drivers are awful if you are on a bike. And the roads range from perfect

to 'under construction'

to, uh, yeeaaahhhh.....

This is the main road through a town

But the best part of Turkey is without a doubt the people. I honestly cannot think of a bad word to say about anyone. From all my new friends in Istanbul to the strangers who just want to talk, the people who keep giving me tea, the countless petrol station attendants who want to talk AND drink tea. And probably this is what slowed me down as much as the quality of the roads.

Is this a çay I see before me?

If there is a problem with Turkey then it is this. It's impossible to get anywhere quickly because the people are just too nice.


But for now I have left Turkey. Hopefully it won't be long before I am back.