A short ride from my campground in Alexandroupoli brought me to the Turkish border. I had heard much about the Turkish bureaucracy and drawn out customs procedure and thus was very pleasantly surprised that it took only 15 minutes. The customs official thought I wasn’t the brightest though. I have a little New Zealand sticker on my bike (I live there) and he pointed out that I am a day late for ANZAC day and the big bike convention on Gallipoli. He didn’t believe me when I told him that I didn’t want to go to either one of these. I also kept trying to push my carnet de passage on him. I had heard that otherwise one has to pay a fee for some other piece of paper. Since I have a carnet for Iran anyway I thought I should use it. Turns out none of this is required. He just entered the details in a computer and put an extra stamp in my passport. No fee at all. I’ll see how it goes when I try to leave.

Countryside near the Turkish border

Another short ride brought me to Gallipoli, where I paid my respect at the NZ monument at the Hill 60 battle site and at ANZAC cove. Workers were busy removing the grandstands from the dawn ceremony the day before. Today the whole area was practically deserted.

Hill 60 New Zealand Monument

ANZAC Cove

Monument with view of ANZAC cove

I took the ferry to Canakkale and continued on to the ancient city of Troja.

I got a room in the village next to Troja, unloaded my bags and went for beautiful sunset ride on the dirt roads in the area.

Countryside near Troja

Later we had dinner at a small restaurant with the owner of the pension and another guest. The owner was a great host and gave a great introduction to Turkish culture and hospitality.

Amphitheatre in Troja

The cheesy Trojan Horse gets more attention than the ruins from some of the tourists.

I first drove to the ruins of Alexandria Troas.

The bath of Alexandria Troas are not fenced in and I could ride right up to it and walk around as I liked. I felt like a little kid on a big adventure playground.

Following the coast brought me to Babakale, which has an old fort and scenic harbor. Somehow I forgot to take a picture.

Poppies everywhere

A short time later I passed a scenic mountain village on the road to Assos

Assos, of “Aristotle lived there” fame, looks very impressive from a distance.

The cobblestone streets leading up to the ruins are lined with small restaurant and shops. An ideal place for a tea.

I explored the ruins for about an hour

before heading down the hill again, where I came across one of the old East German MZs still in use in Turkey. I used to have one myself.

An old bridge could be seen from its modern counterpart as I was leaving town.

The ride was nice until I entered the main highway again.

From then on I could witness the Turkish version of the now past real estate boom, with largely empty cookie cutter houses lining the highway in all its concrete ugliness. My goal was to reach Bergama and I had to hurry to make it before sunset.

When I reached Bergama I decided to have a look around the ruins in the dawn light. I had a scary moment coming around a turn, when I saw line strung across the road. A kid’s kite had blown over the fence of the Pergamum site and he was tying to retrieve it, blissfully unaware that his kite line almost decapitated me. Luckily I wasn’t going very fast and left only skid marks on the road.

I settled into the nice Boeblingen Pensiyon in a quiet part of town.

The reconstructed Temple of Trajan is certainly impressive.

This is all that is left on site of the famous Altar of Zeus. The original is in Berlin’s Pergamon museum.

With 10,000 seats the amphitheater is massive

A relief fragment

The Middle City is huge and can be explored without any barriers

Floor mosaic in a roman period house

A beautiful tree on a hill overlooking the Temple of Trajan.

Modern Bergama is a pleasant city. I found this old bridge in the city

The ever present carpet dealer

The Red Basilica. It was originally a temple to Egyptian goods and later had a basilica built inside. St John has singled this one out as the throne of the devil. All seemed quiet though.

One of many donkeys on the side of the road. Considering the record fuel prices here it makes sense.

It’s a nice little town with a pleasant park and a pedestrian area and a castle towering over it

Selcuk has a sizable stork population right in the city center that can be heard and seen.

A horse was grasing in the middle of the city park

Statue representing one of the virtues, Sophia (wisdom)

The large amphitheater is also impressive

The Roman communal bathroom is very popular and everyone wants their picture taken. Seems like it used to be a nice chance for a chat. Just hope that nobody double scoops from the cleaning water channel in front of the seats.

Sarcophagi can be found around the site

The terraced houses allow a glimpse at Roman luxury living. The fancy Roman plumbing always amazes me.

Roman floor mosaics

The restoration is ongoing. If you like big puzzles this might be the job for you.

Duct tape is an approved restoration tool in Turkey

I left Selcuk after one last real coffee, which is hard to come by in the land of tea and Nescafe, at the Swiss cafe.

I came across some red faced cyclist making their way up a hill.

Wind energy seems to catch on in Turkey. No wonder considering the fuel price here.

I stopped for lunch at shore of beautiful lake Bafa

More ruins could be seen on the side of the road.

Another stop, another nice view

Shortly before reaching my destination for the day, the lake shore town of Koeycegiz, I saw I sign for Kaunos. Somehow that name sounded familiar and I decided at the spur of the moment to turn right. The road was leading me past some citrus plantations

around lake Koeycegiz. The views after every turn kept getting better and better.

I finally came across a nice spot near the thermal bath that looked like an ideal camp site and I decided to stop and pitch my tent. With the chores out of the way I went for a soak in the 39C thermal bath. With an Efus beer in hand this is a nice way to end a day.

The view from my camp site was great.

I wasn’t planning on camping that night and didn’t bring much food. As I was sitting in front of my tent, eating bread and cheese and having another beer, a German Norwegian couple in their 70s took pity on me and invited me for dinner. They have been coming to Turkey and this particular place for 23 years and were full of useful information. The next morning I was given some oranges for breakfast by another couple. Not a bad way to spend a night!

I had to work my way back around the lake from Kaunos and so got to enjoy it all over. Just past Kaunos I got a lovely view of the river delta.

I almost hit this suicidal turtle who tried to cross the road. Saved the little bugger.

I had lunch at a lake side restaurant in laid back Koeycegiz.

Getting fuel in Turkey is always interesting. First, you’ll never run out. There are gas stations everywhere and a lot of them are huge enterprises with attached mini markets. At around EUR 1.50 fuel is the most expensive I have seen and it pays to look around as there can be quite a difference between stations. However, the price on the road sign doesn’t always agree with what’s on the pump. The stars aligned at this station. As soon as I unmounted my tank was refueled by an assistant while a female assistant offered my some lemon scented hand cleaner, the same you get after each meal here. She also offered me some tea with my fuel. Now that’s service. When I paid with my credit card I noticed the eclectic collection of payment processing machines. There must be many competing systems here but my cashier handled the transaction with a big smile and without a glitch.

Shortly later I finally figured out what the water that is running out of pipes along the road is for. I had seen this many times already but could never make sense of it. It’s a Turkish car wash. I’m still a little puzzled though. The water always runs and it seems to be an incredible waste of water.

After getting stuck in a traffic jam on a bridge, due to a May day celebration, I reached the coast again. Once again nice views of the Aegean see.

The coastal road took me straight to Kas. I have dreaded this part of the trip. In my imagination the coast is packed with concrete bunker hotels filled with Speedo clad all inclusive European drunk tourists. Well, that part is still to come but a guy I met in Selcuk recommended Kas and I liked what I saw. I pitched my tent next to an Austrian couple, which came the long way up from Tanzania on their bikes.

They told me of the cold weather ahead and so I’ve settle in for a few days, enjoying the good life, hoping things warm up a bit in the Northeast.

A nice sun halo could be seen on the day of my arrival.

P.S.: The much dreaded Speedo man did make an appearance.

When I stopped at the ruins of Myra the rain even increased and I decided to have lunch and watch the soaking wet Russian tourists in their beach outfits instead. Just after lunch it cleared long enough to take some pictures of the Lycian rock tombs.

I didn’t linger long and made my way down the coastal highway to the east. I hit Antalya during rush hour and of course the rain picked up to a sizable downpour. I pressed on until I reached Side. A bit of a shocker with all the tourists from the nearby hotels descending onto this little village. I parked my bike and starting looking for a place to stay. I found a nice place with parking, hot shower and heating. Perfect, now I just had to convince the official manning the gate to let me drive into the village. He basically just ignored me and I decided to drive around the gate

In the morning I walked around the ruins for about an hour before breakfast.

Side Ampitheater

During breakfast heavy rain started and I was debating weather I should leave or stay put. The owner of the place checked the forecast for me and it looked like rain for the foreseeable future everywhere I wanted to go. Might es well leave then…