Spent 3 wonderful day's in middle earth (goreme) and was then wanting to get back on the road.
Yesterday I had the most glorious ride (617km) from Goreme to Antalya, beautiful plains and to finish a fantastic mountain crossing down to the south coast. The mountain section especially was great as there were a lot of sweeping corners (twisties) to throw the bike into. About time I wore out some of that rubber on the edges of my tires as they are getting "squared" off by all the long straight roads in Iran. I was thinking as I was riding (wow multi-tasking) that back home I would look forward for days to a 300km ride on the Triumph and here I have been doing it every day (almost) for the weeks. Apart from the few hassles it has been heaven. I have had to put in the big Km's here as the country is so large, but when you have such wonderful scenery it's no chore. I really noticed the rise in temp. as I came off the mountain section, back up into the mid 30'sC. My objective now is to go along the coast (300km) then bypass Izmir and try to make Istanbul on Sunday,(today's Thursday)early morning to try a beat the normal chaos of that city. I really hate going into big cities on the bike as I am trying to navigate a new city and trying to keep myself safe from the other traffic at the same time.
A quick word on Antalya, I'm staying in the old city, very nice but rip off hotel prices and expensive food. Saying that it is beautiful but more of a package deal type of place. Only staying one night.
I have met another biker here at last!! (wow only took over 11,000km) He is from Portugal and we are going to ride together today and maybe part of tomorrow as he is going to Cesme to catch the ferry to Athens.
I think I talked him to death last night as I've had very little contact with Europeans since this trip started (there are a lot more tourists now I'm in the south again). Saying that he hasn't appeared so far this morning so maybe he's hoping I leave without him..... surely not!