Day 11 - I crossed the Bosporus today leaving Europe (and 2,100 miles) behind me and ventured for the first time into Asia Minor. That was quite a task in itself. Istanbul was full of signs to various suburbs but almost no signs to Ankara which is what I wanted. I tried to navigate by compass and gut feeling but failed miserably the first time. After 45 minutes of trying main arterial routes and a number of back streets I discovered I was back exactly where I started !! Second time round I found the bridge I wanted and off I went.

I chose to stay out of Ankara at a little town called Beypazari which from the Lonely Planet guide was a stopping off point on the silk road. Some of the ancient houses have high entrance archways to accommodate camels.

I went to eat at just after 8pm when all the men exited the mosque to have their evening meal. I was placed at a table with 3 Turkish men and joined in their set fare of soup, salad, tomato slices with onion, meat and rice, water melon, flat bread similar to chapati, water and finally tea served in a glass. It set me back the princely sum of £4.75. I had a wander around the town to find a bar, or even somewhere selling a can of beer but there was nothing. I shall probably wake up tomorrow with a headache from alcohol deprivation !!

Day 12 - I had to pass through Ankara which is a typical modern capital city. The sooner through it the better and then headed south east past a large salt lake called Tuz Golu which had a white crusty appearance, through Aksaray to Goreme where there are these very unusual rock formations with houses carved out of them
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Travelling was very pleasant with a temperature of around 26C largely due to being on a plateau at 1200m/3600ft above sea level. I followed my usual pattern and took a couple of pieces of fruit from the breakfast bar and filled my trusty flask with tea. This is a typical lunchtime break.

The last 2 nights it has been very close and we had electrical storms. I managed to complete my meal al fresco before it really started.

Tonight was spectacular and whereas we missed most of it last night, tonight the skies opened and we had a torrential downpour. Time for another tea under cover until the rain passed!!

Tomorrow I set off in a northerly direction towards the Black Sea coast. I have changed my intended route as the latest Foreign Office travel advice warned against going close to a troubled area except for 'essential travel'. I also discussed with a local who confirmed there is potential unrest from Kurdish separatists and advised against going there.

Day 14 - I set off for Kayseri and then planned to go to Sivas before peeling off for Tokat, an ancient town in a valley surrounded by hills, about 60-70 miles south of the Black Sea. The main roads are very good, many of motorway standard.

The scenic roads are generally good but have a rougher surface texture and will suddenly give way to gravel if road mending is in progress. It can be quite disconcerting travelling along at 50-60mph when without warning realising gravel starts in 50 yards. It's a case of banging on the anchors hard on the tarmac and releasing them, whatever the speed, as you hit the gravel, which can be quite exciting for a few seconds !!

They have an odd system of remaking half the road at a time but directing the traffic to use the unmade gravelly section with the made-up part cordoned off. Fortunately there is very little traffic and the trick appears to be to use the tarmac surface, and revert to the gravel if necessary.

I chose this hotel because it has a pool and plunged in as soon as I arrived. It looked and is very inviting but the water temperature is like lake water and raises the voice by at least an octave!!

Today I had a look around the town and visited the museum. I am probably a cultural Philistine but all museums seem the same to me with collections of brightly coloured clothes, lumps of rock with inscriptions and old pottery held together with super-glue. This one had a ceramic coffin which was still inhabited !!

After a swim I re-gigged my route and am now heading for Giresun on the Black Sea coast and then across the Georgian border to Batumi, through a skiing resort at Bakuriani, finishing in Tbilisi when I will be back on plan.

Day 16 - the ride from Tokat to Giresun on the Black Sea proved interesting. The road winds its way up the mountains with sheer drops of several hundred feet at the side, which certainly concentrates the mind!! It topped out at 2200 metres, just under 7000 feet with everything enveloped in cold wet cloud. The temperature dropped from 26C at the start to 12.5C at the top. Visibility reduced to about 150 yards in the thickest cloud.

This is where I stopped for lunch just below the cloud line.

About 12 miles from my destination the clouds opened and I got drenched just getting into my waterproofs. I felt sorry for the hotelier when I arrived dripping wet with my boots covered in mud. The road was very variable with several long unmade sections mainly of gravel. Shortly after donning my waterproofs I came to a line of halted traffic where they were blasting rock which was tumbling down on to the road. Some of the drivers became very impatient and tried to force their way past. Up came a very large mechanical shovel to clear the road and it was touch and go whether he loaded the first impatient car into his large shovel. The road at this point had been dirt and dust before the rain but after was just a sea of mud for about 200+ yards making it very slippery and covered my bike and boots in red/brown mud.
I am sitting in my hotel room looking across the promenade to a small port with the Black Sea beyond. Tomorrow it is off along the coast into Georgia, the land of the young Joe Stalin.Day 17 - a day with a difference.
I left Girusun nice and early and headed for Trabzon and the Georgian border. It looked like there would a shower ahead but I thought I could see blue sky beyond. Wrong !! It just bucketed down and I left it too late to put on my waterproofs. I got soaked to the skin but later the sun did shine and dried it all out.

After an hour I pulled into a petrol station cafe and asked for a tea where I was told in no uncertain way it was not possible for any drink during the day in Ramadan !!

I ploughed on to the Georgia border and filtered through to the head of the queue. This clearly upset a Romanian driver in Volvo 4x4 who drove into me and pushed until I could hold the bike no longer and finished in a pile on the floor. He got out and said "Me first" and then got back in his car.

Some other people helped me pick up the bike. No damage except a scratch to the tank.

At the border I asked where I could buy insurance and was told about 10kms down the road. I never saw a sign and and am therefore riding uninsured again. I shall have to be doubly careful as the drivers here make India seem docile.

I managed to find the hotel on my own using my little bit of Russian, which worked.
Thanks Joanna (a young Polish clerk at the Employment Tribunal who speaks Russian) for allowing me to practise on you.

I don't know if it was something I eat at breakfast, or whether it was the incident at the border which upset me. By the time I arrived at the hotel in Batumi I felt quite sick and vomited on one of their trees. Not the best way to make an entrance !! It was not made better by having a room on the 4th floor (English counting) with no lift !!! I took some Immodium and some rehydration salts and am beginning to feel better.

It's a good job I didn't want to go out to dinner tonight as it has been pouring down again. At least the bike gets a wash. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Day 18 - I spent the day wandering around the town. I walked in one direction this morning and then in the opposite way this afternoon. In many ways it reminds me of India with lots of little shops and stalls on the street. The differences are the colour of the people, the lack of delicious spicy smells and the pavements are much worse here. I ask myself what did 70 years of Communism do for the people of Batumi ? And I have no answer. I was surprised to find a distinct lack of pavement cafes. I could count the number I saw on one hand.

Georgia has its own script which is like nothing else I have encountered. Fortunately, most things are written in either Latin or Cyrillic as well which at least gives you a chance.

Day 19 - another different day!. I knew I had only about 150 miles today and so had a leisurely breakfast and departed Batumi about 10.00. It was bit of a re-run of Istanbul as I got completely lost and finished up in a country lane which got narrower and narrower. I turned round and headed back into Batumi and found my way out in the direction I wanted. For the first 30 miles it was an excellent country road, well surfaced with lots of sweeping bends. Then it changed and became unmade and this continued for the next 40 miles most of which I did in 1st gear. That stretch took me over 5 hours until I got back onto paved tarmac again.

These are hazards to contend with on Georgian rural roads.

Here are examples of the unpaved roads.

At one point I had to take avoiding action for a car overtaking in the opposite direction and had no option but to take to very loose gravel at the side of the road. The inevitable happened, I lost the front end and finished in a pile on the deck, this time putting a scratch on the other side of the tank!! Fortunately there were 2 teenagers nearby who helped me lift the bike up.This confirmed my decision to go for the 650GS as I would never have been able to lift up the 1200RT. The only sadness was I did not realise I lost my rucksack in the tumble. That in itself is not a loss but it contained my small metal flask which is a major loss.

I arrived in the village of Bakuriani and no-one knew of Queen Tamara Hotel. Eventually someone suggested it might be a large house at the end of a stony road - and they were right. It is the original B&B with grandma cooking food. She presented me with a chicken dish shortly after I arrived and provided me with water, wine and lemonade.

Day 20 - I thought I would spend the morning exploring Bakuriani and the afternoon Borjomi. According to the guide book Bakuriani is Georgia's prime ski resort and Borjomi is renowned for its mineral water.

After breakfast I wandered into the village which consists of 1 long street the effective length of which is about 300 yards. I went to the top and beyond to view the countryside which is Alpine like but the village itself has little to offer. There are a number of little shops serving the community and lots of roadside fruit/vegetable stalls and some shops selling 'tacky' toys and goods.

I spent about 45 minutes walking the street and then decided to use up some time by having a tea. This left me with about 3 hours to kill before lunch and so I parked myself on a bench and people watched.

The standard of homes in the main street gives some idea of the prosperity of the place and if this is Georgia's prime ski resort Gstaad and Klosters have nothing to fear.

I assume it has improved since 1991 when the Soviet Union imploded although it is hard to see in what way. I suspect the big difference is the number and quality of cars with lots of Mercs for those who want to show off their money and Japanese 4x4's for those with a practical mind. There are also a lot of old wrecks which would never withstand an MoT test and most lorries gush black diesel fumes.

Whilst I people watched a security vehicle made a delivery to the chemist opposite. I could not tell whether they were handling cash or drugs but all 3 guards had side arms and the main guard a sub-machine gun. I guess they don't mess around with robberies here. It saves the cost of a trial and maintaining prisoners in jail!!

Grandma who runs the B&B has taken me under her wing and delighted in providing me with good old fashioned Georgian cooking. As with other places I have visited they are intrigued by my age and there is no reticence in asking how old I am. Grandma was delighted to find that at 71 she is 3 years older than me. The main meal of the day is at lunchtime with a smaller supper. My main communication with Grandma is through a mixture of my pigeon Russian and sign language and when she needs help she calls on her granddaughter of about 15 and grandson of about 12 both of whom speak very passable English. It has been an enjoyable experience as I have been treated as a guest of the family rather than on a purely commercial basis.

Lunch:

Supper:

My trip to Borjomi was a non-event. It appears a moderately sized town on the map but consists of 1 commercial street about 1/2 mile long with the usual cluster of banks and little shops. My visit there lasted about 30 minutes after which I had seen all there was to see.

Day 21 - It was a leisurely ride on good roads from Bakuriani to the capital Tbilisi of only 130 miles. It started to rain and as I could not see blue sky beyond I stopped to don my waterproofs. But after 20 minutes or so I came back into sunshine and stopped to remove them as you get very hot with them on. I had been stopped only a few moments when 2 Russian motorcyclists pulled up to enquire if I was alright. The camaraderie amongst motorcyclist is truly world wide.

I still don't think first of using the Internet for information as my natural port of call is paper through books and maps etc. Yesterday I Googled a town plan of Tbilisi which came up and invited me to insert a street name, which I did, giving me an idea of the part of the city to aim for to find my hotel. I knew it was a few streets away from Freedom Square and that proved easy to find. A quick chat with a taxi driver identified Leselidze Street and there was my hotel !!

Fi will be delighted to know my hotel is close by the synagogue which I photographed for her. As I returned from eating tonight there was a group of Jews dressed up in their best clothes leaving the synagogue. I guess just starting the sabbath.

Tbilisi is a hustling, bustling capital city and I shall get a better idea of it tomorrow.

My hotel is on the edge of the old city with open air restaurants and cafes. There is also a new fenticular railway running from the river to the top of the nearby hill which I couldn't resist having a ride in. It's the nearest I've been to flying in the past 4 years. I tried to make it swing as I descended but I didn't have enough weight to get any real motion going.

A very odd feature I have noticed is the significant number of right hand drive cars in Georgia. I can see no explanation for it.

I was also surprised to find virtually no mention of Stalin in Tbilisi even though he was born and raised just 40 miles down the road at Gori. The main museum in Tbilisi has a whole floor devoted to Soviet occupation of Georgia between 1921 and 1991 which it clearly resents strongly.

Day 23 - As you may know I have to be chaperoned throughout my travels in Turkmenistan and have to apply for the visa in Baku. Yesterday (Saturday) I received a call from the agent making the arrangements to say he had just been informed the Turkmen Embassy are issuing visas only on Mondays and Fridays and therefore could I hot foot it to Baku on Sunday which meant cancelling my hotel reservation at Ganja and riding the 350 miles to Baku. I set off at 8.45 and it took an hour to pass through the border in Azerbaijan. Insurance cost me $17 but it felt good again to have the security of that piece of paper just in case.

It was a bureaucratic exercise. First to window 1 to have my passport and visa checked. Then to window 2 to buy insurance. Then back to window 1 to have it stamped. Then to window 3 to present my passport, insurance and log book. After the details were logged on the computer I was photographed and then free to enter Azerbaijan.

Within the first 2 miles I was stopped for speeding (45 in a 30 limit) even though there were no speed limit signs and had to hand over 200€ to retrieve my passport and drivers licence. More of this later.

By contrast I stopped for food at a small roadside cafe and had a tomato and cucumber salad and tea. The young men running it were going to charge me 2 manat (£1.60) but the father/owner insisted on there being no charge. I was delighted to hand him a small gift of a pen and key ring emblazoned with the Union flag.

The road towards Baku is flanked with some substantial hills with a moonscape appearance. Finally I saw the Caspian Sea which was the inspiration for my trip. It is bordered by scrubby sand dunes with lots of people bathing. Az is a large oil producing nation which probably accounts for the roads being in pretty good shape without the frequent potholes of Georgia. As you approach Baku there are large oil/petrol installations and holding tanks which just sprung up without any thought to planning.

The temperature is rising. Yesterday it was 38C. Even with all the vents open and the front of my jacket unzipped held together with my luminous H belt I was drenched in perspiration by the time I arrived. It was wonderfully refreshing to jump into the shower and finish off with the tap turned to cold.

Day 24 - Today I set off in search of the Turkmen embassy to obtain my visa. The hotel tried to be helpful and gave me a slip of paper to hand to the driver of a No.3 bus so he could tell me when to alight. I duly alighted when told and called into a small corner store run by the inevitable Asian who spoke good English who pointed me in the 'right' direction only to find I had been sent to the Uzbek embassy and not the Turmen one. I returned to the main road and hailed a cab. (There are lots of London black cabs here.) The driver tried to be helpful but in fact had no idea of where the Turkmen embassy was but after an hour we finally found it !!
The visa officer was very helpful and confirmed he would issue me with a visa today. He checked my passport and letter of invitation and gave me 2 forms to complete together with a slip for me to go to a bank and pay $115 fee. The bank was about 5 miles away which I reached by taxi. Having paid my fee I then caught another taxi back to the embassy which was a bit of a replay but at least I had some idea of where we were aiming for this time. In due course I returned just as the visa officer was about to close for lunch but he kindly dealt with me first and provided me with the visa before closing down. That was enough for 1 day and so tomorrow I will try to find the ferry and but a ticket.

Mossie would love this place as everyone smokes. It is just like the bad old days when people smoke before and between courses in restaurants and even the taxi driver smoked as we drove along.

Day 25 - I went off in search of the ferry to Turkmenistan this morning and after making a number of enquiries managed to track it down. There are no signs and nothing to indicate where it is and 'gut' feeling got me to within 200 yards of the dusty road leading to it. The ticket office is a concrete hut which was closed. I met a young German couple who had been there since yesterday sleeping rough overnight in the hope of getting away. He was concerned as his visa expires today. Eventually someone turned up and opened the office. No ferry today he said. Thursday (which is when I want to travel) I have no idea. Tomorrow maybe - come back tonight between 6-7 and enquire. So we''ll see what happens.

I shared a table at breakfast today with a 40-ish man from Bognor who is cycling his way round the world. He cycled to Australia and then decided to go to the USA and cycled from west to east. He had to miss the bit where we are now because when he was in Turkey the Iranians stormed the British embassy and he thought it a good idea to give Iran a miss. He is now filling in the missing link to complete his round the world trip!! It's amazing who you meet at breakfast.

My hotel in Baku is within the old walled city. There is only 1 entrance, barrier controlled, and you need a special pass or be resident at one of the hotels to get in. It's really quite quaint. The hotel is again family operated. Grandfather, who is my age is the owner, his son the manager and his grandson the hands-on receptionist and general helper. They are all very friendly and only too willing to help to make my stay a pleasant experience. Grandfather told me he was a Captain in the Soviet army and served in many countries where the Soviets had bases.

I am not usually a tea drinker but have become very partial to it in these hot climates where I find it more refreshing than coffee. This is typical of what you get and the chocolate item was like a Mars bar with nuts in.