Turkish DelightsTo cross the Greek/Turkish border we saw a total of eight officials. It
only took one hour and was straightforward. Down Western Turkey, the first
stretch towards Gallipoli was a complete contrast to Greece. It was much
poorer and people still used donkeys to carry goods and horse and cart or
tractors were still common forms of transport in rural areas. The busy city
of Izmir was full of polluted air from traffic and trucks belching out
black exhaust fumes, breathing this in, sitting in congested traffic stung
your nose and throat. Southern Turkey saw the temperatures rise even
further. It was regularly 35-40 degrees. We moved east along the coast, the
going was slow at times along the twisting coastal roads. It didn't seem to
matter how poor people were in some villages, you would always find a
satellite dish, even on the most run down of houses!
After we left the southern Turkish coast, temperatures were more
comfortable to ride in. We were stopped for supposedly speeding by the
Turkish police who said I was doing 75kph away from a set of lights. No
chance! We were fined 26 million lira (13 pounds). I asked to see the
radar, but was told I couldn't for an hour and that they were fining us
because we were foreign! This was our only problem in Turkey, otherwise it
was great. Up through central Turkey to Goreme and Cappadocia, were the
strange rock formations that look like chimneys rising out of the ground
had been hollowed out and made into houses by locals. Early morning we
would wake to a great sunrise and the sound of the burn from air balloons
rising over the valley below.

MOUNT ARARAT

From here we went northeast for the Iranian border. We had our first
day of rain since leaving the UK then some cold frosty days as our route took us
over some passes that were over 2,200 metres at times. The frontier town of
Dogubyazit was 40 kilometres from the border with Iran. Mount Ararat
standing at 5000 metres (this is where Noah's Ark is said to have come to
rest) was a fantastic sight on the run into town. We got ourselves sorted
to cross what we though would be a tough border crossing.