Jon loves chocolate spread

Long shadows on the flat lands

These girls thought it was hilarıous the İ put the tent up and Jon did the cooking!

A cloud bow ( stormy weather on its way over the mountains)

Verry frosty morning..water bottles solid.. Nic wont get up... NO GEARS!!!!

İts MY CHOCOLATE!!!!!!

Have you ever looked for advice on the internet about a repaır or maintenance on anything?

Well İ did.... İ checked on the rohloff web site about the type of oil that should be used in the hub!!

İt of course said that you should never ever.. ever.. use any other oil than the rohloff specific oil!!

What do they know ( İ asked myself) İm an engineer... there must be another oil that you can use?..... İ located a replacement.. a gear oıl 80 grade.. that should do the job.. And it did... for a while.... Untill the frosty morning!!... NO GEARS!!!! (luckily it was downhill)

As the day warmed up gears came back. and after draining most of it it has been ok!! touch wood..

Let that be a warning to you all... Still on the road though!

yol yok and the great granny ring

karavansary on the old silk road

Unknown bırds (becky ıdentify) on gorgeous lake

One morning!

The fantastic school kids

Nıc was going so slowly she was attacked by a land crab!!!(shocking)

Heavy rain delayed our start to the second leg of the trip... İt did mean that we got taken out for a lovely meal with Alan and Janet (nic on the racki again).. But in the morning the sun was up and we were off.. A steady start but we soon gained our rythem! heading past Fethiye (nic found a smelly terrapin on the road and saved it from a terrible death.(am stıll wonderıng why i sniffed it...nic)

We headed allong the coast past oludeniz (beautıful coast line) following a road marked on the map.. several hrs later we made it to a village where we found out that... Yol Yok... which means road not!! no more road.. İm not saying that the map was wrong but to say some of the detail was missing would be a bit shy of the truth!! Then the heavens opened Thunder etc . Next day back track to the rıght road and over the tops and onwards..

Of course we got lured back into the mountains.Cycled uphill so steeply we were both privately thinking our legs had gone useless.....hence the need for the great granny ring.

Spent one morning at a great little primary school near Kremma (ancient monument .....i was feeling a bit like one myself by this time...too many long cold nights camping ..) mainly amusing the kids with our shocking turkish.

Our short wave radio has meant that at 2 a.m or whenever we both realise the other is awake tooş jon can fiddle around through all the space static to get us 2 mins of china radio ! (it is awful !)

Have arrived in cappodocia....!Cycled across the flatest of flat plains for 2 days......and finally got well and truly got by a huge snarling metal spiked collared dog ! He came out of nowhere and ripped one of jons panniers right off....then a couple of mins later put a hole in mine.Outrunning them is not an option...and only seems to wind them up more.

Today have had great day exploring rock dwellings in the İlhara valley.Phil would have 'wow'ed himself to exhaustion

Almost on the road again

A wonderful day out on the lake with Moira (thats me.....not Moira!)

Clip from the local paper after a visit to a local primary school.

A real Turkish hair and beard cut... cut throat razor massage.... the lot (the glasses are nic's and are being worn for a joke!!)
(Not true......he said he could,nt see a damn thing ! )

Ali of the famous sun ray bar (we call him Alicik capkin... you have been warned!!!)

Moira trying to fight off Ali Baba

Well the wait is over and we will be off on our travels again....

The package of tyres and bike bits arrived, together with some chocolate money, a Christmas card and the local paper with news of the floods... Thanks to all involved.

So the tyres were fitted last night (after going to a Christmas party) and though are now on how the hell we get all of our stuff back into the panier's!! It looks like it will never fit!!

Nic has been sorting out all of the little bits of rubbish we have been carrying and getting a package together to send back Maps of The Ukraine Serbia etc back too.

The only thing that will stop us is if it is chucking it down again!!

There is proper snow on all the big mountains just behind here,so we will probably (if sense prevails ) stick to the coast,though there's plenty of inland temptations to lead us astray.Even if it is pissing down tomorrow we had better try and go,as we have been led well astray here on an increasing no. of occasions ! Raki and wine in the afternoon.! Moira !

We've had good fun here,meeting some lovely folks (including of course the local postoffice staff ).....but as we,ve got no more news we,d better get back out there .

yet more photos

Todays exploration.....the high point { mending punctures 10 mins later]
A turkish water fountain
You need to zoom in to read the notice........
Wild' WİLD tortoise.....look at the glint in his eye
A genuine student............ [ha ha..fooled you.]

Some pics whilst we are still waiting......

The famous tombs...

He would.nt swim....but it was gorgeous
One of my friends......a wrong hop landed him in the pool filter
Yes ! This crag is bolted....
Cats fishing for thermally cooked tiddlers !

Stuck in Paradise

What sun sets!!

What did you do on the first of December? we went here for a swim!!

Bit of exploring

We did have a bit of trouble spreading the fig jam!!

This is how we got here.

Here we are...in one of the most beautiful places we have had the luck to visit...( and we,ve got the nerve to complain about not being out on the road...!)

We are here waiting for bike bits to come from the UK.. the Turkish postal service (as we now know) is subject to delays due to religious holidays e,t.c so all we can do is wait...

We do have a lovely apartment to stay in courtesy of Ged.. We do have great weather,warm seas, interesting mountain landscapes and lots of people to talk to....

I know....shut up and enjoy.... Compared to the weather in the UK I think we have nothing to complain about.. Some of you will also be a bit shocked to hear that I have read more books! I think I am up to 5 whilst being here..

We are in danger of becoming semi-permanent residents.....sort of low life ex-pats.!Aaaargh.! I've even started going to the free turkish lessons.! I have now invested so much time in trying to learn it that i can't give up. Unfortunately it does,nt mean that i can say much....but never mind. The postmen are very tolerant when we go and hang around the post office...I think that what i ask them is " parcel...is there ? " ,but i'm not sure.Anyway,so far "yok parcel",but perhaps tomorrow (yarim!)....We have also had a very kindly lecture from the chief postmaster about our address here...its not "Bablyan " matthew, its "Dalyan " !

Otherwise we are really idling our time away.....we've done loads of local exploring ,mostly by bike,;we have both read some truly terrible books (though we have,nt yet started on the romance novels....but "Royally bedded,Regally wedded " sounds good,though i suspect jon will like "At the cattlemans command " better.!)..Luckily we,ve met some interesting people too,,its quite a novelty for us to have dinner invites.!

We,ll update once the tyres e,t,c arrive...(please,please,please...tomorrow....or soon....!),Now i must hand this great little computer back over the garden wall..Thanks Moira !

Turkey Çok Güzel

Ahh... made it (this is the first time in my life that i have read a book in one day!!)
The scenery was amaizing all the way through
But ther was rain!!(and aliens)
What can we say..but 'çok güzel'
We only use the best guides!!

Off we go... setting off from İstanbul on our trails again.. İ have got a cold from being around to many people in such a small place!! started with a sore throat but then came all the snot! Nic at this point had it all to come!
We had set ourselves a bit of a challenge!.. Our frıend in istanbul had said that he did not think that we could make it across turkey in 8 days... the race was on.. we had to prove him wrong..

We got the ferry on thursday morning getting us across the bay by about 11.30 (half the day gone already...bad start) and we found ourslves on a bıg road full of trucks.. but ıt was ok. A good verge to ride on and good drivers.
Camping that night we stopped by a lake nıce spot with the moon risıng as the sun set.. beautıfull!!
a leasurly start and off to the mountains.. Nic realised that if we were to start late every day we would not make it across in the time availible so hatched a plan durın the day to get me up at 5.30 in the morning..to make coffee and breakfast.. bring it to her to coax her out of bed..then we could get a good start.. İ knew nothing about it at this time but would soon find out..
We basicaly headed south (map to follow) and what a delıght.. hıgh mountain passes.. small vıllages (with good guıdes) and fantastic scenery....
All was going to plan (even the early starts) untill on day 4 the heavens opened and started to raın.. cold days.. nothing to do but ride to keep warm.. our spirits were high!!
We did get rescued a few times.. free tea from petrol stations..a meal with a family in the mountains..free cakes.. and allot of encouragement from the locals..
Basıcaly we made it.. 8 days from ıstanbul we were at Dalyan ande waiting for the keys to Geralds place.. and relax...........
Nic had a great bırthday..cakes for first breakfast...eggs for second...the most fantastic mountain road..and a beautıfull sun set..
Since then we have done allot of sleeping and not much else..maby tomorrow?

o.k....its all sort of true ! But Jon does start fiddgetting around in the tent way too early ...just when i.m about to get my best bit of sleep.....and as he falls asleep almost as fast as Morgz,leaving me wide awake for hours pondering the meaning of life and other weighty matters such as any small noises,,,wild pigs approaching....i think the current arrangement where i get coffee in bed is best.
Also..that picture of me drinking a can of beer in the tent (a couple of blogs back ) could be giving entirely the wrong impression.! İt was medicinal beer..drunk at 2.30 a.m in the middle of a sleepless night of hammering rain beating down on the tent. Even jon was wide awake. Luckily he remembered we had 4 cans of beer...so what better thing to do than relieve the boredom by drinking them . So we did....and then slept well!

İ think thats all for now. You will all notice who,s in the hammock !