Georgia today!

Cold start this morning and early so we can allow ourselves plenty of time for the border crossing into Georgia
Quick fact, St George our countries Patron Saint came from Georgia and there flag is the same as ours but with some extra emblems. His Father came from Cappadocia in Turkey where we were a few days ago.
Up into the mountains again for more cold and them down into the border for a warmer 10 deg C.
No real trouble getting through, just lots of stampings and checking of your V5 for customs and then through. now put your clocks forward another hour, so I am now three ahead
The place is very beautiful and fantastic roads compared to Turkey but tight schedule means very few pictures
Stopped after 40 miles for a coffee and snack and while we were in a restaurant a few locals came in all smiling but with the usual hand gun strapped to there belts. quite the normal thig to have on display
Gulp, better not argue with the bill then!
Into Tblisi and traffic mayhem, with a basic choice of two cars Lada's or Mercedes with blacked out windows.
The road we have to go down on the main route in, is closed "SHIT"
Kevin had gone a head with Adam the cameraman, to get a shot of us all arriving in the city but as they closed the road just after he took position, then that was not going to work.
So all of us in procession had to find another route which got us near to the hotel.
Unfortunately we had to adopt the local attitude and stop the traffic to do a U Turn and then jump red lights to stay together, (no worries the locals do it all the time)
We then stopped a policeman to ask for directions as we knew we were within a few hundred feet of the hotel. He pointed down a side road and the just stopped all the traffic for us all to cross
FANTASTIC!

Will probably not be updating for a few days while we catch the ferry from Azerbaijan to Turmenistan. Also we cross the whole of Turkey with no time zone change to then find out that when entering into Azerbaijan the clocks go forward another hour

YAWN! yes this is going to affect my sleep pattern

4001 miles - Tblsis, Georgia

GS (Gerrant Strasse) - All roads

The route from Ispir to Kars has got to be the most memorable yet. I have never travelled on so many differnet types of road surface and aespecially on a GS fully loaded.
If you draw a line vertically through Ankara, the west side is wealthy and the east side is very poor and it shows. Main artery routes and are no more than dirt roads which are under constant repair and the main road for Ardahan to Kars is mostly graded road with gravel, which is dual carriage way wide. Up in the mountains it was 2 deg C at 2550m with snow.
Kars sits at 1700m whichis a positivelt tropical 7 deg C
My GS was brilliant and it really showed its off road potential when we had to divert off the mud track into a small village off the general road (if it is still a road when mud). This saw us all ascending big climbs of rocks with more mud through narrow lanes with animals every where. No time to take pictures unfortunately
They dont even worry about bridges so river crossings were required watched by the locals.
Max dropped his bike and had to dry all his clothes in the evening while Jeff (van man) repaired the pannier mounts on his F800
All the pictures show the days roads with one or two people finding the wet dirt too much to handle and find out how heavy a GS is to pick up(no not me Yet!)
Sorry if this is not perfect english but after lots of hours in the saddle, time is minimal after group meetings, to establish the following days proceedings. Still have to eat and sleep
Anyway, English was never one of my strong subjects

3760 miles - Kars, Turkey

A tale of two seasons

The morning started off with a beautiful sun shining down on us all and we headed off into the mountians and the mileage was to be more than the previous days but more mountain passes. Definitely going to be a long day in the saddle again and i do believe my backside is finally getting use to this riding every day
Getting more conscious of the fact that petrol stations are getting to be a rather rare beast. Not a problem with the GS adventurer's but the F800's need to be filled up every 200 miles and if you are going through a mountain pass, that can be a problem.
If you look above an to he left of the flags you will see a twister forming in the sky and that was while we had stopped for a Cye, and we decided that we would get ahead of the storm and then a massive hail storm that left he ground covered up to 3 inches.
Then a mountain pass that takes us up to 2500m and the temperature was down to 3 deg C along with torrential rain. Combine this with very poor road surfaces and mud, gravel and Robert and myself were having a whale of a time as my gloves got wet and then my boots let some water in, "LOVELY"
No seriously,i have never had so much fun in such awful conditions
So final push to he cabins we have booked and to get out of the bike gear and into some dry clothes. Hang everything up and just thought i would check on the other pannier, Pooh!, some water has leaked in throught the front seal of the pannier and i now have both of my Central Asia maps hanging up as well to dry
Now i will warn you that once i enter Turkmenistan i may not have a connection to do my blog as the Internet is Police controlled, so that will have to wait until Uzbekistan.
However we still have Georgia and Azerbajan to get through

3549 miles - Ispir, Turkey

Ain't no mountain high enough

Today it is up into the mountains of eastern Turkey but before that, we did need to just rinse the bikes off yesterday afternoon,after the days of travelling on construction roads.
Bike looks still dirty with so many dead bodies all over it.
Forecast is for rain, so we do not need this dust setting like concrete and causing problems when the temperature raises up again in the 'stans
Good start to the day as the sun was shining and in contradiction to the weather forecast. Lovely twisty roads as we start to climb and passing over peeks and mountain passes over 2000m.The only traffic we do come across is tractors but in the whole morning we saw three. Backwards and forwards the road twists and we, the Gadget guys, have decided to take it slow today to take in all the views and be last at the next destination
Passing over the mountain ranges around Mount Erciyes Dagi (3916 high). If you look closely you will see a plane above the clouds. Our final destination is quite unique and is called Kangal Fish Springs Hotel. The hot springs are full of minerals but also fish that will nibble gently over your skin and is a remedy for skin conditions. so we all arrive at eh hotel after a long day in the saddle again and we all met in the reception for our own private pool visit.
Ooh lovely warm water and just sink and rest your weary bones.
"Jesus" that was something that just touched my foot. Remain still and very quickly the are fish around your feet of various sizes.Now i have tickle feet and i have to concentrate on not letting the sensation jerk my feet. bigger fish arrive and they almost seem to be head butting my feet especially around the heals where the harder skin is. The little fish are like little hoovers along your skin which i presume is removing dead skin cells
Once you get use to it it is really relaxing and we just could not all stop laughing especially Adam the cameraman, who put a polarised lens on to see throught the surface of the water.
Rain did eventually come but only light so waterproofs have had an outing and will probably get some more use tomorrow.
We will be at some cabins in the mountains tomorrow where i will most likely not be able to update you all, but we will see









3200 miles - Kangal, Turkey

Flying High then Low and High again

Bit of a shock the early start but well worth it. The skill with which they contorl the height is incredible and there were 45 ballons flying this morning.
You drop into he valleys and brush the tops of trees and then pass within inches of rock faces and then zoom up over electricity pillons.
The final skill cam when he landed the balloon back ont he triler which was incredible.
Then some champagne to celebrate the successfuil flight.
Back for breakfast at the cave hotel and the a short rest for an hour or so before we head off on the bike to and underground city that was constructed in 600 Ad.
Could show some pictures but are all quite dark and along narrow corridors.
Start on the road again tomorrow and no more tourist fun for now. We start to climb and it will get it colder.
so as long as i have WiFi or mobile phone sign al i will keep you updated

Honest, it's anAdventure and not a holiday

Cave with a view anyone

Another day of low mileage but a lot of hours in the saddle along roads that are under construction to Dual Carriageways and are just gravel and dust which we blat along at 80 ish. This leaves the bike and me covered in whote dust and have to keep stopping to clear visor, mirrors and GPS.
You can see from the bike how dusty it is and we also visit the Tumulus (buriel Mound of King Midas. This over the thosands of years becomes a big hill (yes the one behind me) and that is Kasim (our guide) behind trying to get in on the picture.

Next stop is just outside Cappadocia in a place called Gorome. The valley is made from limestone and erosion has left these columns. Also a pic ture of Kasim with his KTM (Boo!) even though he is still wearing BMW gear
Our next hotel for the next two nights is a Cave hotel where the rooms are from the original dwellings, which are carved out of the limestone. Lovely rooms and cool during the day and warm at night. The only problem is all the stairs and we are at a small altitude of 1200m which just adds to the work

It has been arranged for us all to go on a balloon ride acroos the area doing something called contour ballooning.
Hmmm! could be interesting and we will all be in the one basket (16 people) and Lars the pilot
Only problem is that it will be an early call of 4:45 am as we will be in the air by 7:00 and a hour and a half flight.
Great we will be back for breakfast

2880 miles - Cappadocia, Turkey

Onward we go, More Turkey

Off we go at the usual 7:30 start as we have only 245 miles (ish) to do today and there are some seriously small roads and we will get to an altitude of 1650m.
Kasim leading the way with his GPS we soon find that people are going different routes and while i am marking a junction some of the group (with their blinkers on) ride straight past. Oh well proper map reading stuff as the GPS is just recalculating. Turkey has an issue with anyone other than their army knowing where they are.
Spot of lunch and the guy had a Globebusters sticker in his window from the previous year
No time for a rest as the roads are twisty and in very poor repair as we climb. when the do repair it brings everything to a stop. the picture shows them just digging the side of the road away and once they saw Adam with the camera all waves ans smiles and boulder pushed pushed out of the way and the bikes let through. SOD the cars "fantastic" so further we climb into a very stark barren grass land where the local farmers live int eh summer for green pastures for their livestock

The buildings are all wood and are abandoned in the winter

This might have been a small mileage day but it is taking hours. Finally got the hotel after 10 hours and very glad to be off the thing
Apparently same thing again tomorrow, small miles, lots of hours in the saddle with frequent fill ups as you do not know when you will get your next fuel




Our final resting place for the evening is a 300 year old house which is now a hotel. Made of completely wood the staircase and the ceilings are really crooked.
The strangest thing was that the toilet ans shower were in the built in wardrobe and we could not get use to stepping into the cupboard for a pee. (i do know that there are a few of my freinds who have done this when drunk)
also was the taking off of our big bike boots and the bottom of the stairs before entering the stairs and rooms, a Muslim thing apparently

2560 miles - Beypazari, Turkey

Istanbul -Tourist bit

Well Kevin has come up trumps with the hotel again and we are in 5* in the centre of old Istanbul. Group meal this evening with the guide for the week called Kasim who rides a KTM, but we won't hold that against he much. there will be some pictures of him later.
So after breakfast, time for a wander and first on the list is the spice hall and Grand plaza which has over 3000 stores to look. That would keep Miss diane going for weeks , especially the perfumerie bit

Of course wandering around is thirsty work so time to try a turkish tea (Cye) and the observant ones amongst you will see that there is five of us (addition of a grey haired chap). The four of us are know known collectively as the gaqdget guys and Aaron, usually rides alone after doing the transam last year, has decdided to do the touyrist bit with us, but then who wouldn't?. He is an American from Florida, but we can not put he down for somthing he had no control over (his birth)
All the turkish flags are out as it is anational holiday to celebrate the gaining of Independance of turkey by Attatuk.

Then onto the Blue Mosque which is a main spot for all Muslim's and we just timed it completely wrong to look inside as it was mid day prayers (more research needed, I think)

Robert being from Poland had minimal choice of bikes in his youth and he could not resist the Jawa for sale on a street corner as t was his first proper bike. (oh my god how lucky are we)
Ok dinner was calling us all so across the Bosphorus and up into the busy nightlife part of the city and stupid me, forgot my camera and it had nothing to do with the several Beers we had been consuming during the day and we played a little practical joke on Kevin which there will be some pictures later on in my Blog once I get some pictures off other people, yes I am a numpty for no camera
Well it got to 11 in the evening and we have the usual early start in the morning so time for sleep