5 September 2011
Shortly after the hot air balloon touched down the Family Truckster was loaded and I was on the road again. South now, headed for the Mediterranean coast. Was a good ride too. An interesting combination of motorway and A roads. Scenic too. I enjoyed it.
I was headed for Tarsus. To a BMW dealer to be precise. The Family Truckster is due a 12,000 mile/20,000 km service.
The dealer was great. They had a look at the bike and assessed they did not have an air filter before committing to the work. They even contacted the next BMW dealer on my route to book me in, giving them a few days notice so they can have all the necessary parts on hand on my arrival. With luck this will happen on Thursday. Not too much more mileage to get there so a good result. I didn’t really want to hang around for 3 days for an air filter to come in.
It sure is hot now. Back over 35 degrees. Unlike the Black Sea there is no cooling breeze coming off the Mediterranean. My strategy is to stop regularly and rehydrate.
Outside of Istanbul this is the most developed part of Turkey I’ve visited. A little soulless to be honest. It’s all a bit Gold Coast going through Surfers. Plenty of traffic lights and high rise. Intermittent glimpses of the water. Nothing to invite you to delve deeper, just motivation to get to the next town.
It sure is hot. But I want to push on this afternoon and have an easy day tomorrow, when I hit the coastal twisties.
I stop for a break and consult the Lonely Planet guidebook.
Hotel Yaka is en-route and is highly recommended. There is even a nearby offshore castle. I’ll stop there for the night.
It didn’t take me long to get there. It was much closer than I’d realised. But it sure was hot. May as well stop and check out the hotel.
Well, check out turned into check in.
And soon I was walking around the delightful highway/coastal town of Kizkalesi.
After an enjoyable walk I made my way back to the hotel to start blogging for the evening. I’d been quiet for the last couple of days of my Turkey motorcycle tour and had much to catch up on. I was greeted by the hotel’s owner, Yakup. We chatted about iPhones and iPads and the merits of Android based tablets. I suggested he look at the new Sony tablet on the basis that Android would soon take over from iOS.
He told me about his nephew in Melbourne and other members of his family in Europe. They all sounded very successful. Yakup sounded most proud. He would like to visit them all but his mobility isn’t what it used to me. Bad knees and a bit overweight. He figured there was little point visiting if he couldn’t get himself around to see the local sights. He didn’t want to be burden. I doubt he could be if he tried. He reminded me of someone I thought very highly of. Someone I miss.
I had a nice meal at the Yaka Hotel and after a few hours, and some glasses of red wine from Cappadocia, my blog was up to date. Yakup shouted me some watermelon. It was good too but at the risk of sounding fussy would have benefited from a few hours in the fridge before serving. Or perhaps it had been. Did I mention how hot it was?
Here are some images from Kizkalesi.
Distance travelled today 225 miles (362km), cumulative 5,906 miles (9,505km).
