Ride For Africa

We have the habit of planning our day each morning, where we want to stop, do some sightseeing or have lunch, or at least how far we want to get for this day.

But until now, we did not have ONCE the chance to follow through this plan. Not once, after riding 14 days through East Europe and Asia.

But, this is in fact good news! This is freedom and a prove that we are living it this moment. With no strict schedule we realize you have a much better chance to understand the culture and people of each country to visit. We just went with the flow and took what we got, which gave us moments realizing what this trip is about. It is not only about taking a nice turn in a beautiful coastal road, feeling the warm wind in your face, or overlooking a valley, full of different unique colours or exploring ancient castles, it is about connecting randomly with people you would never, never meet in your life, who live so different, who grow up so different and have different values but who share most certainly one thing with us: genuine interest in other people.

The hospitality we encountered in Turkey is unbeaten until now. Yes, Turkey has beautiful landscape and amazing historical sites, but what makes Turkey stand out is the hospitality of these people we must say. Maybe we were very lucky, but never mind – that is our experience. You will get to read some examples.

We took a short 20 minute ferry ride from Europe to Asia, just arriving 30 km North of Troy. Of course we could not miss the chance to visit the the ruins of Troy, which shows remarkable number of different layers and periods this city went through. On the other side it certainly appears much smaller than seen in movies made on the story of siege of Troy. During our visit we certainly got caught up by our most faithful companion rain again, so we had to take it easy on the road as these roads turn to skate rings when wet.

We continued South down the coast line of Turkey. Everywhere you could see mosques, they are in the smallest villages you can imagine. The mosques have all those really high, thin towers from where the muhezin calls his prayers five times a day, starting already somewhere at 4 a.m. These towers are seen after each corner you make. The only thing outnumbering mosques in Turkey are the national flags, sorry the most gigantic national flags. They have them even setup as stone sculptures on steep hills. No chance to miss that you are now in Turkey.

Our first full travel day in Turkey we ended up in a village at the coast close to Foca, where we had great dinner at the habour being the only western tourists here. Next day we decided to leave the coast line and head for the south coast of Turkey, direction Antalya, which is a popular tourist city.

When we passed the city Alasenir (know as the Tuskany of Turkey) we stopped randomly in front of a pharmacy shop to discuss where we should have lunch. Not a minute passed and the young shop owner came out and asked if we had any time and have some tea with him and his wife. We said yes and ended up having a great chat with them, finding out that both of them are pharmacist and moved back to their home town, but have been also travelling lots. After two cups of tea they realized we were looking for a place to have lunch and the next minute we were invited for Turkish lunch in a restaurant. We sure got a lot of attention from all locals, asking us many questions where we are from, where we are going and being served great local food. We also explained the reason why we are doing this trip which they very much appreciated. Metehan (the store owner) insisted in paying the food and his wife even insisted in giving us some free medication. We were overwhelmed by this kind of hospitality.

They recommend us to visit the hot springs of Pamukkale, which are renown since thousands of years. We were able to see the white chalk stone from 30km away when we ascended down to the valley. It is as white as fresh snow. With this extra stop in ancient Pamukkale, we realized we will not make it to Antalya and looked for a wild camp spot on top of the mountains we had to pass North of Antalya. We were lucky at 1700 meters above sea level, having a breathless view from our tent. Unfortunately the shepards dog did not like our attendants and barked for abour 1 hour infront of our tent. But luckily the sheppard did not care about us.

Next day we decided to just have a short ride and find a cheap beach hotel and get a rest day for the next day. We ended up in Side, a very old holiday city for Greeks and Romans, or the former “Las Vegas” with lots of ruins to see. After some bike maintenance and a swim on our rest day we continued along the coast line, being anxious about these beautiful roads, as we heard lots of them. Well, let us tell you. We did not get disappointed. Spectacular views combined with nice twisty roads. The heart of any rider would beat higher. In fact, we even felt a little sick with so many turns and ups and downs. Just brilliant.

We passed the city of Anamur and saw this amazing castle at the beach and just had to stop to explore it. Well, we found a camp site just beside it, so decided to make it again a short day and enjoy this scenery. After a swim in the waves of the ocean we explored this former well know Kosaren Castle, which was huge and still in amazing good shape. We camped just beside the castle, at the beach. Could not really get any better.

Next day, after a refreshing swim again in the ocean, we went further East along the coast. Views kept being one of a kind and the colour of the ocean changed in so many blues that we ran out of blue names very soon. We actually were planning to camp somewhere at the abandoned cliffs, but before realizing it, we hit again more populated and industrialized area. This was quite a shock after 2 days of tranquillity and empty roads and we realized, when all the traffic was rough and noisy, that we are getting closer to the Arab countries.

We decided to take the highway now, as there was not much to miss. And you would not believe it, got hit again by heavy rain. So we stopped at one of many petrol stations to wait out the rain. Of course we got again invited for coffee while sitting there and seeing some more riders coming in, seeking the dry. The riders where all from Turkey and avid enduro riders. We got to chat and found out that they were on their way to Jordan, just like us. After an hour of chatting they asked to join us for today to Antakya where the local bike club would be awaiting their arrival. Well, of course we joined. What a great choice this was! The club awaited us with food and drinks and we had a great evening talking to them and getting their help for accommodation. We decided to stay with our new Turkish friends Levent, Ahmed and Hasan for another day or two, just because we got along very well. We crossed the board to Syria and entered the first larger city Latikkia. The traffic was crazy. You don´t use your brakes, you just hunk the horn. Well, we got pretty fast used to it and in fact enjoyed this way of driving. We call it, “fill the gap, at any cost”!