28/29th Pamukkale & Heirapolis

Breakfasted on a delicious mountain of assorted pastries, filo based and filled with feta, mince and spinage, grt start to any day and too much for even my appetite.
Motored through large plains, surrounded by high hill ranges  It is harvest time and the fields are very busy with combines, tractors and balers. Takes me back to muscle building and pocket money earning days of haymaking on Dartmoor in my teens. They are still making bales that one can lift rather than the huge round ones that seem to have taken over in the UK, by and large. The top heavy, massively overloaded trailers are reminiscent too, although the flaggen of local cider being swigged by the guys on the top of the trailer is a missing ingredient. Perhaps they had some local apricot liquor to lighten the bales?
Arrived in Pamukkala after lunch and was pointed to a low key but delightful guesthouse, Allgau Hotel. Took the afternoon off and enjoyed the pool and sun lounger. I am still looking far too English skinned and if nothing else this trip should give me a chance to get some vitamin D into the pores.
Dined there very deliciously and met a lovely Australian couple, Daniel and Jessica. They were spending a couple of weeks in Turkey before going to Spain for 5 weeks language learning. They have introduced me to a hostel website along the same lines that Paddy had, which will be a great help.
We use to represent a great artist called Zafar Baran, who was from Turkey and I vividly remember him telling me about a place where mineral waters spring and there are incredible marble white pools that cascade down the hill side. He also said that there was 1% more oxygen in the air than normal. Well I think I am there. The best way I can describe this extraordinary natural spectacle, is to imagine being the size of an ant and being in one of those large opened up quartz. This quartz would would happen to have a stream running through it with dozens of infinity pools interconnecting. It is a huge area over several hundred acres and so white, one could be at a ski resort.

 

 

I had a hour long dip in the mineral pools at the top in amongst the submerged colonnades and ruins of the old Roman Baths. Perfect bath temperature water that never got cool (my bath pet frustration). 

Then up the hill a bit to the Roman theater ruins which are not really that ruined, and what with the restoration taking place it takes very little to imagine how it was 2000+ years ago.

This was a large and much visited place throughout history for it's climate and restorative waters.

I have loved if here and finished the visit with a fine  dinner with Daniel and Jessica at the hotel. They are very well traveled  and talked a lot about South America as well as South East Asia, which has whetted the appetite all the more. They have just got married and combine their medical careers with travel and his art.
Ironically both their fathers left Australia as young men and found their respective wives in Germany and Brazil before bringing them back to Perth, as opposed to Daniel and Jessica who were brought up 2 streets apart.

 

Daniel and Jessica (L & R) with our charming hosts

27th Bandirma, Turkey

Stayed in a very comfortable hotel called Eken in Bandirma, a quite modern town that has a ferry to Istanbul, and has quite a lot of through traffic to and from mainland Turkey. I was there as I needed a new back tyre and had seen various recommendations for Bora Eris's establishment on Horizons Unlimited. We had been in contact and he was able to find the right tyre. I was surprised that the size was not very common in these parts, so it was a bit of a struggle. The old tyre had done a bit under 6000 miles, so it was a bit of a disappointment, thinking I would get to India on the set I had. In retrospect, I should have upgraded when commissioning Batty. Bora was most helpful and arranged for the tyre to be fitted and his colleague set about cleaning Batty, without any prompting and did a great job. I had said I wanted to clean her up a bit, for no other reason than to monitor a seeming oil leak from the rocker box cover. The nuts were a bit loose, and I hoped that was all it was, and it was.  It was a great and enjoyable service.
Left at about lunchtime to make for Pamukkale further south.

I knew something was amiss with the centre stand on the bike for sometime, as it had stopped supporting the bike and was dropping down. I got fed up with it and took it off, a very oily roadside job and having had pretty clean hands for a number of days, I was back to blackened finger nails. Alas Swarfega and nail brushes are not easily found items here.
I have noticed a brilliant concept in Shanghai, as well as in Cambodia, of this simple count down of seconds on the traffic light before they change, and I noticed it here as well. Such a simple way, of keeping everyone calm, and then getting everyone prepared to move off etc. It is such a benefit to drivers, I wish they would start introducing it it back in the UK. 
Staying in a lesser establishment in Akhisar, although perfectly functional and clean-ish, it is tired to say the least, but it is half the price of last nights at £10, and fine for my light needs. It is very central and have felt very close to the gentle hustle and bustle of the place. Trying to explain the need for a nailbrush to shop keepers has been an amusing challenge and impossible so far.

24th/25th June. Greece/Turkey.

Stuck to the motorway to the border. It was about 250 miles and very light traffic. I wanted to push on and get into Asia.
I had not particularly thought about Greece in terms of expectation of experience, it was a country to cross on the way to Eastern promise. Funnily enough I have enjoyed the country and it's people a great deal. Nothing but friendliness and generosity. The roads are a dream, mixing exciting scenery, very little traffic and generally good repair. That said I did have one hairy moment on the first day, when the road suddenly narrowed because of a landslip. The right hand side of the road was an unguarded precipice of hundreds of feet and the on coming car only gave me inches to squeeze between it and the said cliff face. Both Batty and I did a cartoon type breathing in act to make it.
This was my first border crossing of any consequence. Of course I completely forgot all the stuff I had been reading up on and made a bit of a meal of it. After about an hour of to-ing and fro-ing, being sent from one kiosk to another, accompanied by insanely loud piped Turkish music, I was in the land with the red flag with stars and a young moon.
Staying in Gallipoli in a somewhat suspect hotel, but with a great proprietor who has helped get road maps and a fine diner.
25th June
It is difficult when in a place that nearly a hundred years ago were the fields of huge loss of life, of extraordinary suffering and bravery, to know as where or what to see. I decided to just drive around the peninsular that saw much of the fighting and stopped at the most southern point, where there is a huge commonwealth memorial.

There are so many memorials every few miles that it gives some scale of the fight. Whatever the rights or wrongs, and who did what, it is the Turkish massive loss that I found extraordinary, something like 3 to 1. The French were the second biggest losers, followed by the Brits and Commonwealth countries. The Turks were defending their land, and in spite of their loss, this is the translation of a Kemal Ataturk's words that gives a little bit of the hint of graciousness and generosity of spirit that has been my experience over the last 48 hrs (apart from some drivers...):

I ferried across the Dardanelles to Asia, and you can see why it was so strategic. This stretch of water that took about 10 mins to cross, connects 2 economic and political worlds. Had Churchill and his fellow planners succeeded in beating the Turks it would have changed the shape of the war enormously.

 

Batty on the ferry across the Dardanelles,  her 3rd time on water, she has quite got her sea wheels.

In the later afternoon I went to Troy. Although ruins, it again was positioned very strategically as a trading post/ harbour for ships that could then only sail with the wind. As the prevailing wind is from the north, ships had to wait a long time at Troy for the southerly wind. This caused trouble as the Greeks and then the Romans wanted to lay their hands on it.. I had a good look around for Helen, but alas not even a glimmer.

 Horror of horror, I suppose they have to for the kids?

 

Some fellow bikers, every friendly and spoke great English (please say hello here if you read this blog, I am afraid I did not catch your names). Thank you and hello again Erdem and Cihan, it was great to meet you and good luck in India and your studies.

I think I have started to get careless, I managed to leave my laptop on top of the bike and in clear view of everyone for over an hour, whilst I went around the War Memorial. And I have also lost a credit card. I am sure it is not stolen, as I keep it with others, but it must have been left in the ATM machine....that will be a headache. Sharpen up Harry