Our plan was to leave Nottingham on a Thursday evening, and ride to Hull to catch the ferry to Euro-port in Rotterdam, Holland. We arrived early for the boat and were first on, strapping the bike down on one of the five ferry crossings we were to make.  We were soon enjoying a meal on board as we departed at 21.30, we had decided to go club class, and as a result the complimentary mini-bar was well and truly used.

Waking in Holland at 0830 and getting straight onto the motorway, heading toward Germany. Our route through Holland was quite boring, A20 toward Utrecht, then the A12 to Arnhem, crossing into Germany near Beek. This day was going to be a bit of a bore, slab all the way. There were lots of road works on the Autobahns, and a lot of very fast cars catching us up real quickly. We sat at about 100 MPH and you would see headlights in the mirror, then the next thing you know, they are really close to the back of the bike, I mean REALLY close, you soon get used to the way the Germans drive, when they indicate to pull out, they WILL pull out. Traffic moves really well on the autobahn, but it was Friday afternoon, so there was a lot of traffic around. Our route was quite straight forward, A3 to Koln and toward Frankfurt, then Wurzburg and down past Nuremberg entering Munich from the north.

Into Munich at around 1830, past the BMW building and straight to the Auto-Zug terminal, rode the RT onto the train and strapped it down, then we had two hours to kill until the train and sleeper cars would collect us, so being late September in Munich, there was only one thing to do, go to the Oktoberfest….We headed for a local watering hole, and there were loads of "Muncheners" having a really good time, we joined in and had a few beers, not too many as a clear head is always needed when touring.  We were on the platform for 2130, and got on the train, and settled into our small berth. It had a couple of bunk beds, a small table, and a sink and running water in the corner. There was a couple of bottles of water and wine, and a bag of nuts placed out on the little table. We were soon asleep.   548 miles today

Arriving at the AutoZug car train in Munich. Ready to load and head off for Italy

Early next morning we heard a knock on the door, and outside we found two big cups of coffee, four bread rolls, and a selection of jams, meat pate's and honey. It was a well received breakfast, and I was soon knocking on the conductors door for a couple of coffee refills, she was OK about it, however I think it was not the normal thing to ask for more. The train arrived in Ancona, Italy the next morning, and after a bit of shuffling the bike was unloaded, they had done a good job of strapping the bike down, good job, as the train was not the smoothest ride in the world. It was only a short ride from the sidings and into the port of Ancona.

                                                                                             Here is the RT all strapped down as it arrives in Ancona, Italy

Waiting to board the ferry in Ancona, it was organized chaos. We arrived at the ferry terminal, and told them we were on the Superfast Ferry to Ingoumenitsa, we were directed to a berth and told to wait there. After nearly 3 hours, a large red Superfast Ferry sailed into view, and docked right over the other side of the port. We sat there and watched it and thought it must be another one. Anyway another hour went past, and curiosity got the better of me, so I wondered over to the ferry, and asked a crew member where the ferry was off too. "Ingoumenitsa", Oh right we were on the wrong berth, so I went back to Kathy and the bike, loaded up and rode across to the correct berth, passing the guy that had directed us to the wrong berth first off, and giving him THE LOOK.

 It was a sight to see the Italians and Greeks shouting and waving at each other. Any other nations and you would swear they were really shouting at each other, and were ready to start a fight…..

The ferry docked in Ingoumenitsa, on the west coast of Greece about 6.30 in the morning, we got on the road, and rode for an hour or so before stopping for a coffee. It was quite cold, and we were about 1000 metres above sea level, as all we had done since leaving the port was climb. The scenery was very dry and rocky, and the roads were showing the signs of heavy truck traffic, tarmac ripples everywhere, even an 18 wheeler on its side in a deep ravine. There is a massive construction scheme under way to build a motorway all the way to Thessaloniki, and every now and then you get onto a part of the finished motorway, the reason it is taking so long, seems to be the amount of tunnels that they are having to cut through the rock, and the Greek relaxed culture of not rushing.

Bypassing, Thessaloniki, we carried on east, and we got to Alexandropoulos for 5 that evening, just as the heavens opened, the Nefeli Hotel was excellent, people were really nice, good price and good food, if it was not for the rain, and we may have used the pool. 468 miles today

Monday morning, after a different Greek style breakfast we headed off to the Turkish border near Ipsala. We were waved through the Greek customs, and then passed the army control point, here you could see the Greek troops on the west of the river, and as you crossed the river, the Turkish troops were on the east side, always looking at each other.  In fact the humble soldiers seemed to get on with each other OK, suppose they were not too keen on being there…

Stopping at the Turkish checkpoint, we had to let them book the bikes number into their system, waved up towards another checkpoint. But we firstly turned off into a small shopping complex, as we needed to get some insurance for the bike. Walking into the building, we found the tourist office closed, well that was handy, so we asked about it next door, and without even looking up from his newspaper, the guy responded, “Tourist Closed” OOPS, we left him alone, looked around and saw a smart looking office, and this indeed was the insurance shop. €18 later we had a fancy certificate, so we thought this was going to be a breeze at the customs, WRONG!!

Getting back on the bike we continued into the crossing system, arrived at the next checkpoint, showed our passports and were told “Police” and a hand, loaded with a cigarette, pointed further up the line. So we rode up to the next checkpoint, pulled up at the window, looked in, and the guy got up and walked away to some offices.

 Ah, right, I suppose we now wait. And wait we did, he waddled back about 20 minutes later, looked at our passports, and pointed to some offices adjacent to the line, and again “Police” was muttered, he waved that we moved the bike through the checkpoint and park it up.

So we get off the bike and enter a nice new office block, we see a nice sign, in English, “Customs”, so we follow it, we then see a cash office and a counter, with a sign “Customs Formalities” Great this MUST be the place. So after waiting 30 mins, the very irate guy with the PC books in various truck drivers, and then he looks at Kathy and I, and says something in Turkish, I sheepishly reply “VISA”. “Visa” he booms “CASH” and points at the cash office, well of course, how dumb of me!!! Into the cash office, hand over the passports, pay €30 and we receive a sticker each, and again we hear “POLICE”

Outside we head back to the last checkpoint we had been to, get in the line, wait 10 minutes, get to the window, hand over the passports, and the finger comes out, points back down the line to the very first checkpoint, and “Police” booms out of the little window………

We trudge back to the first checkpoint, pass the passports, they get stamped (Hurrah), cigarette loaded finger comes out points up the line and yes you’ve guessed it “POLICE” Back up to the second checkpoint, pass him the passports, and give him the bike log book, as he needs this to enter the bike details onto my passport, so that when I leave Turkey, I have to have the bike with me. He stamps my passport, and I wait on his every breath, the passport is closed shut, passed out of the window, then the finger follows, and points to a fat guy, sat on a bench, in the middle of the area, and “POLICE” is grunted at me!!!  So now we walk over to this bench, where this guy is sat with his pals, looks at me as if I am interrupting his Sunday Lunch, and utters something in Turkish, I just give him the passport, he looks at the stamp his mate has done, and squiggles over it, and says with some warmth, it must be said, “Welcome to Turkey” and points down the road to the final checkpoint. We ride through the final checkpoint, where a note of our bike number is made, and ride out onto the main road, and under the sign “Welcome to Turkey”

Crossing the Bospherous in Istanbul and as the sign says "Welcome to Asia" Well for the traveller it should read, “Welcome to a DIFFERENT place, to Ride”

No kidding, it was bad, I have never experienced such madness, even coming over from Italy, and then Greece, where the driving is different, well Istanbul, takes the trophy. It is just that it is head on, all the time, there are cars coming at you from all angles, even trucks, they will undertake you, and even a three lane highway, will have four lines of traffic. The other thing you soon notice is people just standing beside the highway, waiting for the Dolmus. These are small buses that have a set route, but will stop anywhere for passengers, I mean anywhere. People just flag one down, so no matter what lane the bus is in, if it sees a potential fare, it will get to him, no matter what lane the bus is in.

After a while, you adjust to the level of driving, you have to otherwise you would make no progress, take the bull by the horns. Having the helmet front flipped open was good for improving peripheral vision, as they were coming at us from all sides.

First night in Turkey and we made it to our planned stop, which was Abant. We made it from Istanbul on the TEM, the Turkish toll motorway, the price was very cheap, again this is still under construction, so we had to soon turn of it near Bolu, then we followed a 25 mile section of very bad road, that climbs up into the hills. As we turned off, and paid at the toll booth, there were very young children selling small boxes of sweets, and various items. It looked really dangerous around all the trucks, we were accosted by one young lad, he was so quick, he had grabbed the throttle and revved the bike, we were at a red light, so no harm done, it brought a big smile to his little face. The area is a little like the Alps, high up, with large forests, quite cool, and as we found out, lots of fog. We were riding along, dodging the trucks; I saw we were approaching a fog bank, all the locals put on their hazard warning lights, I suppose it is their ways of letting people know they are there. Mileage today 368

Tuesday morning and we leave Abant and descend from the hills and onto a large plain, we then start to climb onto the Central Anatolian Plateau, a large and semiarid plateau, which is rimmed by hills and mountains. This area is the heart of the country, and there are all kinds of crops grown here. It was a lot warmer here and very dusty, there were large dust clouds, and the dust is very fine and yellow in colour. The main road is a 4 lane highway, and was not too bad to ride on, however you could not let your guard down, as large pot-holes were common.

The roads were heavy with trucks, these trucks were seriously overloaded, they had just kept piling the goods onward and upward, a lot of the drivers could not see any traffic behind them as their mirrors were blocked by the cargo. So they would just pull out on you, so reading the road ahead in time, was essential. We saw many trucks broke down, from simple punctures to major repairs, we even saw an old Ford truck, and the guy was dragging the sump out from under the truck, no kidding, serious repairs, and this was still on the main road.

This picture is of a truck that has just lost the whole wheel and hub off the truck, which then caught fire.

Now can you see what we mean about the drivers, this is the main road, all the vehicles are going the same way, the taxi is going Kamikaze as there is a truck coming toward him, here I just backed off, and let them do their own thing.

The bike, made it to Urgup, even though some of the roads were mere dust tracks. Bike has a rest, so we take the panniers and top-box off, to do a bit of exploring in the region. We stayed at the http://www.urgupevi.com.tr/ Urgup Evi Cave Hotel, apart from the steep hill up to the hotel, it was perfect. The views were excellent and the people were so friendly. The bath was massive, so we both had a good soak that evening.

Our unique Cave Room in Urgup. It is a room that has been carved out of the soft volcanic rock. Very cool in the summer, and very quiet. This area of Turkey is called Cappodochia, and it is famous for the unique "Fairy Chimneys"

Kathy, after a hard days riding from Abant, and onto the Central Anatolian Plain. Showered and changed, and awaiting a lovely dinner. This was just outside our cave room.

Here we are at a nice view point, only 2 Turkish Lira each to enter. As with most of the sights there is an entrance fee. It was worth it though, some excellent views.

Of course, then there are the stall holders, selling all kinds of trinkets, boy do these blokes know how to barter. A few interesting items for sale.

This is Goreme Open Air Museum, full of churches that are actually carved into the inside of these hills, awesome.

To give you some idea of the size of these structures, look at the coaches in the lower right of the picture.

Riding through the Chimneys out toward Goreme, this was the good thing about being on our own bike. We just went where we wanted, the country is so safe, and we just left all our gear resting on the bike.

One of the worse roads, dusty old dirt tracks, and this house had been empty for a few years. But it was great to be able to ride where we wanted, not like all the tourists that were mostly crammed into coaches. We actually went behind the scenes of all the tourist areas, and we saw what life was like for the real Turkish people, how they lived, what they thought and what a proud people they are.

Now this is where you start to see all the different layers from the volcanoes, and they have eroded away at different rates. The harder molten rock, which is also darker, is on top of the softer tuff stone.

Again a quick view of the better roads in the area, brilliant scenery though, in the distance, you can just make out the hill where our hotel is cut into

the hill side.

The classic Fairy Chimney Shot, and we did not even pay for parking, great, there are so few big bikes out here that they don’t charge you for parking.

Roadside fruit and veg stalls were everywhere, I mean, do you want to buy a large cabbage????

Back on the move again, after two days at Urgup, we are heading south, down towards the Mediterranean Coast. Our plan is to ride from Urgup down to Alanya. Along the south coast line, the roads remind me of the south of France, the area is exactly like it, but the roads are a bit rough. All along the coast we encounter lots of military bases, no pictures allowed, armed guards at he barriers, they are friendly enough though, most troops waved, like I say, a large bike over here attracts a lot of attention. As we climb another large hill, we get a great view of the north coast of Cyprus. Now we know why the military presence is so heavy here. I did not realize that it was so close, you can easily see the hills around Kyrenia, it was so clear. We also saw a massive thunderstorm out to sea, and we were hoping it stayed out there.

Here on the coast, we stop for a drink of Gatorade, as it is really warm now. Kathy checks out the local WC, and decides against it, saying, “I can hold on for a little longer”

This guy had wimped out, there was loads of room on his truck yet.

Well the roads are getting some tarmac left on them. This is typical, the trucks are so heavy, and they are shrugging the tarmac up, like a carpet, the straights are great, but the corners, well judge for yourself

Mammure Castle on the south coast, known to the locals as Marble Castle, built over a Byzantine Fort, the castle was occupied by the crusaders. It is now used in many movies. When we arrived it was empty, again 2 Turkish Lira to enter, but what a site, it is massive.

It has a small moat around the land side of it, and in here we saw loads of young turtles.

That night we stayed at the 5 star Diner hotel, $100 for a suite, dinner bed and breakfast, which was not too bad. Full of package holiday makers, German, Russian and Dutch, they were all over the bike, and could not believe we had ridden from England. In the night there was a massive thunderstorm, and as you can see, I am glad we managed to get the bike under cover that night. Mileage from Urgup to Alanya was 389.

Next morning we were off along the Mediterranean coast heading west, our plan was to get across to Cirali, a small village, south of Antalya and in the Olympos National Park. Here is a pic of the bike being refuelled, what happens is, as you ride up to the pump, they enter the bike registration number into a key pad, not sure where this info goes, however after a slight pause, the lads fill the bike for you, they even offer to wash the screen. Fuel prices were about 2.80-2.92 Turkish Lira per litre, so that was roughly the same as here in the UK. That was one thing that struck me about Turkey, Petrol Stations, I have never seen so many, and there were so many news ones being built.

Along the road to Antalya we saw the sign for Aspendos, and turned off the main road and headed north. It was once the most easternmost city of the kingdom of Pergamum. In Roman times it was an important trading centre. The perfectly preserved Roman amphitheatre is now the main attraction, it was built around AD164 by the architect Zeno. The structure is enclosed by a stage building that once had a timber canopy. It can seat around 12,000, was maintained by the Seljuk’s and traces of 13-century paint can still be found on the main stage building.

Looking from the seating arena, to what used to be the main stage and changing room, the intricate carving are excellent, and seeing it you can’t believe it is 1844 years old.

Passing one of the many old Jawa CZ looking type of bikes, there were hundreds of these in Turkey. Lots of them had wooden side board runners. It was common to see 3-4 people on them, you could see them miles away, as they billowed out loads of two stroke smoke.

ARRGGHHH!! tourists on mopeds, they were all along the south coast, as you can see, ATGATT does NOT apply here, the girl on the back can only just stay awake. All along the south coast, as you can see in the background, new complexes and hotels are shooting up everywhere. But it is strange though, because a lot of them are not completed, some are just left partially built, I think it may be a sign of the boom and bust tourist industry. I was speaking to a hotel owner, and he was saying there is an awful lot of money coming in from Russia, he did mention Russian mafia as well. Now that would be a hotel where you would pay your bill!!

The RT at Aspendos. It is great, I tell you, at all the tourist attractions someone will come up to you, fire off a barrage of different languages at you, and wait for a reaction from you, they will then talk to you, normally with us it was “Nice motorbike” and then ask if you want a guide, or if you want to visit his brothers restaurant in the local area. Very sharp people, but as for a lot of them, as it is their main income, I suppose they have to be.

The lovely Hotel Canada at Cirali, run by Saban and Carrie Akkelle. www.canadahotel.net  The hotel was off the main D400 road, and it is situated in a steep sided valley that leads down to the sea. Saban has built the hotel himself, and even the lovely pool. The garden was full of lovely fruit trees, and it offered some welcome shade from the powerful sun.

Only 150 miles today, including riding around the outskirts on Antalya, the city was very large, and I did not want to get stuck in the traffic with all the heat. So with the limited GPS data we had, we managed to get around it.

This tree does not get much bother from the local animals.

We had our meals outside under the terrace, in the evening it was still quite warm. The hotel was very quiet, there was only two other people staying there. Saban said he had a group from Israel coming that weekend. I had forgotten it was Friday, in fact time seem to have evaded me totally.  It was that nice vacation feeling you get, when you don’t know what day it is, and more importantly, you don’t care.

Outside the restaurant, we washed the RT today, it was absolutely filthy, took the panniers and top-box off and gave it a good wash. Also topped up the engine oil. 250ML.

This was one surprise I did not expect in Turkey, as well as petrol stations everywhere, there is also so much water. You think it would be a dry land, but everywhere you go there is an abundance of water. As you ride along the roads you always see public water areas. Here in Cirali, there is a water trough, that runs form the mountains all the way down to the sea. This picture was taken in the evening outside the hotel, and as you can see, people just pump off what water they need, be it for gardens, fields, animals or orchards.

Kathy, waiting for the evening meal. The food was excellent, all local produce, a lot of salads and cheese; in fact we even had cheese in our soup! The food also had quite a lot of olive oil in it as well; we were later to find out, that our soft, gentle western stomachs could not quite cope with too much olive oil

And it is me, also waiting for some food in the evening. We had a few beers, however due to the days riding we kept it to one beer normally, nothing worse than riding when you are not quite 100%. In the evening we rode some 4 kms toward Olimpos, and then we climbed up 300 metres up to a craggy outcrop of volcanic rocks to see the Chimera. This is where escaping natural gas is permanently alight. The flame is known locally as Yanartas. In ancient times the fire was guided upward to light a beacon to act as a lighthouse. Legend has it, the local hero Bellerphon, on his winged horse, Pegasus, killed the three headed Chimera by pouring molten lead into the monster’s mouth.

Next day Sunday 1 Oct, our plan was to ride to Selcuk, to see Ephesus.

To get to Selcuk we had to follow the coast and then past the Mamaris area, which is really packed with hotels and tourists.

We rode through a massive amount of swallows, there were hundreds of them, flitting along the coast rode, and missing our heads by inches. I have never seen so many swallows in my life.

We then climbed a 1000 metres up onto a plain, and we could see right up the Datca  Pennisula.

Here is a shot on top of the plain, looking south east onto the road we had just came down on.

EPHESUS

This is known as one of the greatest ruined cities in the world. A Greek city was first built here in about 1000BC and it soon rose to fame as a centre of worship of Cybele, the Anatolian Mother Goddess. The city we see today was founded in the 4^th Century BC by Alexander the Great’s successor, Lysinachus. The Romans made Ephesus the major port on the Aegean, most of what you now see remains from this period.

When we arrived it was 5 in the afternoon, it was cooling of a little (30C) and the tourist coaches were few and far between, we parked up under the shade of some trees, right next to two UK registered Yamaha Tenere's, it looks like they were off on a good adventure, like ourselves.

The theatre, carved into the the side of Mount Pion during the Hellenistic period. It was later renovated by the Romans.

The main road out of the city.

Looking up the hill towards the Gate of Hercules

The stunning Library of Celsus, built AD114-117, I can tell you, the photo’s will never do this place any justice, you have to see it to believe it. We waited until the sun had gone down a little to try and get some of the lovely colours of the Library

Looking up at the two story facade of the Library of Celsus

Here you can see where the wheels from the carts have worn a groove into the marble street. Amazingly, if you measure the distance between the tracks, it is 4ft 81/2 inches, the same size as the standard railway gauge on most of the world’s trains.

After Ephesus, we headed into Selcuk to look around for a hotel, we ended up at the Hitit Hotel, cheap and cheerful and very helpful staff. They arranged for me to put the RT down inside a locked room, and gave me the only key.

Mileage today was 323.

Monday 2^nd Oct, and today we were suppose to have a relaxing ride, we knew we had to cross from the mainland at Canakkale to the Gelibouli Pennisula (Gallipoli). We made good time to Canakkale, and boarded the ferry to cross over the Dardanelles Straights; it was only about £ 1.75 (5 YTL) for us and the bike. The crossing was ½ hr and the traffic on the water was like on the motorway, but with a little more order. We had a chuckle whilst in Canakkale, as we were at a junction, waiting for a green light, a POLIS car pulled up along side us and gave us a smile, then the driver shouted at a young lad in a hot hatchback at the front of the queue to turn his booming music down, well the lad did. I don’t think that would happen in most of the big cities I have been too recently.

Here's George having a toasted sandwich, readily available at most service stations, that was our light lunch meal most days, that and lots of fluids. It was nice to get into the cool shade and have a quick lunch stop.

Because we were not in the normal tourist areas, English was not readily spoken, so it was a matter of going inside and pointing at things, as you can see we did not go hungry, and I did not waste away. The people were always smiling and helpful, well after all we were there spending money. We did meet a few gruff people, but hey, we all have our bad days.

Crossing the Dardanelles Straights to the Gallibouli (Gallipoli) Pennisula. We called in on some of the various war memorials to the ANZAC, French and British troops of WWI.

Like I said, we were making excellent time, so we decided to carry on to the border, and back into Greece. We entered the Turkish border crossing, with thoughts of the fiasco we had earlier in the week, but we had to show our passports, they checked the bike number and we were waved on our way, with a hearty “See you next year” and a big smile.

We were shocked when we entered the border crossing into Greece, as there was only one route in, and it went straight into what looked like a large car wash, and a big sign, “All vehicles to be de-contaminated with spray” Bugger this I thought, and I was going to gun the bike through the wash, however when the car in front passed through without a wash, I realized all would be OK. The Greek Police and customs welcomed us back OK, and we were soon on a good motorway to Alexandropoulos, and another night at the Nefeli Hotel. Mileage today was 373.

Kathy in the morning at the Nefeli Hotel, ready for a ride across Greece to Ingoumenitsa.

The trip across Greece was quick enough, most of it was motorway to Thessaloniki, and from there it was over the mountain range, where most of the motorway is still under construction. Here we are catching up to a couple of the many trucks that use this road. The roads were quite fun, as long as the surface held up OK.

Here we are at the docks in Ingoumenitsa, the port police were kept very busy by the young men trying to make it onto the ferry to get to Italy. They stood out a mile though, no luggage, old clothes and looking very apprehensive, in some way you have to feel for them though, trying to better there lives.

As the sun went down, we were swarmed by thousands of mosquitoes, so we did the ATGATT (all that gear all the time) trick,

Kathy still got bit.

I too, took refuge. Today we did 425 miles

Arriving in Ancona, Italy on Wed 4 Oct, we headed straight up the Autostrada all the way to the Brenner Pass, over the mountains and into Austria. When we docked in the morning it was 30C, and by the time we got to Austria, the Ice warning alert was on, and in the rain, it was 1.5C, phew, what a drop in temperature. The auto strada was expensive as well, €30.20, and that is for a motorbike. Then when we got to the Austrian border, we had to pay to use the Brenner Pass, another €8, AND when we entered Austria, we had to buy a 10 day Vignette (pass) for their roads, €4.30, starting to add up this is!!!!

We got off the motorway and turned into Innsbruck, in rush hour, in the rain, looking for a hotel. I punched into the GPS for a local hotel, and it came back with, Hotel Mozart, and we followed the route straight there. We were given a locked garage for the RT, and all our wet gear was put in the drying room. We had an excellent Italian meal that night, straight across the road from the hotel.      380 miles today

You can see the yellow Vignette on the screen of the RT.

Because we had arrived in darkness, when we awoke in the morning and looked out side, we were shocked to see snow on the hills, we did not realize how high Innsbruck was. No wonder we thought it was cold, it bloody WAS!

Thursday morning, well today we could ride where we wanted, as long as it was north. We got on the motorway and headed west, then north toward Garmisch, and Germany. The road was full of bikes coming south, it was also full of police and there radar guns, we saw quite a few bikers pulled over for speeding, so this had the desired effect on me. We bypassed Munich and headed for Löhne, I wanted to see where I used to live when I was a teenager. My father served in the British Army, and our last posting abroad was to Löhne, near Herford. Now it has been 30 years since I had lived there, but I still managed to find the same block of flats, it took me a while because when we lived there, there were no trees, and now the place is full of them. So this picture is for Cathy, Mike, Pete and Robin, can you remember these flats?

Here’s Kathy, keeping her chin up as we wait to board the ferry from Rotterdam to Hull. 357 miles today

We docked at 0730 on Saturday 7 October, we got back to Nottingham at 0930 am.

All in all the trip went exactly as to plan, we did about 5,100 miles, and the bike ran great. It used ½ litre of engine oil, the Conti Road Attack tyres excelled, even on the dirt track roads of central Turkey. They have squared off a bit, but still have about 3mm of tread, front and rear. The bike has a few stone chips on it, and it has had two extensive washes since its return. It is now due an 18,000 mile, and she deserves it. Kathy could not believe how smooth the bike was, talking to her about the trip, she says there was never a day when she got off the bike and thought that was hard work. Also the next day, how much she was looking forward to the day’s journey.

The RT was an excellent bike for the trip, no doubt, a GS may have been better on some of the dirt tracks and rough roads, but the RT is the tool for the high speed, continuous motorway routes, and the great weather protection. The engine was unbelievable, from 1^st gear switch backs on very badly surfaced Turkish roads, fully loaded, to quick acceleration bursts to get out of the way on the German autobahns. The headlights were very impressive, the Piaa bulbs kicked out some serious white light, carving the way through the dusky evening rides.

The new TouraTech rider’s seat excelled itself, firm but comfortable would be my description of it, and with the OEM heating it was god send in Austria.

Now the only thing we have to do is WHAT NEXT??

Take care

George and Kathy, may post some more pictures at www.rtrider.co.uk