Day 56
After spending 2 nights in the city we set off again up in to the mountains that sit to the south of the city and our first stop was to look at a tree which allegedly over 600 years old, it was certainly the biggest tree that I have ever seen.
Then we rode up to the top of the mountain and to a viewpoint where we could see the enormous size of the city far below us.
Once again Nate and Stefan headed to the dirt to see some old mine workings, however, I again looked at the trail and decided to pass, deciding to wait by my bike and look at the spectaular scenery.
Then a car stopped and the driver said something to me in a language that I recognised as Arabic. I don’t speak or understand the language so I spoke in English and he drove off. A short time later he returned and explained in broken English that he and his family were from Kuwait and they were lost. I pointed them in the direction of the main road and I was rewarded with a pack of Kuwaiti dates. Then I heard the sound of bells and a shepherd rounded the corner with his flock of goats and a couple of very big dogs. The dogs had on collars with huge metal spikes sticking out of them and at the time I wondered why and I was to find out later. A short time later Nate and Stefan returned and I learned that I had chosen wisely as the road to the mine was very, very, rocky and they both had a lot of difficulty trying to get there and back.
That afternoon we again took to the dirt to find a campsite. The trails were steep and slippery, I dropped the bike three times, on each occasion loosing the front wheel when going uphill by sliding off of the top of a rut in to it. Not one of my better days however with Nate and Stephan’s help I got going again and once we were stopped for the evening and the camp fire was lit, I started to feel a little better about my off road misadventures. In reality the Himalayan did well on such surfaces. Nate’s X-Challege was modified for this type of off road work and had no problems in this terrain but even he turned back at one point as it was too rough. Stefan’s GS1200 and my Himalayan also made the turnaround point on the decline but it was on the way up where I had the issues. However, as I said, a campfire, a coffee, a cigar, and the company of fellow bikers goes a long way to making a bad day much better.
Day 57
The next day I again set off with Nate and Stefan to explore the back roads and trails of this part of Turkey. Some of the trails were good and presented me with little difficulty, however, some of them were not and these tested my off road skills but at least I had recovered enough of them from my youth so that I stopped falling over. On one particular trail, there were a number of steep uphill and downhill sections that were covered in deep, thick, wet clay. This stuff instantly filled the tread on the tyres and the bike began to slither and slide. Nate passed on a neat trick for negotiating the steep downhill sections. Switch off the engine, put the bike in first gear and allow the bike to descend, using the engine braking to keep the bike from going too fast. Where the section got a bit steeper applying the back brake helped keep the speed down to a point where the front wheel was still controllable. This worked a treat and the descents were much easier using this method. Uphill sections were a different problem but I just kept it in first gear and using small throttle movements to avoid spinning the rear wheel, the Himalayan just tractored up, somehow finding enough grip in the heavy sludge.
All over this part of Turkey there are ancient cave dwellings to be found. We explored some of these and what surprised me was not only that they still existed, but the frequency with which we saw them.
We found a nice spot in the forrest and then pitched up for the night.
Day 58
The following day Nate and Stefan wanted to explore a large underground cave so we set of to find it, but as that is not something that interests me so when we arrived, I remained with the bikes whilst they went on foot to the cave. The cave is just outside a very small village, so while they guy were off potholing I was trying to communicate with the old men sitting in a cafe. They plied me with tea and I plied them with some dark chocolate that I had with me, and between that and a bit of sign language we got on well and when the guys returned we set of again in search of another campsite. We found a nice spot in the forest and then pitched up for the night. However, about 3 o’clock in the morning all of us awoke to sounds in our campsite, it was 3 wolves. They had just come to see what the strange smells were but obviously when we started moving about they started to withdraw, and to make sure that they stayed away Nate started up his bike and began honking the horn. As I was lying in my tent trying to get back to sleep I suddenly realised why the shepherd’s dogs had spiked collars, to stop the wolves from killing them.