Vaufi
Pack Dog
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2006
- Messages
- 223
- Reaction score
- 138
- Location
- Munich, the beer capital
- Bike
- BMW F700GS
Turkey 09/2023
Part 1
After an enjoyable trip around South Africa in April/May this year (Back to the Roots) there were still some open issues on my bucket list for Turkey. I had spent a couple of weeks in Turkey 2016 and done a lot of kms, but the higher mountain roads were at that time still deep under snow. I had left too early. Crossing the mountains from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea the road ha been literally cut through the snow fields, leaving 3 – 4 meter ice walls left and right.
Since Turkey is quite some distance from Munich I prefer to trailer my bike on motorways. In Bulgaria I could leave my microbus at the MotoCamp BG where travellers from all over the world come together.
Half-way stop just across the Romanian border, camping in the wild:
The second day wasn't quite as easy. The main route from central Europe to the Middle East goes through the southern province of Romania, mainly on secondary roads through small towns and villages. What a bore!
I was glad to finally arrive at the MotoCamp. As expected there were some bikers hanging around: A lady biker from New Zealand, two bikers from OZ, a guy from Alaska and a German. I stayed for a day before departing to Turkey. There were some nice curvy roads around and an interesting monument from Soviet times.
In the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain. The Soviets loved these gigantic monuments.
Next day saw me on the road to Turkey – not a day too soon. I donned my rain gear until the sun came out. The rest of my trip was beautiful sunshine. But where I had passed through had been drenched. South-Eastern Bulgaria, North-Eastern Greece and Western Turkey, including Istanbul, were flooded.
The coastal road along the Black Sea is rather boring. Mr. Erdogan believes in motorways, so all the beautiful curvy roads as in the past are rapidly vanishing.
The northernmost bridge across the Bosporus:
And in comparison the (probably) tiniest mosque I came across:
East of the town of Trabzon is a very scenic road into the mountains, listed on the web site “Dangerous Roads”, the D-915. I didn't think it was dangerous. Nothing, compared to the Sani Pass, but just as magnificent.
The first section to the mountain village Uzungöl is tarred. Nice to ride, but covered with advertisments for canyoning, rafting, zip-lines etc. The village is a tourist hotspot for the Turks, supposedly showing how the people used to live in the high mountains. But today it is just a collection of hundreds of kebab fastfood and souvenier shops.
Part 1
After an enjoyable trip around South Africa in April/May this year (Back to the Roots) there were still some open issues on my bucket list for Turkey. I had spent a couple of weeks in Turkey 2016 and done a lot of kms, but the higher mountain roads were at that time still deep under snow. I had left too early. Crossing the mountains from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea the road ha been literally cut through the snow fields, leaving 3 – 4 meter ice walls left and right.
Since Turkey is quite some distance from Munich I prefer to trailer my bike on motorways. In Bulgaria I could leave my microbus at the MotoCamp BG where travellers from all over the world come together.
Half-way stop just across the Romanian border, camping in the wild:
The second day wasn't quite as easy. The main route from central Europe to the Middle East goes through the southern province of Romania, mainly on secondary roads through small towns and villages. What a bore!
I was glad to finally arrive at the MotoCamp. As expected there were some bikers hanging around: A lady biker from New Zealand, two bikers from OZ, a guy from Alaska and a German. I stayed for a day before departing to Turkey. There were some nice curvy roads around and an interesting monument from Soviet times.
In the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain. The Soviets loved these gigantic monuments.
Next day saw me on the road to Turkey – not a day too soon. I donned my rain gear until the sun came out. The rest of my trip was beautiful sunshine. But where I had passed through had been drenched. South-Eastern Bulgaria, North-Eastern Greece and Western Turkey, including Istanbul, were flooded.
The coastal road along the Black Sea is rather boring. Mr. Erdogan believes in motorways, so all the beautiful curvy roads as in the past are rapidly vanishing.
The northernmost bridge across the Bosporus:
And in comparison the (probably) tiniest mosque I came across:
East of the town of Trabzon is a very scenic road into the mountains, listed on the web site “Dangerous Roads”, the D-915. I didn't think it was dangerous. Nothing, compared to the Sani Pass, but just as magnificent.
The first section to the mountain village Uzungöl is tarred. Nice to ride, but covered with advertisments for canyoning, rafting, zip-lines etc. The village is a tourist hotspot for the Turks, supposedly showing how the people used to live in the high mountains. But today it is just a collection of hundreds of kebab fastfood and souvenier shops.
