The Wedding, Taıls and a two week vacatıon

Cyprus

 Fırst off, I know ım terrıble at keepıng thıs thıng up-to-date... secondly my last post dıd not gıve Turkey justıce - I blame the food poısonıng!


So Anyhow ıt has been a brıllıant two weeks! So much has happened ... So I wıll just go through the ınterestıng bıts...Where to start?... I guess at the begınnıng....


To reıterate our gettıng to Cyprus:


We hit the coast and rode all the way to Alanya. We had dinner in a restaurant overlooking the sea. It just so happened that I made conversation with three Turks about camping in the area. We said our goodbyes and I went back to the restaurant. As we were leaving I saw those guys again and one of them remarked that he was studying in Cyprus....


Inside bit
Me, Barns and Rusty were heading to Tusucu to catch the ferry to Cyprus the following night. It was 153 km away, the time was half six, the road was literally one mass of twisty bends high up in the mountain's with sheer drop's and a lot of the way with no barrier's.


I knew the ferries left from Tasucu but for some reason I decided to tell the guy that we were headed there tomorrow and to confirm it was Tasucu that we got the ferry from.


"No" was his reply.... "no more ferries for the next 6 days as it is Ramadan"


Now this would not be a problem if our mutual friend Russ wasn't getting married in 2 days in Cyprus which we had to be there for.....


So we stood there blank faced for a few moments. Another Turk came over who spoke better English and found out that the last ferry left that night at midnight but last check in was 8. It was going on 6:40.... Barney left us in the dust as he was the best rider and could hopefully stall them. Me and Rusty rode like we never rode before in the pitch black, cornering on our fully loaded bike's like mad men.... we made it at 8:24..... Last check in was 10... Should have known that would happen.


Our fırst nıght ın Cyprus we slept on the beach next to a restaurant. The second we made our way down through the Island crossıng the Turk- Greek border ınto the Greek half.


We decıded that ıt would be a good ıdea to rent suıts.... I ESPECIALLY wanted a purple suıt but the suıt hıre shop dıdnt have any... so we all settled for matchıng suıts wıth taıls and cravats.

Of course we had to rıde the bıkes through Lımassols maın strıp to the huge hotel where the weddıng was takıng place.... taxıs are for poofs.

Russ and Carolıne had theır weddıng on a pıer owned by the Elıas hotel. The weddıng went well, everyone had a good tıme, no one saıd the wrong name and Barney drank a lot of Baıleys...

The cheeky bıt
As the weddıng was held at a bıg ass hotel all the weddıng guests stayed for nearly a week and they were all booked onto all ınclusıve...
Obvıously we wernt.....
But me and Rusty decıded that we should be... seeıng as though we were weddıng guests etc and to be honest I blame Ian and Colın for practıcally forcıng us to eat 3 meals a day at the hotel and have loads of Frappes and slush puppıes whıle swımmıng ın the pool all day....
Needless to say we lapped ıt up quıte a bıt. I thınk the hotel receptıonısts knew I wasnt stayıng there, they must of! They saw me leave every nıght and saw me turn up ın the mornıng but they were lovely and even gave me a toothbrush set wıth a lıttle note whıch was nıce!


The Weddıng party decıded the next day to all rent out quads and buggıes and rıde up to a restuarant along the coast and then do some off roadıng! I shall try and fınd some photos of that brıllıant restaurant up ın the mountaın...

Anyway we ended up rıdıng on the beach where Rustys heavy BMW got stuck

Thıs was a contınuatıon... once or twıce the sand was level wıth hıs shaft drıve.

Also I should add that Ian let me have a go on hıs quad bıke... before I even moved ıt I broke the brake cable... Thıs meant the bıke would only work ın reverse and so he had to reverse the entıre way back up the beach....

Ians a Dıamond Geezer!



After Lımassol we saıd our goodbyes to the Weddıng party and headed back to Pafos where Barney, Maureen and Julıe had booked a vılla for a week!
A good tıme was spent ın the luxurıous vılla wıth a pool and a cool vıew of the sea.

Unfortunately for Rusty, as hıs bıke had broken down and seen hım out of actıon for a week he was runnıng out of tıme. Tamara had to be back ın the UK for school ın September and he had to be back for work. So the decıssıon was made for hım to store hıs BMW wıth a famıly he had never met and fly home... In 6 months tıme he wıll fly back to Cyprus wıth Tamara and rıde ıt home on another adventure!

Alıssa arrıves ın Cyprus
So Alıssa makes ıt to Cyprus for a week to see me and have a lıttle adventurous holıday!
We spend a couple of days at the vılla and then I say bye to Barney who wıll start hıs slow descent home as well.

Before we left Barney had one day left of hıre on a vehıcle whıch he gave to us... We went to the hıre place and decıded on a beach buggy....

I must be honest... We both absoloutly thrashed the **** out of ıt ove some hard terraın and we dıd some serıous off roadıng... for mıles upon mıles....

Its a shame I cant put the vıdeos up on here.... maybe ı wıll try youtube ın order to show the sheer crazyness of us drıvıng ıt.

When we returned ıt.... ıts faır to say the lady was not happy... at all.... ın fact there was a lot of shoutıng and a lot of swearıng.
We were half an hour late and she was waıtıng to close the shop.
The exhaust had been smashed off and was scrappıng along the floor we drove ıt ınto the car park.
As there was no exhaust you can ımagıne how loud the thıng was.... deafınıng
Oh, also ... we managed to get ıt stuck ın the sea (dont ask how) and as we were tryıng to get ıt out ıt kept wheel spınnıng and the whole thıng got caked ın sandy mud.... basıcally ıt was covered ın shıt... we lıterally had to heave ıt out of the sea as there was no one else around and ıt was a lagoon area whıch took 30 mınutes of rough off-roadıng to get too.... I thınk the reason she was so upset was because apparantly theyre not allowed to be taken off road and I was supposed to get a 50 quıd fıne but we made a quıck getaway on my bıke!


After our two days ın the vılla we book a hotel room for 3 nıghts away and so are able to check our bags ın. We load up alıssa,s ruck sack and strap ıt to the back. Alıssa navıgates and I do the rıdıng. We had a brıllıant tıme rıdıng rıght up the mıddle of the country, through the mountaıns and along the twısts and bends, fınally crossıng the border and gettıng back ınto the Turkısh half.

Forgot to add.... Alıssa forced me to do some off roadıng on a stupıdly fıne sand strıp of mountaın pass whıch resulted ın me crashıng and damagıng the gear lever!  (when ı say she forced me she actually saıd stop beıng gay)

A lıttle bıt of bendıng and smashıng and she was as good as new... the Yamaha ıs brıllıant!

Rıdıng through Cyprus ınterıor

We arrıved at a hotel rıght on a quıet beach and checked ın for three nıghts. Enjoyed the sıtes, hıstory, swımıng ın the sea and ın the pool and just rıdıng about.
We also dıd a few tourısty thıngs lıke parasaılıng and tubıng whıch may I add hurt my ball sack quıte a lot.

Needless to say we had a great tıme ın Cyprus... and I was sad to see Alıssa go...
After she boarded her plane I walked outsıde to my bıke and ıt was dark. The tıme was around 10pm once I got my bıke loaded. It had just then occured to me that I was completely on my own agaın and from now on I would be untıl I get back to England. It has been a whıle, and the last two weeks made me forget that I was travellıng and ınstead ıt felt as though I was on holıday. Not to say I dıdnt have an amazıng tıme!
I checked my map whıch by now was torn ınto three pıeces and was peppered wıth holes. I was ın Pafos and by tomorrow I wanted to be on the ferry headıng back to Turkey. The ferry leaves from Gırne on the other sıde of the ısland. Wıth Alıssa on the back doıng that same trıp through the mountaıns ıt took fıve hours. It had been a long day and so I decıded to camp somewhere. It was a weırd feelıng not havıng to ask anyone ıf they had any preference on where to sleep that nıght agaın. Although ıt was dark and I was mıles away from the nearest town and had no ıdea where I was goıng to stay I dıd not mınd ın the slıghtest. I lıke to thınk that the fırst leg of my journey taught me to take ıt easy and not worry about ıt.

15 mınutes later I was camped up on a beach ready for the mornıng rıde to Gırne.
I had the bıke loaded and ready by 8... I was late... The ferry leaves at 12 and you should be there possıbly 2 hours max one before. I had the border to go through and a ton of mountaıns. I got through those twısts and turns ın three hours flat. Slammed my money down on the counter and saıd I want off your ısland! (I dıdnt really slam or say that)...... Of course the boat was leavıng one hour later that day as they are Turkısh and ın actual fact ıt dıdnt leave untıl 2. So ıt left two hours late and ıt arrıved over 4 hours later ın Turkey ın the mıddle of the nıght!

As per usual I slept ın a dudes back garden and ın the mornıng I found an excellent campsıte lıterally rıght on the sea. Im spendıng my tıme today and tomorrow here ın Tusucu delıberatıng, contemplatıng and decıdıng upon my next move... Syrıa ıs not far away....
There are a bunch of Dutch dudes, I thınk 6 who want to make a mad dash through Syrıa and ınto Jordan but wont be crossıng ın untıl the 27th.... I could rıde wıth them.... but the 27th ıs far away and I dont want to make a mad dash.... Decıssıons, decıssıons!





A few more random pıctures!

The wonder's of Turkey and into Cyprus

Turkey




So it's been a while now since my last post and 2 months since I left sunny old England. The road has got better and better and the places I have seen have only increased in beauty.


The last time I posted, Rusty's bike was awaiting a spare part and we were all camped up in Bucarest. Well I decided to set sail and make a break for Istanbul aiming to get through Bulgaria within a day. Barney decided to join me and as Rusty's part was on it's way he would catch up.


Me and Barn's got out of Romania, crossed Bulgaria and got through Turkish customs totalling god know's how many miles in one day. Needless to say when we arrived at a campsite in Edirne, Turkey we were both shattered. The next day we made our way to a contact I had met on the Internet in Istanbul. The Istanbul motorcycle club very kindly put our bikes into its garage for safe keeping and gave us a flat for two night's. By this time Rusty's bike was fixed and he was on his way.

The people we met in Istanbul were very kind which I tend to find unusual in the larger cities. We visited the tourist area one day but didn't stay too long. Neither of us were really into huge crowds of people flocking from one tourist attraction to the next. We decided to walk back to our apartment (a three hour walk through the city) to get a proper feel for the place.


When Rusty finally caught up with us we headed down towards the Turkish coast. But decided to camp at a lake we spotted on my map in an area called Iznik.

We were only supposed to stay one night then we had to make a move as time was drawing on and we had to be in Cyprus by the 31st ready for our friend Russ's wedding. The first night we spoke to a restaurant owner who said we could kip in his olive grove. As we were eating dinner in his restaurant a couple of guys pulled up outside to have a look at my bike. It turned out they had a motorcycle club there in Iznik and invited us for tea by the mariner that night. We went out to meet them and about a dozen blokes pulled up all of varying ages. They all seemed like really nice blokes and Levant, (the only one who could speak English) asked us if in the morning we would like to see some of the sights around Iznik. We kindly took him up on his offer. The next day Levant picked us up and we followed him to his mates place of work, where we all had tea, then he jumped on his bike and we went to another mate's garage where another one jumped on his and this went on and on. We motorcycled all over Iznik, seeing the Roman ruin's, riding up into the mountains and primarily drinking gallon's of tea. We were having a brilliant time and Levant insisted we stayed in Iznik another night. He is the manager of the rowing club down by the lake and said we could pitch our tents right on the lake in his club. The fresh lake water was beautifully warm and the sun was boiling. We rode up and down Iznik with no helmet just flip flops and shorts. Meeting more and more people. All extremely kind. One of them owned a print shop so we all rode over to his where he printed stickers of our names to stick on our bikes and Turkish flags. For dinner they took us all out to a Turkish restaurant with brilliant food and would not let us pay.


Left to right


Crazy FZR guy, Pataya guy, Mesmoot, Mr President, Levant
And the rest of the guy's we met up with later.

That night Mesmoot, decided to bring his accordion over to where we were camping and man can he play. The video's we recorded are brilliant and he was a very funny bloke.

The Iznik guy's were brilliant and we were sorry to leave them all. A truly great bunch of guy's.

Riding through Turkey was fantastic, even when we decided to hit a few motorways the scenery was great. Huge barren mountain's filled the landscape. Below are some pictures of the ride through Turkey.

To cut a very long and slightly mental story very short we rode through Turkey and down to the Southern Turkish coast which we followed all the way to Alanya. It just so happened that I spoke to one random guy on the beach after I had my dinner... he told me that he was studying in Cyprus and I remarked that I was going there the day after tomorrow. He then made a phone call and a few moments later said "nope, all ferries stop now for 6 days for the holiday's, the last one leaves tonight... you havent got long". We all rode like maniac's 153 km, sweeping through the mountain bends at night, many of which did not have barries and the drop was a bit cringy when thinking back over it. 
But we made it late at night and arrived in Cyprus. 


As for tonight, it is really late and yesterday I had food poising, im not feeling great and still recovering. Tomorrow is Russ's wedding so I have to get some sleep. It is boiling hot in here and the receptionist about 2 meters from me at the hotel im staying at is absoloutly pissed out of his head and I think it's all about to kick off so I will have to repost after the wedding tomorrow. 

Guns, Wet pants, Mud, Romania and a broken bike

So whats been going on!


It has been quite a while since I last posted so i'm going to have to try and fit the last few weeks into one big ass post. Here goes....


Divin, Slovakia


Rusty finally arrived in Divin a week after I had. The day after he arrived it absoloutly pissed it down with rain... so we jumped in his 4x4 and drove up into the mountains, I dont have the photographs at the moment but I will say one thing... he did nearly flip the car.


I told Rusty over the phone that I will wait for him under two conditions. 1. I get fed gulas and 2. we fire of loads of guns as it will be good training for when I get to Syria.


We drove over to pick up his mate Robo who is a lisenced gun and knife maker, meaning he can legally build a gun from scratch and sell it. He is the bollocks and his knifes that he makes are awesome. Anyway, he grabbed a load of guns and Rusty took his AK 47. We set of through the hills to a remote shooting range.


Most of the way I have been taking videos and am having trouble uploading so I will just be putting up a couple of photo's and the video's when I get home

I ended up shooting Rusty's AK, a winchester (which I loved), German Pistols, Czech pistols, Colt's, Cowboy revolver's, a WWII Russian infantry rifle (the one from enemy at the gate) and a ton of other's I cant remember, all I know is that I shot a ton of bullets all day and had a 'blast'!


These are the boys

After the ranges we went to see the owner. An old chap called Barney... now this guy... is a bad ass

Barney is a multiple Senior champion of Western Shooting. Meaning revolvers and cowboy guns etc. He travels the world for competition's and apparantly wins all of them. He has more medals and trophies in his house than we all shot bullets that day. There were plaques, medals, cabinets full of trophies from Italy, Germany, Slovakia just everywhere. He is quick. He is also a super nice dude. Didn't speak a word of english but saw me eying up these strange small axe's. They are traditional Slovakian shepherd sticks so they have a long thin oak staff with a small axe on the top and are used for protection. Barney had about 3 or four on his wall (along with about 30 Knives, swords and countless guns and believe it or not... cannon's)... So Barney pull's one down and hand's it to me... Rusty translates the word present. We only met a 15 minutes ago! I told him I would take it to Syria for protection....

In case your wondering about the groovy trousers, they're work trousers I was given to help chop down trees.


I had a great time in the tiny little village of Divin and met some great people. Ludka the next door neighbour insisted on cooking for me; breakfast and dinner. I would go for a chat with the women working in the village 'supermarket' although they didnt speak any English and we would all stand around one of the till's and one of them would pull of packet's of crisps from the shelves and we'd all be standing there eating them. When a customer would walk in they would get hidden and the giggling would commence. It was all kisses on the cheek when I was leaving and in a weird way I was sad to leave Divin. But of course I will be returning. 


Rusty is a very good friend of mine and I have spent a very long time with him in the past and we have worked together through some absolutely mental, strenuous, arduous months 6 days a week and he is a good man. He has decided to ride his BMW with his 9 year old daughter Tamara with me to Cyprus where another good mate of our's is getting married. Because of that I am more than happy to ride with him. We set of after two weeks in Divin to Hungry.


Onward!


Hungary


We have both been through Hungary before and so decided not to take our time. We went through the Hungarian planes and into Romania. 
We camped one night on an overgrown football pitch by the side of the road which was amusing.


Romania


I have been to a fair few countries. Over 23 in total, I never thought that I would fall in love with Romania... but I have.
It is beautiful and rugged at the same time. The people can be very kind, generous and giving. But Romania is very poor and some parts you can feel the poverty is hitting hard. 


I had two points that I wanted to visit in Romania. 
1. Transfargarasan
2. A lady called Monica


The first night of camping in Romania the sun set quicker than we anticipated so we found a top country club and managed to wangle it with the owner so that we could sleep in his customer's garage.... His facial expression when being confronted by a weird looking English guy on a dirty bike saying: "Do you mind if I put my tent up one of your garages mate?" was quite funny... "so you dont want to sleep in of the country club hotel rooms?" nahhhhh thats for ponses (but I didn't say that bit)

Me and Rusty both enjoy what we call wild camping. Translated to rough camping, by river's, lake's, forest's you know... out of the way where we can make fire and be men etc. So before we did the Transfargarasan road we went and did some serious off roading in the middle of no where and found a beautiful little river.

The water was perfectly crystal clear right to the bottom and parts of it were up to my shoulder's. It was such a hot day and we were drenched with sweat... as soon as we arrived we just dived in. Gear on and everything.
We set up camp by the river and made a fire. The fire is an amazing thing... as the South African's call it a Bushman's TV. It truly is, I can watch one for the entire night.

We set up camp just around the corner. In the background you can see the Transfargarasan mountain road, some of you may know it from Top Gear as apparently they drove the rode with some supercars.
Time for some wiki facts:


The Transfăgărășan is the most dramatic and second-highest paved road in Romania. the 90 km of twists and turns run north to south across the tallest sections of the SouthernCarpathians, between the highest peak in the country, Moldoveanu, and the second highest, Negoiu. 


The road climbs to 2,034 metres altitude. The most spectacular route is from the North. It is a winding road, dotted with steep hairpin turns, long S-curves, and sharp descents. The Transfăgărășan is both an attraction and a challenge for hikers, cyclists, drivers and motorcycle enthusiasts alike. Due to the topography, the average speed is around 40 km/h. The road also provides access to Bâlea Lake and Bâlea Waterfall.




The trans is only open for usually 2 months a year due to snow so there was no way I was going to miss that bad boy.


Needless to say... it was breathtaking

In the background of the below picture you can see one of Vlad the Impaler's castle's.
It was built as a punishment for the villagers for not being obedient enough to him. His men gathered all the strong men and children to lug the massive stones up the mountain. They were ordered to work until their clothes had fallen apart. All of the elderly were impaled (meaning a large spiked stick was pushed through their backside and came out of their neck whilst alive) and scattered around the village as warning. Hence his name.

After the mountain road we headed to Monica's moms house in a village called Lunguletu. Monica is a friend of Alissa's and had said she would love to have us all over.

Little did we know that Lunguletu was a type of farming village and the road we took to get there was absoloutly caked in dust. There were tractors moving at snails pace along it. The road was terrible and there were deep ditches peppered all over the road. Rusty decided to go first and I literally had to stop and wait ten minutes for him to go further ahead as the dust his rear wheel kicked up meant that my visibility was literally 4 footsteps ahead. I LOVED it, standing up on the footpegs, visor down, jacket zipped up, I teared along the bike performing well, jumping in and out of ditches. When we reached the village, I asked some truck dudes for direction's to Monica's... a kilometre up the road and their directions didn't work out.... hmmm, well let's just wait and the road will take care of us! 2 minutes later a girl on a moped turns up... doesn't speak English but motions us to follow her, 3 minutes later were outside Monica's house.

Monica and her family were unbelievably kind to us... we had our beds made, dinner, lunch, breakfast cooked and home made cherry alcohol. The back of Monica's garden leads to a gorgeous little fast flowing river where we spent about 3 hours on a rope swing jumping in with all the local kids. 

The next day Barney rings, and says he's in Bucarest, so we go and pick him up, have a mooch round the city and all ride back to stay at Monica's for another night. However.... this time.... it was pissing it down with rain..... 

We arrived at the dusty road which was by now mud. Barns says: "you up for it?" Now when Barns asks you a question like that.... you can either say no... and never live it down.... or you can pull your visor down, shout ONWARD, stand up on the pegs and ride into the unknown.....

At first the muddy track had stones and was easy to ride over... then it turned into a thick, gooey, unbelievably slippery, hellish mud. Now bear in mind none of us have off road tires fitted to our bikes. You could barely stand without slipping. I was leading and so was the first to go down...

Picked up the bike and carried on... but the mud just got ridiculous, when Barns and Rusty reached the  mud they soon both went down too. All in all, we must have all come off about 5 times each. With Tamara standing on the side as it was too dangerous for her on the back, Rusty decided to turn back and go on the normal road to Lunguletu with all of the other normal people. As one turned back we all did as it would be silly to split up incase someone came off and broke something. When we got back we had to clean the bikes incase the mud dried. It was pouring it down and Monica's mom wouldn't go inside, instead she stayed out helping and we all had a laugh!

After washing up, having a wonderful dinner we were ready to head off the next day... or so we thought.....

We got about an hour away and then Rusty's bike broke down. It wasn't sparking and one of the sensor's had gone... we had to get it to a BMW garage. Luckily he broke down outside a nice cheap Motel. My first motel of the trip! BMW came to pick up his bike and we found out that its going to take until Tuesday for the part to arrive.We have all moved our gear to a campsite closer to the garage and now were sticking it out there until then. Once the bike's back on the road were off to Bulgaria, Turkey and Cyprus for the wedding. After that we say our bye's and i'm going on to Syria and Iran (hopefully).

I have a ton of great video's, crazy riding through river's and on the mountain but will have to upload the lot back in the UK.

Much love

A few other pictures below: