Coming Home

Life was good back then

Life was a lot easier before we had to have all the specific gear for our chosen sports. I found this photo on the wall of my hotel in Söll Austria, the town in which Maggie and I lived for a winter way back in 1982.

Muñeca on Hohe Salve mountain above Söll

Coming back to Austria for the first time in over 40 years was like coming home for me and I even met up with a few friends from those days of yore.

Making Hay

It is incredible to see that hay making on the steep mountain slopes is still done partially by hand with the grass on the very steep sections being cut by scythe. The smell of the fresh cut grass while hiking around these mountains was intoxicating.

Red Bull Romaniacs

Before arriving in Austria I spent a week with my brother and a couple other South Africans watching the Red Bull Romaniacs offroad race in Romania. It is amazing to see the world's top riders competing in what is considered to be the toughest dirt bike race on the planet.

Exhausting!

Prologue in Sibiu

Ferocious bears 

While driving between spectator points in the mountains we came across this sign warning us about the vicious European brown bears.

Terrifying

This beast obviously did not get the memo about baring his murderous fangs when tourists come around the corner.

The Eiger

From Austria I rode through Switzerland with a stop in Grindelwald and a hike in the shadow of the north face of the Eiger. What is known as the Jungfrau region is absolutely magnificent. With gondolas and cogged railways running up the mountains it is easy to reach the hanging glaciers before a leisurely hike back downhill with stop at a picturesque alm for a tea on the way.

I am now in Grenoble France, staying with my friends Alan and Fay with my moto safely stored in their shed where it will remain for another year before being released for another adventure.

Looking forward to getting home to Colorado to see family and friends tomorrow

Vlad the Impaler

Vlad III of Transylvania

 Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia in present day Romania earned the nickname "Impaler" for his preferred method of dispatching his enemies and anyone he found to be tiresome. Vlad was the real life character that inspired Bram Stoker to create Dracula who in comparison was a veritable saint. 

If done right the impaled could live for up to 48 hours whilst Vlad had supper as he watched.

Now Vlad who had a few wives, at least one of which jumped off the castle balcony, decided to take Katarina of Brasov as a lover. Imagine how the conversation went with Katarina's father :- So Vlad what is your intention with my daughter? Well actually Mr Katarina's Dad it is to Imp....

Anyway enough of the history lesson.

Bram Castle

Bram Castle in Transylvania is where our arch villain Dracula supposedly hung out.

Peles Castle

A much more interesting castle in the same area is Peles Castle which was built for King Carol I.

Brasov

I found the town of Brasov in the same region of Transylvania to be absolutely enchanting and ended up spending five nights there.

Zip Line

Just outside the city of Brasov is a large natural area leading up the Seven Ladders Canyon. The three kilometers back through the forest can be a whole lot of fun when you take the zip line. In fact it is a series of 36 different zip lines that very often transition from one to the next way up on a platform perched in the top of a fir tree. With nobody to help fixing the pulley to the line you have to make sure you get it right which causes a bit of anxiety for the first couple.

High mountain Shepherd

Way above treeline there were large flocks of sheep which were always attended by a shepherd and a pack of dogs that would come charging at me as I passed.

A friendly dog ( I think)

Endless trails

Incredible riding

I have got to say that Romania has provided for some of the best riding that I have had on this trip with narrow farm tracks that are up in the tundra before plunging back down into the thick forests.

Hobbit House

And how about my own little Hobbit house to spend the night in. It was leaning at such an angle that my neighbors commented that it looked like it was on a side stand.

Transfagarasan Highway

And of course no trip to Romania would be complete without a ride on the Transfagarasan Highway. Built during the 1970s by the communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu this was considered a strategic military road should the country be invaded by the USSR.

Lost and Found

Riding Jacket

What is my riding jacket doing sitting in the middle of a grassy trail in Bulgaria you may ask. Well it is a long story that reminds me a bit of what happens when you play a Country Song in reverse - You get your house back, you get your pickup truck back and inevitably your girlfriend too.

After having come from Turkey and spent way too much time on good paved roads it was time to get back onto some fun dirt but I had not completely anticipated what havoc the recent heavy rains had caused.

Washed out

After a steep climb that took nearly an hour on what looked like a washed out river bed but was in fact a road, I came out on a ridge. From there it looked like the trail was a little flatter as it moved back into forest, but as it became less defined and muddier and slipperyer (
 is that a word ) my struggles really began.

With the temperature and humidity in the forest were way up there and after numerous "offs" the trail kinda faded out. Picking up a fully loaded moto in muddy conditions often entails removing the panniers to reduce the weight but after doing this many times I was rapidly running out of energy. I decided to turn around and find another way out of the area. This is what I found

My kinda trail

Back down into the valley after 20 km of riding on tracks like the picture above restored my spirits a little but as I came into the town of Varshets my engine did a huge backfire and quit on me. Luckily this was right outside a very much communist era hotel that I checked into after filling out a long form for international guests. Getting my muddy bags off the bike and into the hotel I discovered that somehow my riding jacket was no longer strapped to the side of one of the bags. These jackets are used not only for protection against the elements but also for protection in case of a fall and are not an inexpensive piece of equipment. I was not happy - hot, tired, mud covered, leg cramps from dehydration, no jacket and a motorcycle that in my mind was now F***ed.

Sunflowers

There is always something to cheer me up and thinking back on the day there was a lot of good riding and some amazing sights like the fields of sunflowers that are cultivated throughout this region. Once in a better mood I started to research online into the possible cause of my bike problem. I came upon a forum with an obscure post from about two years before where a rider had what seemed to be a similar problem where the rubber engine intake had become loose, taken in air, and blew off the throttle body when it backfired. 

The next morning early I was up and had the bike apart and put back together before breakfast and had it running like a charm. I then looked back on photos from the day before and could see at what point I still had my jacket on the bike. I rode back about and hour and a half to the point in the forest where it got really slippery and then walked for about twenty minutes and there it was in the middle of the grassy trail !!  And so back to the start of the country music song.

Wow

The next day on the road to the Romanian border I came across this signpost. It seemed like drastic measures to ensure that you stopped at the traffic light. 

I crossed into Romania using the bridge across the Danube at Vidin and then followed the river through a very fertile flood-plain the the capital Bucharest.

The city was known as the Paris of the east before the communist times and there are some magnificent buildings in the old town but these gives way to wide boulevards and ugly apartment blocks. Vast areas of the city were flattened on orders of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and characterless buildings like the 1000 room parliament building, that I will be visiting this afternoon, were erected.

Name change -Türkiye

Göreme in Cappadocia

 This is the sight that greeted me as the sun came up in Göreme in the Cappadocia region of Türkiye, formally known as Turkey. This name change was accepted by the United Nation at the beginning of June.

The Cappadocia region is known for it's fascinating rock formations with churches and cave dwellings cut into the solid volcanic tuff.

Early apartment block

From my hotel rooftop

Oleander

I travelled through a large section of central Türkiye on back roads that seemed to be lined with magnificent flowers like these oleander bushes.

Fields of purple flowers between fields of wheat were a feature in the less mountainous areas in the east of the country.

Stone Road

What would a motorcycle story be without at least a mention of a dangerous road. Not just any dangerous road but " The world's most dangerous road " according to the BBC. Near the town of Kemaliye, Karanlik ( meaning dark in Turkish ) Canyon has been carved out by the Euphrates river. The road was cut through the rock by hand and took the local townspeople 132 years to complete. The numerous tunnels are named for the workers who died building the road.

Thank you Kaya Özgen

A fun ride but I would argue the point about it being so dangerous, especially as the road surface, although dirt, was not that rough. At one point there was even a guardrail, which should definitely be removed.

Ian and Aneta

Leaving the mountains I dropped back to the hot mediterranean coast and what a surprise to find that my cousin Ian and his girlfriend Aneta were on vacation in the town of Alanya just a day's ride from where I was. We had a grand reunion and more than a few cocktails were downed.

I will keep the KTM

The Alley Sweeper of Mardin

This patient old soul was found with his master sweeping the back alleys of Mardin, Turkey, an ancient town perched on the side of a rocky cliff overlooking the plains of Mesopotamia. 

The indignity of the Leave No Trace policy

As you can probably tell I did decide against going further east even though I could have air- freighted my motorcycle from Georgia to Kazakhstan but the cost did not really warrant it.

Armenia

3Gs Campsite

I spent two days relaxing at this campsite owned by a dutch couple in the hills above Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. I was a little reluctant to visit the capital as I had heard that, although an old city the "old" had been taken out of it over many years by Soviet central planning.

However I found the city to be a delight.

The Pink City

Known as the Pink City as many of the buildings are built with a pink colored volcanic rock

It is a city of parks and a lot of wide open plazas and wide shopping boulevards. Yes it does not have an intimate old town feel but it does have a wonderful feeling of openness and light.

Botero Statue

There seems to be a statue at every turn and this one by Colombian sculptor Botero characterized the "voluptuous" nature of the city.

Noravank Monastery

The country of Armenia, being a deeply Christian religious country has an abundance of monasteries found on the top of mountains, in deep canyons ( like this one at Noravank) and in any other out of the way place. Maybe this allowed the monks solitude away from temptations of the flesh. Until the tourists came along ........

I complied

Caves of Goris

The furthest east I am going to get on this trip was the town of Goris, renowned for it's caves, many of which were occupied until the mid 20th century.

Poppy Fields

On my way back through the countryside of Armenia the poppies were in full bloom. I am not sure if these are cultivated fields for " commercial" production or if they appear in fields that have been left dormant.

Alexandrapol Hotel

My last night in Armenia was spent in the Alexandrapol Hotel in Gyumri. What an amazing place recalling an age of elegance. Although it feels like it was built in Tsarist times it was only built sometime after 1988 as most of this city was destroyed by an earthquake which killed 60,000 people in the region.

Back to Turkey via Georgia

Thank you Google maps

I had a day of two border crossings from Armenia to Georgia and then from Georgia to Turkey via the Aktas Sinir Kapisi border crossing. Cutting across the corner of Georgia Google maps gave me two options. I chose the shorter one that took longer hoping to find roads more to my liking. I sure did!! Winding through farmers' fields and backyards I arrived at the border with a good splattering of cow poop on my moto.

Turkiye

Talat

The Turkish people are known for their abounding hospitality. I stopped in a little cay ( tea ) shop to avoid getting drenched in a thunderstorm and after a couple of glasses of tea and a toasted sandwich this man, Talat, refused to let me pay - such kindness.

Budding entrepreneurs

These teenagers had been put in charge of a tea shop on a slow Sunday afternoon and I happened to stop in to ( once again ) get out of a thunderstorm. What a delightful hour I spent being entertained by the banter between these 14 year olds. They made me tea and a sandwich and I expect made up the prices as they went along.

Requested photo

Somebody requested that I post a mug shot of myself to prove that I am not a robot making up this blog. Here it is! Unluckily the editing software failed miserably with not allowing for wrinkle removal.