Up early we got stuck into packing as quick as we could. I was not sure how long this leg would take. OK it was only coming out at 200 ish miles on the map but I had learnt from experience not to use miles to judge the time in the saddle.
We had a box of eggs left over and rather than waste them I offered them to an elderly couple who had come in late yesterday. I'm ashamed to say that I can't speak German so just passed them to the old guy and tried to explain that we could not fit them on the bike. He said thank you and stood smiling, he said something in German and his wife appeared from inside the motor home and started to laugh. Then the old chap joined in . I was about to tell em to ****** when the old lady came over and explained in good English why they found our little gift so funny. They have a camper van and have travelled most of europe and parts of southern Turkey over the last 16 years. Some years ago they paid a visit to England. The lady went on to explain that early one morning while in Devon they had a knock at the door and when she opened the door a British soldier stood in front of her with a box of eggs. The soldiers were moving on and did not need them so gave the eggs to her. She laughed so much while telling us the story tears ran down her face. She thought it funny that the English like to give her eggs ! Must be the German sense of humour I thought. We carried on exchanging stories of our travels. They could not believe that we had ridden from England on the motorbike let alone ridden through Albania. They thought we were mad , they always go via Italy and then cross via ferry to Turkey just to avoid Albania.
We eventually got away and it was 9.50 when we hit the road, so much for early start !
The roads remained the same , very poor until as if by magic after 20 mile or so they improved to the point that I could maintain a good 70 mph most of the time. The scenery was much the same as we approached Izmar the traffic increased to the point of complete chaos, or so it seemed to us. Much worse that Tirane,the traffic appeared from all over the place. We had left the motorway at this stage thinking that we had taken the correct road we found ourselves at a crossroads controlled by traffic lights. The lights on our side showed red so I stopped and immediately realised that despite the lights four lanes of traffic were trying to cross the junction in all four directions at once! I must admit it was the first time so far in the journey that I felt at risk of coming off. I had no choice to push and fight my way across with lorries and taxis missing us by luck more than anything. Once across we got onto the right road and got out of the place as quick as I could. Some 30 mins later we pulled up at a petrol station to refuel and get some water down us as we were dehydrating quickly in the heat. Within no time we had three or four guys looking the bike over and the two pump attendants asked if they could have their photo's taken with us next to the bike, we agreed and in return they offered us some Turkish tea in the shade. We accepted and sat watching the world go by.
Back on the road and once past a very industrialised area the country side turned from very dry and barren looking into a fertile valley. Fruit trees stretched for miles along with acres of conifers, clipped and shaped ready for potting up and selling on. The villages seemed a lot wealthier with block paving replacing uneven tarmac and centre reservations planted up and lawns growing all over the place.
We approached the outskirts of Didim really looking forward to seeing Bev and Mel and an ice cold drink! At that moment after close on three thousand miles across europe with out being stopped a police man stepped out and signalled us to stop. I was not going to argue with him especially with the size of the machine gun hung around his neck. He could not speak English but indicated that he wanted us to pull off the road. Angie jumped off and I gently pulled up on to a large patch of gravel. Another officer was called over, he could speak perfect English with a slight American accent. He asked where we had come from and where we were going. Well without a map I couldn't remember so tried to explain, he laughed at my pronunciation and asked for all papers. Once checked they thanked us, stopped the traffic and let us pull out and continue. Ten minutes later we pulled up outside the villa, a beautiful home in the sun complete with pool! Bev and Mel were waiting to say hello. I flicked the side stand down and got off. This was going to be a well deserved rest for both Angie and my self let alone the bike!
Total miles today 230
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