An eventful day

Wow, what an actioned packed day it was. (30th June, three weeks in). Deceided on a 12pm leave from the hotel in Erzerum instead of the 9am official time to catch up on these blogs and just relax instead of getting to the pre camp waypoint of some ruins (yawn) and hanging around there for 3-4 hours.

Five of the group had been recently been fined by police $100US each for breaking the 70kph limit for bikes, yes that's 45mph! WTF? So I decided on a nice steady day at 115kph on more amazing roads in so many different landscapes it was untrue. At this sort of speed I can hear my ipod, so the fantastic 'Ministy Chilled' album I've been listening to was perfect. Along with the constant deep rumble from my bike's big single cylinder engine being a constant reminder of where I am and what I'm doing. So, some nice smooth riding until the last 100km where I decided to seek out some food. I ended up in a tiny deserted village in the middle of nowhere and eventually found a 'cafe.' It turned out though that they only sold cola, water and tea!? I then met and spent an hour with 'Yilmaz' who again, although unable to communicate with me by speach treated my like a long lost brother. He wouldn't accept any money for my drink and we played three games of table tennis (lost 2-1, shark). Great time. I've now come to realise that it's random events like these that make the trip and the idea of rushing from hotel to hotel like some others is not a good move. Also, removing my helmet and smiling totally changes peoples stare into one of almost unheard of hospitality.

Event 2. After my participation in the Turkey v England match I saw a bloody great big hill/small mountain (what's the difference anyway?) and thought "I fancy that!" Ten minutes later and me and 'Des'* were sat high up looking across the earth as far as the eye (or headlight) can see.

Event 3. Off roading again to the incorrect gps point for my wild camp site. I took a road to within a km and decided on another spot of offroading through a small river, a farm and crop fields. Bribed the farm owners a bag of nuts/mints to ride between their cattle/chickens/horses and through their fields but ultimately it was the wrong spot.

Event 4. As I was doing my own thing I missed this one but on arrival at the correct spot for camping it quickly became apparent that something was up...It turned out that the group had been enjoying a few beers locally and got done by the old 'charge per small glass and not by can con' by all account things turned a bit nasty and a flash point was only just averted as some 'heavies' were brought in. Maybe connected I don't know but I got stopped by some military police just down the road but after giving them my best Czech they cleared off!

* 'Des' my motorcycle named after my late grandfather who was a real adventurer himself and would've been very proud of what I'm doing...