Now we’re into the swing of this journey we have settled a routine. We’re on the bikes at 8am having had brekky if the hotel supplies it, normally consisting of white bread (lots), a couple of boiled eggs and sometimes some feta cheese – plus coffee (Turkish or Nescafe). Then we ride for a couple […]

I suppose one needs to be prepared for everything on a trip like this, but avoiding wandering cows on the roads for about three hundred kms yesterday was an experience. To be fair they are except for a few street wise cows, it is the exceptions that provide the challenge; and I thought cows were […]

Weather is pretty awful so stayed in a 15 million TL a night hotel. ( 15 NZ ) Alarm goes off at 6.15 and I can already hear some of the organised ones taking bags down the hall. Same pink riding socks on. merino tights. and two layers of merino on the top and a […]

We left Istanbul at 7am hopıng to avoıd the traffıc but ıt was stıll an adrenalıne rush takıng on the cars and buses and crossıng the faıth brıdge wıth more lanes than we could count. The tıcket booth didn’t gıve tıckets so we caused a huge traffıc jam and then another as we trıed to […]

The humour has become a lot more marginal since we have seen the girls working the motorway ‘pull offs’ for the truck drivers. This was as we left Serbia and came into Bulgaria. Also in Bulgaria we got a bit lost in a town as all the writing was in Cyrillic script so we managed […]

I have found two trolley bus systems in Bulgaria, and nearly fell off my bike at the sight as I’m a nut about them. Didn’t get a chance to do any serious watching or riding but they were the cleanest towns too. Bulgaria was a surprise once out of the stalin type towns with half […]

Borders are always good places to get an impression of a country and getting into Turkey does not make a good one. We have no less than 5 passport and carnet checks to go through, receive 4 stamps in our passports and take about an hour. Then we travel 10kms past a row of trucks […]

First impression – a standard of living well above those of the suffering people in the war-torn States to the West. Second impression – there is enterprise on the motorway. Highway Women stand beside the tarmac flashing their wares at trucks flashing past at 100 kph. Quickies in the cab are on the menu, going […]

Sitting in a coffee bar, the only half clean one in Lescovac, we are suddenly surrounded by a group of thugs and expect that we are about to taste the hospitality of the renowned “bullies of the Balkans”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Through the biceps strides an all-smiling dapper gentleman, hand outstretched […]

From Bosnıa-Herecgovına we pass through Montenegro and into Serbia. The people remain pretty poor, the living pretty much subsistence. The human sprit remains though and we are greeted virtually everywhere. Interest in the maps of our route that Dave had put on our panniers is immense and crowds gather at every coffee stop. In Lescovac […]