Tracing Mortimer Ancestry from Priorton Devon & Eastbourne, Sussex

Trev and GAP's Bicycle Adventure to Greece, Turkey and Iran 2002

TREV and 'GAP' - an adventure by bicycle starting in Athens, June 2002: Trevor Allen and Gareth Parks, 30 y-old friends from High School days, set off with their pushbikes by air to Athens, where they would start a 6,500 trek through Greece, Turkey and Iran. Gareth ('GAP')hadn't been overseas before. They met at Melbourne High class of '87 when they were fifteen. Their paths diverged, Trev into Physiology and Gareth to Chemistry. Now 30, they decided to throw in their jobs, fly to Athens and bicycle through Greece, Turkey, and Iran, more than 6,500 kms in all, returning to Oz in October via Teheran, Iran, thence flying to Malaysia.
Getting to Emirates Departure area (Limited Stand-Time) slightly chaotic.
Gareth arrived by car, saw no Trev, & took off again around the block. Finally they met up to offload pushbikes (loosely wrapped in cardboard -  easy for airline staff to check...

FIRST STAGE  - ATHENS TO TURKISH  BORDER at Dogubayazit -for IRAN

Greetings from Greece!

23 June, 2002 Athens, emailed from Trev:

Greetings from Greecings!! Spent the day walking around Athens lots -
Acropolis was spectacular, old city of Anafiotica was beautiful, much of the  rest was a bit of a hole. Traffic is NUTS! – crazed  motorcyclists with no helmets, shorts and t-shirts flying along narrow streets dodging thru gaps that don’t exist. the guy that took the cake was riding with a mobile in one hand and ciggie in the other, a close second to the guy sipping his fanta  while hooning down a cobbled street at top speed - no surprise Lonely Planet says highest road fatality in europe happen here.  (See pic from  local garage)

Gareth here looks at the awesome Acropolis ruins. We’re staying in a nice quiet place in 'plaka' district - my boxers went missing after they flew out the window while drying - luckily the cleaner foundem cos i dont have many pairs. Gareth snores. The bicycles will (hopefully) arrive tomorrow after they got left in Dubai.. Perhaps the baggage staff there are still trying to ride 2 bicycles with no seats or helmets - good luck fellas!  Having some probs with Bank - apparently my Visa card cannot be used to access my other accounts outside oz - great. hope to head South tomorrow down the coast.

Gareth admires the view here (from a podium?) at the Acropolis.

 

14 July, 2002:

Hey everyone!!! Here we are in the city of Thessaloniki in northern
Greece. Has been a great couple of weeks cycling wherever as we head up the
east  coast. Yesterday we clocked our first 1000km! This consisted of high
5s and celebratory drinks at dinner of lemon squash and coke - we are
serious  party animals.
It is supposed to get cooler and more humid as you head north - it is
more  humid but the temperatures continue to soar in the high 30's. On the
bicycle it is fine until you stop pedalling - when your body immediately
releases 2 litres of water thru your head. Early in the morning is the
to ride - only we seem to lack a bit of discipline in that area....
Aside  from one puncture, a couple of warped discs and a few bolts shaking
loose  the bikes have been great - touchwood.

The highlights, aside from consuming copious quantities of greek salad
and  olive oil at roadside tavernas - have been the monasteries near Trikala
which are perched atop of huge rocky outcrops, and the beautiful
Mt.Olympus  - which we decided to climb for something to do and cos it was a pretty
big  site as we pedalled up the coast.

Pic above shows Gap and his gear from the rear…and chatting with others near the top.

The best part  was meeting all of the great people at the refuge halfway point and  having coffee.

Jules and Naomi standing in the shade (2 friendly Canadians we met on the way up to Mt. Olympus.)  Gareth engaged with a Spanish couple we met.

The only downside was the serious amount of muscle  soreness we have felt since the climb back down - of all people I should know (from a recent thesis) that 3 wks of bicycle riding is not the best preparation for walking downhill from an altitude of 3000m.

The last run to Thessaloniki was mainly along the freeway - pretty
boring with no farmers to wave at and drivers going at warp speed - tho
they kindly gave us plenty of space and the occasional wave and enthusiastic
toot. We have successfully managed to avoid the freeways up to now
-but after getting lost a few times and ending up riding thru cornfields to
get  back to the main road we grudgingly accepted the speed freaks on highway
There are plenty of great campsites along the coast - with plenty of
massive  insects to greet you. But it's all good.

Tonight we are staying in our first youth hostel - it is in the middle
of  the city on the 3rd floor. The showers are in the stenchy basement -
where  you can also "dry your clothes here" in 100% humidity!

From here we begin our trek east to the “prongs”, see them below kindof pointing towards Limnos – visit an island or 2, and on  into Turkey. folk seem to  ‘Toot with Vigor’ when seeing us on  the road!

For bike riding enthusiasts, this is the route taken by us in Greece, (some local names used):

Athens, to SW Coast then Sounýo nth Along east coast Rafina etc, Ferry from
Ag Marina to Stira on Evia (big island), Northeast to Kimi, Ferry to Skyros
isl, ferry back to Kimi, southwest to Halkida (still on Evia), north to
Rovies then Ferry from Edýpsos back to mainland Greece at Arkitsa, north to
Kostandinos, ferry from Kostandinos to Skiathos (isl), ferry Skiathos to
Volos (mainland), SE to Kalanera, then NW to Larissa and further NW to
Trikala and Kistraki. Kistraki back to Larissa then back to the coast at
Platamonas. Then north to Litohoro and Mt.Olympos. Then back up coast to
Methoni and onto big city Thessaloniký. SE to Gerakini, Kalamitsi (2nd
prong/peninsula). Rode around 2nd prong then NE to Ouranopolý and 3rd prong
of Athos (monk peninsula!). Ouranopoli to Kavala, Ferry from Kavala to
Samothraki (isl), Samothraki ferry to Alexandropolis, then nth to border at
Kipi. Trev here, pictured just north of Athens, looking a tad pensive. Only 6,000 kms to go??

Gap’s version 25 July 2002:  We decided to head down Greece's Sithonia peninsula.  - (See  map below near Thessaloniki, "middle prong".  

Maps courtesy of 
http://www.theodora.com/maps/ with permission.

GAP’S email continues:

My detailed map ran out at this point so we referred to Trevs "tourist map" which has NO elevations. On this map it looked like a nice trundle by the sea, wind blowing through our hair as we waved to happy beach goers under umbrellas. Little did we know it was the place where Satan sends bike riders who have sinned. At one stage I was going up a hill, my eyes
popping out of my head, my lungs poking out my ears, I desperately
went to grab an easier gear, only to find there were no more, this was it,
as easy as it gets & I still was feeling like someone had doused my internal
organs with petrol (high octane of course)& lit them. Other than that it
was fun. (And this season the colour to wear is " Black Black BLACK"..) I guess the main story to tell is the one to Mt. Athos were no women are allowed and a heap of monks live in monasteries (20 in all) spread out on a rugged peninsula. We bought a cool map, if there was a "top gun" school for maps,is one graduated with honours. I had my compass, and my
intensive training on navigation as a cub scout. But I hadn't counted on those darn monks.

We caught a ferry to some town (Dafni) sans bikes & then a bus to
Monkville (Karyes). The first thing you notice after how mountainous this
joint is that there are heaps of monks. This kind of changes the culture of a
place, cos there's no graffiti, everyone wears black & looks kind of
sombre, & no-one & I mean no-one laughs when you drops a
----.T........... Anyway, 10 minutes after confidently setting out on our 3 hour walk we
were lost, great. Here I am, looking at the map, professionally squinting
at the compass & trying not to let on to Trev I have no idea where the
---- I am !!

(.....The approach to sign marking here seemed to be to have heaps of signs
when the track was easy to follow, & then a complete lack of signs when you
needed them. This map turned out to be as useful as robbing a bank with a
wedge of cheese..

.

5.5 hrs later we stumbled into the first Monastery – SEE ABOVE.. Beautiful
building with outer old walls (made from rocks of all sorts of sizes) & a
church in the inner courtyard. One monk who spoke English took us under his
wing, and told us about the holy relics. These relics were basically bones
from the saints & stuff like that. Apparently if they still had skin on
them this increased their standing, & he almost went orgasmic as he
whispered to us "thees one steell has some fleeeesh on it".

Afterwards we talked about the history of  this old graveyard overlooking the sea while the sun set............surreal !!

In the morning he approached us with some good luck charms he'd made
the night before. Armed with these we set out for the monastery of
Dionysiou, knowing we could not go wrong. Ten minutes later we were sadly
lost. Five hours later we stumbled into Grigouriou (about 5km north of where we
should have been), physically wrecked. Trev was in worse shape, I was
moaning about my blister when he looked up torturedly at me & murmured he had a
badly chafed ball, "You win" I thought. The good luck charms hadn't
worked (musta been cos they had no flesh on them).

It didn't turn out so bad after all, they let us stay. The monastery
towered above the sea. We stayed in the guest house. The monks day is
kinda weird. Sunset is considered midnight, so the monks go to their
cells & pray before going to bed. They then wake up at like 4:00am & then
pray to 8, before having a hearty brekky. Which trev & I snuck into. Food
was great, but you weren't allowed to talk & some guy read out stories
about the saints will we ate (riveting). Every now & then everyone eating
would cross themselves (except me), it seemed to occur with no discernable
pattern I could see, & made me stand out like ----'s ----. The
Refractory (where we ate ) had call frescoes all over it, some very old. No female
animals are allowed on the island!..  Anyhow we left there & burned up to Samothraki (island).

After staying  at a campsite we rode 34km to a supposedly "superb" beach. These turned
out to be gut bursting miles, & as I crested the hill I saw revealed a
beach I wouldn't --- on.. Man, have I got some funky e-mails to write to
Lonely Planet !! Above, this is Gareth cooking dinner at Samothraki.

There was a waterfall on the other side of the island which was awesome.
All the Greek tourists just sat there, while trev & I stripped off & swam
right up to & under the waterfall. Awesome !!

Ed: Spot the funny shape above right of pic, not the one jumping off the cliff..could be a mountain goat?

Last thoughts on Greece (GALLIPOLI) as we head to T U R K E Y…. from Trev.

We rode down to the Gallipoli (Gallipoli)peninsula and went to Anzac cove and the memorials including Lone Pine - it's hard to sum up what it is like -difficult to comprehend the number of Aussies and  Turks that died and the effect it mustve had on people at the time.

Trev  paying respects at Anzac Cove to Gr-Uncle Edgar,who died at Lone Pine, and inspecting recontructed soldier trench.

Arriving from Greece there were differences immediately –especially in the people here,they are incredibly friendly and enthusiastic, especially about the crazy OZ cyclists. More waves and toots on the road in the first hour than we prob got in the whole 5wks of greece! Tho it is hard sometimes to achieve a balance between accepting their kindness and being wary of our
bicycles and stuff that might disappear - my little aussie flag was pinched off the bike on day 1 (tho it was lookin kinda charred after it accidentally caught fire at a campsite in Samothraki). .

Then in Turkish Trev wrote:
MEERHABA!  (Hello)  to all.  ...picking up some of the local language! Pic of

Gareth here in Istanbul, resting.  And, the amazing Blue Mosque.

August, 4th 2002(Trevor emailed from cybercafe, excusing Turkish keyboard, replace "y"  with "i")

Gareth and I have been here ýn Turkey a lýttle over a
week and have managed to pack ýt full - ýt's been pretty ýntense. I'll
attempt a condensed account but ý guess you can always press DEL ýf ýt gets
borýng!

(Time to do a ‘find n replace’ here –Ed)

The bike ride to Istanbul:

The  next few days we had some time to make up on our ride to Istanbul. Our
dodgy tourist map would have been more useful as toilet paper for the next
roadside dash into the bushes - only it was plastic coated. We rode 20km of
a rocky coastal road that was closed while they blasted it wider with
dynamite - we snuck through while the construction guys were on their lunch
break - the rocks on the road were the size of watermelons! But our trusty
mountain bikes got us thru. The next 15km were apparently 'sealed and flat'
according to our turkish friend from the previous village. As it turned
out, the road was 15km of rough gravel and the steepest climbs we had seen -
all the way to 680m altitude. At one point I was in 1st gear, my rear wheel
was spinning in the gravel and my front wheel was lifting off the ground!
The view at the top was pretty spectacular tho, and some local tourists saw
us and handed over a whole water melon - which we happily downed in record
time.

The final day into Istanbul, having come over 500km in 6 days my arse had
enough of the bicycle seat! With 40km to go i was feeling pretty ordinary -
the road ahead was steep rolling hills, the sun beat down, the sweat was
dripping down my face, the seat felt like it was cutting me in half, and the
buses flew past at warp speed on both sides of the bike at every turnoff - a
ride in Istanbul traffic is recommended only to adrenaline junkies or those
interested in near death experiences. Anyways at the lowest point I was
past by a slow moving diesel truck going not much faster than me - i grabbed
on and hitched a ride up the hill. Halfway up i lost my grip on the back of
the truck, and the driver tooted his horn and slowed down to let me grab on
for a run all the way to the top - awesome!! That just lifted my spirits
and speaks so much of Turkish people.

At the campsite that night we met a local wine merchant camped beside us.
He was incredibly kind and patient - opened up his van full of wine and
started filling up our cups while teaching us to speak Turkish (via our
limited German). I passed out after one glass, Gareth continued with him
until the early hours.the morning the only turkish word he tell me was  'chukma' - which is turkish for lighter. Am sure that will come in useful, at some point. Here is our Mr. Wino (in special sales-gear with young assistant) standing with Gareth.

Istanbul was great.A good time to recover, relax and see the sites while  staying in 'old' Istanbul Gap her ponders being in civilization at last. Took the taking ferry ride down
the Bosphorous. It was great also to share our adventures with some
fellow crazy cyclists Geri (who had riden from Switzerland) and Greg
and Louise (ridden from England!). Geri did us a huge favour by giving us
his incredibly detailed map of Turkey - so detailed that if it was any
bigger we could lay it on the ground and ride around on it for a week or
two..We will leave Istanbul and head south. Good to be pedalling again with a rejuvenated rear end.

17 August 2002 GAP’s  SLANT ON THINGS SO FAR:  ‘Am also  doýng thýs on turkýsh keyboard wýth weýrd letterýng arrangement, so ý hope ýt's ok. (Have now clocked up 3,000kms)  We rode down to the Gallipoli peninsula to have a look at where the ANZACS landed in world war We saw a lot a gravestones, both Turkish & Aussies, but the thing that really surprised me
was how small the area was to have played such a significant part in our history, just tiny !!

We rode the  330kms in 3 days to Istanbul, man did we see some
crappy roads. At one stage we were riding halfway up a cliff on an unmade
road with fist sized rocks on it. It was closed because they were
dynamiting it as a section had fallen into the sea, the only way we got
past was to slip through while the workers were having lunch. And the
crappy roads continued from there.

The Turks can fight, but the concept of good asphalting got away from them
completely. Apparently they decided it was best if their roads had the
consistency of chewing gum. Why ? I dont know, but now they look like they
have cellulite and are are causing the bike to vibrate heaps over the ruts
(sometimes it's quite enjoyable !).

Generally the camping had been good but at one joint the police came up &
told us us to watch out for thieves but that they would be patrolling (with
their uzi's ) to make us feel safe. Yeah, great ...felt real safe after
that. The guy camping next to us turned out to be a wine merchant (he had
a van choc full of wine bottles) & although he spoke no english & I spoke
little turkish we found that after a few bottles we spoke exactly the same
gibberish....brilliant !!! He put all our gear in his van and gave us the
key to it, talk about a nice guy.
On leaving in the morning he tucked another full bottle in my bags to
take with me, a welcome addition.

Our tents in somewhat exposed location:

Gap’s  slant on the tough ride into Istanbul-
That day we rode to Istanbul, what a long day. Everyone we met told us
it was flat, well they musta been looking at at from the space shuttle,
cos it was hilly as buggery & the traffic was insane, 12.5 million people
in the city ........& they all seemed to be on the road at the same time,
blindfolded ! Never been so scared on the bike.
Stayed in Istanbul for 3 days & caught up with some other cyclists, you
can spot them a mile away. Calves crafted from granite, a vague 1000 yard
stare, always standing up. It was cool to swap a few stories (I lied a bit
to make ours sound better ). Also went to see a few big mosques,
huge domed things with stained glass, mosaics and stuff like that. The
thousand guys who died making these things would spew if they heard this
(I'm not a necromancer so I should be OK), but they begin to look pretty
similar after a while. They should have a bit more variety and try making
worship centres shaped like a banana & stuff....just to break up the
sky-line a little.

We've left Istanbul a little jaded with the people after being assaulted
with requests to buy carpets all day every day. Also It's weird .. , it seems to be the trend to install a internet cafe in a town before they connect running water they are so common. Suits
me fine. Hope this was long enough for you guys to have had a bikkie &
coffee whýle reading it, now GET BACK TO WORK!

(Sometime here they were in Ephesus but probably due to a ‘bad’ kebab, the emails slowed. But this pic.survived. Amazing place).

Tuesday September 10, 2002:  from Trev:

Yes we are still out here pedalling....Gap and I are in the
town of Kayseri in the beautiful Cappadocia region - pretty much smack in
the middle of Turkey.Actually make that Sivas - 200km further NE - 3rd
time lucky for this email attempt! My 1st attempt was put end to by a
spectacular lightning storm in Goreme - but in Turkey you don't need a storm
to cause power failures - the wiring here is dodgy to say the least! 

View from ‘our yacht’ which took us  & our bikes from took us from Fethiye to Olympos.

We then left the relaxing treehouse village of Olympos - the
'hotel California' of Turkey. We pedalled east to the Mediterranean coastal
city of Antalya - where I spent most of my time 'driving the porcelain bus'
as Gap called ýt - throwing up with a nice bout of gastro. It came on
rather sudden while sleeping on a rooftop pension - luckily the floor was
concrete and Gareth’s thongs were the only casualty - well they already
smelled pretty bad. As I dry-heaved the rest of the night away Gap commented
that I sounded like some sort of Rhino mating call.

After a day of rest we headed north inland to the lake district of Turkey.
During a particularly nasty climb on a hot afternoon with a headwind blowing
us almost backwards and me feeling pretty ordinary, we came across Bulent -
a friendly Turkish guy sitting on the side of the road next to his bicycle.
He asked if he could ride with us for a bit -sure! 4 days later he was
still pedalling and laughing along with us - he was like missing the 3rd
bicycle brother.  During our 4 days cycling with Bulent there usually wasn't much in the way
of towns - just lots of farmland and small villages friendly locals. It was
a great time for us - with Bulent’s reasonable grasp of english we were able
to talk much more with the locals, and improve our turkish beyond 6 words.
We ate mostly from what farmers gave to us or from orchards beside the road
(tomatoes, peppers, apples, carabs, sunflower seeds - yumm!) and camped
wherever we had enough of cycling.
Unfortunately Bulent had to go back to work after we reached Konya -
something we don't have to worry about for now! But it was great while it
lasted and we learnt heaps from Bulent - like how to cook up great turkish
breakfasts! Excellent. Here is Bulent with Gareth.

Some days later-

We have just left the beautiful Cappadocia region with its incredible rock
formations. It is hard to descibe such a place without pics - hopefully some  will eventually appear here .. cone shapes formed when hard volcanic upper layer was blasted away -houses and monasteries are carved out of the soft rock.

From here we pedal east to the Iran border about 1000km away
- 3 days ahead of us is a Kiwi dude on a bike we were hoping to catch up
with - but he must have an engine cos he's doing about 110km per day! We
always aim to start early but usually get caught drinking 14 cups of chai
with the locals and then stopping on the road all morning to relieve ourselves.... 'Hoscha Kalin' (Stay Happy!)  til next time, Trev.

Health Report: Sept 10:  from Gareth in Goreme: Subject: "There's a reason my feet stink"-
Unfortunately in Antalya Trev copped a decent dose of food poisoning, after
writing my last e-mail I got back to the rooftop (where we were sleeping) to
find T looking pale & wan, lying in his bed.

G: "Hey trev you look like ---....anything I can do for you ?"
T: "I WANNA DIE"
G: "OK man...... well, lemme know if you do"
I was so concerned I fell immediately into a deep slumber, only to be awoken
later by a sound I can only describe as being like elephant seals fighting
for territory. Concern turned to horror as I saw the top straps of my sandals poking out
from a pile of half digested food......DOH!! During the night this scene
was repeated four more times (although I cleverly swapped my sandals for a
bucket while trev wasn't looking).

By the morning T felt like his insides had been turned inside out and put
in back to front. I tried to cheer him up by pointing out that he'd had a
killer ab workout, but to no avail. We chilled it the next day to give him
time to recover and then headed off to Konya (500km away).

After leaving Antalya (S.W Turkey) we climbed up 1100 m to a plateau over two days and
150 km. On the way we met a turkish guy called Bulent, (covered in earlier email from Trev) who rode with us to Konya.

What a cool guy, we free camped every night in open fields, orchards or by
the freshwater lakes we were passing. one lake view here..

Farmers would let us pick vegetables
for free from their gardens so we could cook, and they'd sit with us for tea
at night round our little camp. Bulent talking to them in Turkish & them
with him; Trev & I laughed at spots where we thought it was appropriate.

Bulent's english was pretty good & he had a great sense of humour, which
improved dramatically after I taught him a few swear words. By the end of 4
days we were getting along like a house on fire, Bulent swearing, me
swearing and trev talking about physiology (pick the intellectual). The
ride into Konya was awesome as we rode over a rise to see the whole city
laid out before us 500m below. That night we all went out for dinner and
bid Bulent a sad farewell as he got on the bus to his home town Eskishehir.

We ended up in the heart of Cappadocia (I thought Cappadocia was one of those fad coffee drinks), Goreme. There are  heaps of rock cones there that villagers had hollowed out to live in, cute  in a smurf kind of way but the real star is the landscape. Cappadocia looks
like what you'd expect to get if someone when wild with a gigantic softserve
icecream machine. A landscape filled with twirled rock shaded with pink and
vanilla hues. Definitely a place you take plenty of film to.
PS: only 2 weeks until we hit Iran, can't wait!

 

 

Sept 17, from Trevor at Erzuram, just a short distance from Iran border on the map:The last week or so has been particularly enjoyable on the bikes - being surrounded by big mountains at higher altitude and the weather sunny but cooler than the coast. Here in Erzurum is on a plateau of 1950m and is the last real city before we hit Iran border at dogbiscuit (Dogubayazit) 330km
further east. We'll take a day off here tomorrow and have a look around
(nice area - people ski here in winter!) before heading to ‘Dogbiscuit’’
arriving at the border prob. Sept 21.
Things could go a bit quiet from here, (mobiles not allowed?) but they are hoping for some internet cafes.

Above, Gareth uses his ( latest) map and local language skills …

 

THIS WAS OUR TURKISH ROUTE:

Border town Ipsala, onto Gelýbolu (Gallipoli) and Eceabat, then NE to Terkirdag and
Istanbul. Ferry Istanbul sth to Bandirma, then sth to Susurluk and
Beyekishýr (sp?), SW to coast at Ayvalik and small isl of Alibey Adasi. Sth
to Bergama, Zeytindag, Guzulbache, Selcuk (Ephesus), then SW to Priene, Sth
to Kapikiri next to Baha lake, sth to Bodrum, ferry from Bodrum sth to Aktur
and Datca, then east to Marmaris. Marmaris to Fethiye, then boat cruise
from Fethiye to Olympos. Olympos NE to Antalya. Antalya Nth to Kargi,
Egidýr (lake), onto Beyesihir (another lake!). East to Konya, Sultanhani,
Aksaray, Nevesihýr and Goreme.</p>

Sept 22, from across the Border into Iran by mobile text message, "made it at last".

NOW for IRAN ! – dodgy Turkish kebabs permitting

Trev and GAP were now on the home stretch of their 6,500 kms bike- pedalling epic, and sent a long email on reaching the border town of with Iran at “Dogbiscuit”.Gareth was "beaten up by an old crone".....   (they got to the front of the 3-day queue of lorries and cars, because they had bikes, perhaps that was it .. 

October 15 from Trev:...first a brief rundown of our trip thru eastern Turkey to the Iran border.. Leaving Sivas we continued along the high plateaus. Gap got a nasty case of the runs -caused by a dodgy  KEBAB? and decided to headed off to the hospital in the tiny town of Zara and explained Gaps condition of dehydration - where they chucked him on a drip for a couple of hours, and offered him a nice strong cup of diuretic tea! They were really nice though and the bill came to an unbelievable 9 million lira (about $10 AUS).Eastern turkey was perhaps our most memorable time of the trip - the people were incredibly friendly, the roads and scenery were great, nobody wanted to sell us carpets, and we were feeling particulary comfortable with clocking up lots of kilometres with apparent ease. Part of this came down to adaptation and learning to reduce "sore arse syndrome" and take preventative measures to minimise the chafing - basically we began greasing ourselves more than the bikes.  This was much to the amusement of the locals (we dont bother being discreet about lubing anymore) - I suppose its more interesting than watching Turkish tv.The Jandarma (military police) were much more prevalent out east but always friendly - we got stopped at one checkpoint on a mountain pass (2000m) as a big front of hail started. The Jandarma hailed us down and ordered us into their hut - where they subjected us to several cups of hot tea and cake before sending us on our way.As we headed further east things became more sparse and our rest stops gradually progressed from "lets stop next time we see a town" to "lets stop next time we see a village" to "lets stop next time we see a service station" to "lets stop next time we see a tree!". And there weren” too many out there...Heading towards the border town of Dogubayazit ("Dogbiscuit").

Gareth emailed: To head to Iran it was a 35 km ride, so we got up early the next day & rode there. As we got closer we could see a huge line of trucks waiting to get through. It didn't look like the were getting anywhere fast as drivers had set up small kitchens under their trailers, & on talking to them we found that it could be up to three weeks before they got through. Trev & I looked at each other & swallowed fearfully, as all we had to eat was an onion.Thankfully as a tourist the line didn't apply to us & we managed to get across the border with only a 3 hr delay (& some old lady punching the crap out of me for some reason I still dont know). So we were spat out of the customs office into Iran, & blinking quickly our eyes adjusted to the sunlight I realised with delight................it was no different to Turkey.Trev :We accepted a lift up a steep mountain pass from a friendly local Kurdish dude. This guy drove his Isuzi truck like it was a grand prix car, and could teach some of my car racing buddies a few things about passing manoevres -especially on the outside of blind corners. I think it was around this time that I began to understand their belief in the great Allah...The only bad thing about East Turkey was the increased number of village sheep dogs - these guys were seriously big, fast and nasty.Below is an exert direct from the road during one of our "close encounters of the dog kind" - such incidents reminded us of a scene straight out of 'Top Gun':'Maverick - we've got multiple bogeys at 3/4 of a mile, 3 O'Clock closing at 15 mph - you copy?''Roger that Goose - I see 'em beside the farmhouse next to those kids, Looks like those Russian Dog 28's - I hear those suckers can top 35mph and can rip your leg off. Most of em have rabies too'..

(Gap doesn’t look too worried here…but one mutt as got our Aussie flag)

 

Email from Sergio, from France pictured below with Trevor (left) and Gareth: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 

‘'It' s not a beautiful photo? I find (it) magnificent, really.... It feels(smells) the happiness, the enjoyment, the cheerfulness?I waited for (it) to write you, and as I am a little bit slow.. it'sarrives only now.?Sincerely, I passed a magnificent moment with you in the Datcha IslandI don't forget one afternoon which marked my journey: you, your bicycle,together, the only man in Bycicle!!! After our meeting, I continue to meet a lot of people.Yes, Turkey is put into verse also with meetings, meetings and meetings: it was brilliant.I leave Marmaris to go Izmir and then i was in Cesme. I go back to Italywith the boat. The travel was two day along. When I come back in Italy, it was so good: at last woman!!!!! It's right that it's difficult to meet woman in Turkey! So, I was one day in Brindisi and then I go back to France via Roma... It last two day again but the travel was a good time! I meet a magnificent Italian woman who spoke French, and we talk together during all the travel.... but, shame, my camera was breakdown and I don't dare to ask herfor her adress... that's travel...but perhaps I meet her one day in Paris!!I hope your travel continue as you want and that your bike don't make you suffer!! I promise you i will send you the photo. I've it. So I hope this souvenirwill be nice to you.I wait for your response...You know that you're welcome in France. If you want to visit the beautiful ltown of Grenoble, make ski or something else, it will be a pleasure for meto meet you again!! See you soon, and just one thing: COURAGE! CIAO.... Sergio.  Here is Sergio with Trev. and Gap.

 

21 Oct from Trevor:Cycling into western Iran the feel was very much like Eastern Turkey - friendly people who still spoke turkish (a bonus because we spoke no Persian), and roads flanked by dry baron mountains. The roads were so smooth you could've play billiards on them, in hindsight we could’ve used our 'dog defense' sticks. Along the way we ran into Gerhard - a German cyclist we met back in turkey, and the 3 of us cycled together for a few days. It was great to have him along - Gerhard is on his way to Thailand, and has some impressive gear with him, especially all the cooking stuff he used to make the best Bruchetta i ever tasted and some grilled eggplant w/ olive oil and tomatoes done over the campfire - who said camping means having to rough it!! After a few days we arrived in the large city of Tabriz - with a local population of about 1 million and a tourist population of about 3 - me, Gap and Gerhard. The crank on Gaps bike had started to lunch itself - so we replaced it in the Hotel room using a spare we bought in Turkey for $6 and some borrowed tools from reception (from the look of the place I figured they probably did their own electrical and plumbing work).In Iran almost everyone drives a Paykan - a locally built Hillman Hunter of 1970's vintage - at a speed twice that which it was ever intended. You have to see the driving here to believe it - it is like the Paykan Grand Prix 7 days a week. All the working guys drive diesel Mercedes trucks of around WWII vintage -cos diesel here is so cheap. 1 US dollar will buy you about 50 litres of diesel (or 15L of super) which is cheaper than bottled water. Made us contemplate filling our water bottles with petrol - "you can drink it, but it tastes like ..."

THE ROUTE INTO IRAN:

 

From Tabriz we decided to divert our path to Tehran cos we heard the next 600km was more of the same (desert like terrain) and we were hanging out to see some trees. So we turned NE towards the Caspian sea.  (World's largest Salt Lake - 30m above world sea level.Men toss fishing nets from shore repeating same method of 2,000 years ago!).

 

 

After about 200km we crested the last part of the mountains via a tunnel to find beautiful lush green valleys and low cloud on the other side, it was like we'd been transported to SE asia. This was another place where tourists never go either - because suddenly we achieved rockstar-like status among the locals. This was great in some ways but it was also tiresome on occasions - our "rest stops" on the bikes started changing to "hiding spots".The whole popularity thing also caused us some grief in one town along the Caspian sea - we were fleeing from a mob of kids as usual, then suddenly the a police car hailed us down. The police radioed the "police in suits" who took our passports from us then led us away down a dark side street to their office - Gap and I feared the worst and hoped like hell that these guys were not bogus. As it turned out they were legit, and after about an hour they gave us our passports back and apologised. The town was apparently a military one - praps they thought we were spies? I must've missed that James Bond movie where Sean Connery puts on a pair of smelly bike shorts and a grubby legionairre hat before fleeing from the police on his pushbike - tho here a bike would have a good chance of outrunning a Paykan Police car. A few days later we got apprehended again - on the freeway to Tehran, err ...which we weren’t meant to be cycling on. This time tho they were bogus Police. These guys failed to convince us that a walkie talkie, 2 cheap suits and a rusty blue Paykan qualify you as policmen.Iran however was full of highlights. The hospitality of the locals was incredible - we were invited to stay in a number of homes and treated like royals every time. Perhaps the most memorable one was Gholam (an English student) and his family of 5 brothers, 5 sisters and his lovely folks. His smiley 73yr old dad excused himself early in the evening and left- when we asked where he was going Gholam replied - "oh hes going off to his nightshift job". His dad returned the next morning about 7am - still smiling! Arriving in Tehran we managed to negotiate the traffic well - despite what everyone said it was actually pretty good especiallly compared to Istanbul - people even stopped at red lights. Within 3hrs we had dumped the bikes and got ourselves on a flight to Esfahan 500km to the south (for I think 16 US dollars!). Here we ran into our old Irish friend Ronan - "old" cos we had run into him 5 times since Turkey! It was great to have another familiar face to enjoy a few laughs minus the beers (illegal in Iran). From Esfahan we caught a bus to Shiraz and spent a few days there incl. catching up with family of Reza's (for info of melbUni people) - which was great.

The bus ride – note the bikes ‘safely’ stored in the aisle, Gareth grinning at the back.

 

It was a bit of a rush trip around this time - and our flight back to Tehran got delayed by 16hrs - we almost missed our flight to Singapore and had a big run-in with a greedy Hotel guy in Tehran who wanted us to pay for a night we didn’t stay  (we took off)-but thats another story... Trev.

 

THE HOME STRAIGHT! November 1, 2002:Completing the  journey's log with our 2 weeks in Singapore & Malaysia.

Stardate 0349598.4 In our last episode Trev & Gap jumped on our flight out of Tehran bound for Singapore. We had one stopover in Dubai with a 3hr wait - plenty of time to scan the airport shops for an LP (Lonely Planet) on Asia to plan the next part of our bike journey - does that sound disorganised? Err, we'd prefer to call it spontaneous. Anyway walking off the plane into the airport terminal we managed to accidentally bypass the normal security check-in points, and ended up in a part of the airport we weren't meant to be. We got hauled up by a big burly airport police dude in army attire, who took us into his office for questioning.  So we blew most of our stopover time with airport security man - but managed to squeeze in a beer at the airport pub shouted by a friendly Sri Lankan guy who probably thought we looked like we needed a drink.Singapore turned out to be a pleasant surprise - immigration & customs takes 3 seconds instead of 3 hours, the traffic is very well behaved, the roads are lined with lush jungle gardens, you can buy mangos and pineapples cheap, everything works, and restaurant food is cheap and tasty. After spending the last week of Iran doing the backpacker thing, we were itching to get back on the bikes - the planes and buses thing didn't really work for us. We decided on a route into Asia similar to that of  a “Mr. Pumpy” (not his real name)-  -  The Bike-   (packaging as recommended by him).  An excellent website on cycling SE Asia with a few laughs thrown in. We also got some local advice from Jimmy at one of Singapore's info centres who was very helpful.

After a couple of days in the city we pedalled the short trip to the East Coast to catch a boat we heard about from Jimmy. On our way along the shady Singapore bike paths we ran into a bunch of senior bicycle tourers who were about to start their ride to Hong Kong - an impressive feat! When we spotted them they were doing a photo shoot while performing "the traditional wheel dip" in Singapore harbour. I didnt want to ruin their occasion, but I mentioned that i didnt think chucking your bicycle in saltwater was the best way to start a 6500km trek - but they seemed to be enjoying themselves - so who was I to bust up the party. After 30kms or so we reached the little wharf at Changi Village, picked up the bikes and climbed aboard a small noisy old diesel vessel crammed with old Malay women and their shopping - bound for the Malaysian coast.

Riding along the east coast of Malaysia turned out to be very pleasant - sandy beaches and dense palm trees, with a smooth wide road almost absent of any traffic - perhaps because it wasnt even on the map. Hardly a hut or soul was seen for many kilometres. The humidity in Malaysia was quite high (heading into the monsoon season) but it was very pleasant on the bikes with a nice breeze in your face. But as soon as you stopped the sweat poured off your head at a rate to impress even Pat Rafter, Aussie tennis champ who could sweat kilos.Road hazards in Malaysia were no longer large trucks and screaming kids like Iran - now it was the occasional 4 legged reptiles or clan of monkeys. The monkeys are crafty little guys - they stole half our breakfast (while we were still eating it) while camped next to the beach. These little guys have ninja-like strategies for stealing food -and they have the cheek to munch away with delight well within eyesight.

 

According to our friend Jimmy - cycle tour guide in Singapore - our target town of Mersing was 100km up the east coast and an easy 1 day ride. As it turned out, Mersing was 215km and 3 days away, and about halfway up the coast the road came to a grinding halt at a large coastal waterway with no bridge and a dirt track on the other side only reachable by boat. This left us swearing and plotting what we were going to Jimmy when we got back to Singapore - but the riding continued to be very pleasant with more kilometres of dense palm trees and rubber plantations as we diverted inland.The town of Mersing turned out to be a great place - mainly cos of a Hostel there called "Rocky's Place" that felt like home - run by Rocky and her husband Anwar. They were always willing to help, have a chat, or cook up a great home made pizza. We left our bikes there and took the ferry to Tioman island.Tioman was a great place to relax - as long as you dont mind 6 foot reptiles wandering outside your hut or paddling in the waters nearby. The humidity was incredible - we did a small trek into the jungle but headed back after sweating what seemed like half our body weight in only a few minutes Gap was about to remove his shirt until he realised there were about 400 mozzies eagerly buzzing around preparing for a feast. So we decided to quit the whole jungle trek thing and headed back for a pleasant snorkel at the beach. This turned out to be my highlight for Malaysia - the colour of the coral and fish was stunning, we got to chase a sea turtle and other large fish around, and I saw a small reef shark swim between me and Gap (which he was glad to have missed). After Tioman Island we headed back to Mersing, then took a shorter route of 160km back to Singapore (thanks again Mr Pumpy!) which we somehow managed to do in one day. After a couple of days chilling in Singapore, we rode back to the airport, wrapped the bikes in cardboard while dripping with sweat, and boarded the flight to Melbourne…Arriving at Tullamarine the customs guys took one look at our muddy bikes and shoes and gave them a good soaking in some sort of disinfectant - so we squelched our way into the arrival terminal. Being about 1am it was only our hardiest followers (mostly family!) that were there with all smiles to greet us (Ed:  Trev’s  were there tho he looks sad it’s over)  but it was great to be home...just in time for sister’s wedding.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!!!     Trev and Gap 24 October  2002

Emails: trevonwheels@gmail(dot)com; diymort@gmail(dot)com (blogger)