Turkey and Back Again

The Journey Out The Journey Home

1^st June - 23^rd June 2006.
UK, France, Germany, Austria, Hungry, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France, UK
a total of 5,786 miles using 124.75 Gallons of fuel averaging 46.38 MPG
or if you work in metric 561.39 litres of fuel averaging 10.31 LPG

In 2005 a message was posted on the FJR Forum by "Murf" asking if anyone was up for a trip to Turkey and back in 2006.
Of course me and Wendy were up for it and once we had spoken to Murf & Aileen it was clear it had been an ambition of theirs
for some time to ride to southern Turkey but the journey was too perilous to attempt alone so the planning started. Other people
committed to join the ride and at one time the party was to comprise 7 bikes and 10 persons with an 11th joining us in Turkey.
But people soon dropped out leaving a more manageable group of 4 bikes and 7 people.

L to R: Stuart, John, Mary, Jim, Wendy, Tony, & Aileen.

It was no easy task planning a trip of this magnitude, routes, paperwork, bikes, visas, jabs, budget, time off work, and then the
charity as we also intended to raise funds for the Jennifer Trust a charity close to Aileen.

The route was largely sorted by Murf ensuring we could accomplish the distances and meet any deadlines. I created a website for
awareness (photographic progress reports along the way) and fundraising www.tour2cure.co.uk . The website raised £2,257.82
of which £1,102.55 came from our (Wendy &myself) work colleagues and friends. The total amount raised is Tbc.

Before the trip Wendy became the official photographer and as you will witness below she photographed the trip very well from the
pillion seat even with her eyes closed at times...

Day 1 Thu 1st June - Poole Dun-Sur-Meuse (France) via Chessington and the official send off.

We had been ready for a couple of days just waiting for the off - we arrived at Murf and Aileen's at 10:00 and shortly joined by a group of fellow
FJR's who had ridden down too give us a royal send off, Reeso and Jules, Keith and Loretta, Graham and Karen, Mike and Bev, Andy and Maria.
They joined us for the bacon banjo's and photo shoot before departing.

the riders with Alicia

We were surprised to meet them again at the Chunnel as they had sprung a surprise once that morning by turning up we were unsure if they had
all decided to join us on our trip but they were only playing and when we got off the train in Calais they trundled off to Belgium for a duty free run.
We were later joined on the A26 by Lucca a Belgium FJR Owner who had come along to join us for a few miles.

We covered the ground to Dun-Sur-Meuse arriving at our first night stop at approx 20:30 where we were warmly met by Ian and Carol
the owners of "two Wheel Moorings" where we were quickly settled into our rooms and sharing our 1st meal...

Day 2 Fri - Dun-Sur-Meuse to Enns upper Austria

Day 2 was a long day covering 560 miles from France through Germany and into Austria to a small town called Enns, most of the route was
motorway and most of the motorway was solid with traffic but we pushed on at a fair pace and was lucky to find a suitable hotel in the centre
villa close to all the amenities.

Our first and only casualty of the ride happened on this day alas Wendy's Teddy-Bag gave up the ghost disintegrating after many a long ride -
of course we disposed of it in an appropriate manner...

Day 3 Sat - Enns to Arad Romania

We rose early and headed for Hungry and then Romania... Once on the road we were accompanied by a change in the weather from dull to heavy rain you know the sort that gets you wet through to the skin even through waterproofs. Though it did ease off through the day and we even had some sun in Hungry but had to don waterproofs before we hit Romania...

You may note throughput that every time we cross a border it is wet...

Quick stop for waterproofs back on.

Once in Arad Romania We were lucky to find rooms at the Continental Hotel at an exceptional rate, a **** with all the amenities (Murf?)
we were able to eat at a local restaurant (Baggy and I had the pigs brains in breadcrumbs) and take in a small amount of the culture...

Day 4 Sun - Play in Romanian alps nights stop somewhere

After a late night and an early start we rode from North Romania to South Romania. the roads were pretty awful potholed and the car drivers were
suicidal overtaking on blind bends with no thought for anyone average speed was approx 95 on rural roads...

River Danube running high.

Okay two rough roads which way Mmmmm?

SatNav or MurfSatNav (MSN)

Must be cow country...

Day 5 Mon - Clear Romania through Bulgaria to Edirne Turkey

Great Pot Holes

we saw many horse draw vehicles not only in towns but on major roads too.

So from here the signs become a little more difficult to read...

Though some are quite easy to read lol ;)

We were welcomed with vigour into Bulgaria by the locals we were even blessed by a priest.

The weather changed rapidly to rain as we approached Stara Sagora
even though we put waterproofs we were not quite prepared for the downpour...

Your journey will never be done if you travel only in the sun!

We were met at the Turkish border by Emoke and friends and escorted to a biker friendly hotel and a warm reception.

Day 6 Tue - Edirne via Gallipolli to Ayvalik

We were escorted out of town by Beytullah which saved us going round in circles

you would smoke too after taking photos all day :)

The roads went on for ever as did the landscape

Kesan an area I had served back in 1976 as part of a NATO exercise in Turkey called Deep Dawn/Deep Express

Ferry across the Dardanelles to Canakkale

Octopus anyone.

Just before this photo Murs Givi rack holding his top-box snapped
Lukily Baggy (Stu) had one fitted to his bike so was able to take the box..
We phoned Iergen (who we know from the FJROwners forum in Marmaris
who organised for us to be met the next day and escorted to a garage for repair.
We were told to look out for a guy on a Black Kawasaki.

It was the fish or me!

Day 7 Wed - Ayvalik to Marmaris say hello to Jergen ( FJR Owner )

Wendy (above) taking the photo (below)

The meeting with the man on a black Kawasaki who took us to a seaside restaurant for lunch and where we would be met by the
guy who owned a motorcycle repair shop who would repair Murf's rack.

Murf leaving for the repair shop.

Repair shop where an A1 job was completed FOC the biker brotherhood is extensive as is their hospitality.

After a long period of waiting for the repairs to take place we are escorted to the main route to Marmaris

Such is the hospitality of the Turkish people that we were invited to take Chi at petrol forecourts
This quite quickly became the norm and we had to allow a minimum of 30 mins for each fuel stop- not that we were complaining

This road was long and many sweeping bends and we had it almost to ourselves.
We used it like a race track 1st time I have ever got my pegs down on a motorway lol ;)

The view down to Marmaris was breathtaking as was the road surface though for different reasons.

2 - 3 inches of hardcore on a steep down hill with some tight bends and loads of manic traffic lead to a wary passage down.
Little were we to know that this would be good practice for a later route in Greece...