The gallery of my latest China visit is finally done. Some nice pictures from the start and end days of my motorbike trip to Tibet are available now in the China 2010 gallery. The Tibet pictures will get an own gallery soon.
Due the recent earthquake in the Kham area, we are forced to take another route to the "classic" Tibet provinces Ü and Tang. We will start in Xining and take the Qinghai route from Golmud to Nagqu over the northern Tibetan plateau before reaching the "classic" Tibet. The changed route is now a "Historic Tibet" tour, since the new trip leads mainly through current Tibet and the former Tibetian province of Amdo.
The motorbike tour from Chengdu to Lhasa will start in May 2010. Starting from Chengdu the route will follow the southern track of the Sichuan - Tibet Hwy. As the Lonely Planet China states, it "is one of the world's highest, roughest, most dangerous and most beautiful roads". This is followed by a tour through "classic" Tibet to the Mt. Everest basecamp and back to Lhasa.
2003: Turkey by Motorbike
In spring 2003 my girlfriend and I decided to visit Turkey with my motorbike. Our goal was a roundtrip through Turkey and to spend as much time as possible in Cappadokia. And of course to find interesting motorbike routes in the Taurus mountains :-).
In September/October 2003 we did it. In this time Turkey has an acceptable temperature for wearing heavy clothes and you can go even swimming in the sea in the southern parts of Turkey.
Since we had only 3 weeks vacation left, we wanted a relaxed and convenient way to go to Turkey. Therefore we decided to use the ferryboat from Marmara Lines to go from Ancona (Italy) to Cesme (Turkey). This was the only ferry that goes directly to Turkey. And it was a good decision - two and a half days of doing nothing. That was really relaxing after months of working.
The ship's crew even prepared all the necessary car and motorbike documents for the Turkish customs. Since we had no insurance for the asian part of Turkey, they told us to buy one in Turkey before we pass the customs. The ship's shop also sold a more detailed roadmap (1:400.000), which was a very good investment (we found out later that lots of cities and villages inside the country have been renamed). In Austria we have got only a map with 1:800.000.
Based on the ferry timetable the basic route was clear. From Cesme directly inside the country to Cappadokia, down to the Mediterranean Sea and along the coast back. If time runs out, we wanted to take the next fast road directly to Cesme.
Notes
The following sections provide my personal view on this trip.
The information in the title contains the daily travelled kilometers and the time it took for travelling including breaks, walks, sightseeing and sideroads.
Sometimes you can read of four or six lane streets. In the flat land the Turkish government makes some roads which are as big as European expressways, but the main difference is the quality of the asphalt. In Turkey most streets are gaveled roads, they add tar and another layer of gravel on top of it. Then they wait until the normal trucks press this construct to a normal street. Nevertheless you can drive 140km/h or more with any motorbike without any problem on most of this roads. I should mention that the speed limit in Turkey is 110km/h.
More pictures from this trip can be found in the corresponding photo gallery.
Detailed Trip Information
Below you find a detailed route map of this trip.
