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Day 1 to 3 – Everything all at Once

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April 12th to April 15th

Everything seemed to happen right up until our departure. There was no time to plan (apart from the ferry passage), work was crazy, the kids’ Easter camp was happening, and about a thousand other things. In the end, I packed most of our things alone with Flo using his 10min breaks to carry them downstairs and store them in the car. He worked till 3.20pm which was exactly the time we had to leave to pick up the kids from Easter camp. Which means, we were in time and ready to go…it was just waaaaaay more stress than I had hoped for.

We picked up the kids who’ve had a blast and even managed to talk us into having ice cream with two other kids who’d also attended Easter camp. Afterwards…off we went. South, mostly south for a long while. Flo wanted to see if we managed to cover a lot of mileage that we needed to go while driving at night. Last years holiday and especially the traffic jams right before the Alps made us dread going into the same direction again. Thus, night-time driving might solve this problem for us. After a classic on-the-road burger dinner, the kids even brushed their teeth before we said “good night”. It went okay.

Flo drove till nearly 1 o’clock in the morning when we stopped just south of the Gotthardt tunnel for some sleep in the car. It was a rather uncomfortable night, especially the kids started to complain after a bit of sleep in their seats. Anyhow, we got though it and everybody slept at least a bit. At 5.45am, four little zombies entered the rest stop for coffee and breakfast before heading off bright (*cough*) and early through Switzerland and into Italy.

It was a long day on the road. The ferry would leave tomorrow from Ancona which was still quite a bit further south. But now we were in Italy and the holiday feeling was starting to set in. For a good charge and an even better lunch we stopped in Reggio Emilia. As soon as we walked around, we realized we’d already been in town two years ago on our trip through Northern Italy. Anyhow, lunch was great! Starters of ham, asparagus and eggs, and fried pecorino with honey were followed by good pasta…at which time none of us could eat anymore. Such good food was also a good way of getting over our fright this morning. We hadn’t entered Italy for long when another car cut us off. While nothing grave happened, it threw up stones from the dirty embankment. One of them hit our windscreen and left a little ditch.

After lunch, we tried to get as close to the ferry as we could so that, no matter what life decided to throw at us, we would make it to the ferry. So we ended the day in Riccione, shortly after we passed Rimini.

It was late. We’d been driving for a loooong while, and now the footwell on the passenger’s side, my side, was soaking wet. *sigh* Instead of a quiet evening, Flo started his repair-works, while the kids and I went to the beach for a brief stint. Flo joined us shortly to get his head off things. During dinner, I even managed to ask the right person the right question so with help by a fellow traveller and his compressor, Flo cleared out the blockage in the air conditioning drain hose, the conjestion of which turned out to be the reason for all condensate to have been dumped into the interior instead.

Tomorrow, all we had to do was catch a ferry at 4pm.

This gave us a lot of time for the last 100km of distance to cover. Looking at a map, Flo and I decided to turn back a little and give the city state of San Marino a visit. We got to see the three towers on the cliffside and headed into a great little ice cream place for some pre-lunch ice cream.

Day 1 – Again?

… have you not just been on a holiday? That was the most common response to us telling people that we were leaving once more with the roof tent. I mean, really, my hands are tied, aren’t they? First, our parental leave trip got cut short so cruely. Then, there is the fact that we have no daycare available for the whole next three weeks. Should I have dropped it all on Nina?

Besides, we have a chance for redemption, in a way. Fully vaccinated as we both are now and the numbers way down, we acuatally can go to Sweden this time! So here we are again.

Packing and cleaning took us all morning so by the time we were actually ready to leave, the Agent had fallen asleep in her high chair with Fabian as a cushion

Minor issues so far: My 10th rib is still mending from a fracture (strain injury from coughing for two weeks, don’t ask) and Sweden is kind of far away and really big for a European country.

The rib seems to be fine enough – let’s see how it goes after a night in the tent, but I am off painkillers for a week now.

The distance lead us to a rare choice for us: just leg it – onto the motorway for 2 days to maximise our time spent in Sweden proper. Not even Copenhagen is on the list, at least on our way there. We rarely do, prefering to take in the distance and scenery changes as we move about. But what can you do, three weeks is just not a lot of time, especially for our style of travel.

With that out of the way, there is not much more to say about today. We were a bit slow in our packing – but adding up a teething Agent of Entropy, a broken rib and a bit of house cleaning to do, it just was what it was. We left around 11 am, with one last stop before we could hit the motorway.

Lunch for champions: Bread and cheese

After that, just a lot of driving. The long morning packing had exhausted both of the hobbits enought that they slept through most of the first 200km. We did start with some charging frustration right away, even though we specifically picked a fast-charging provider that had worked for us in the past. No luck this time, though. The less than helpful support hotline suggested we could try the twice as expensive direct pay option. Whatever, 15€ lost to bad customer service – at least the charging speed was good. Will have to follow up what might have gone wrong there, though … ahh … teething pains.

Speaking of – the AoE slept or rested even after our lunch stop. Number 3 stayed awake but was a real good sport and kept his spirits up for the remaining 189km. At least the camp turned out to be super cool when we turned up at almost 5pm. Especially nice for something literally 2 minutes off the motorway. Green, shaded and with enough for the wee ones to keep themselves entertained for the rest of the evening. One more hard push and then we are game to turn off the motorway and start traveling …

  • Packing and cleaning took us all morning so by the time we were actually ready to leave, the Agent had fallen asleep in her high chair with Fabian as a cushion
  • Both kids slept but here, Number 3 is holding Jules’ hand <3
  • Lunch for champions: Bread and cheese
  • Lunch break with a foreboding sky. Banana time for the Agent
  • On the way back from exploring the campground: “Papa, we need sand toys!”
  • In the sand pit with the appropriate toys
  • Both kids on the slide, ready for their turns
  • One down, one to go!
  • Number 3 also went down sliding
  • The Agent of Entropy is feeling under the weather as she is getting 4(!) new teeth at the same time. Thus, she wants to be attached to mama ALL THE TIME. Plus, dinner in the background 😛
  • My sunset silhouette infront of the lake

Day 25 – Tango to Évora

Still raining … hm. Ah well. Four weeks are long, but not that long. We have to get going. The seven stork families and their clattering are still very enjoyable background sound to our packing up. Évora is next on our little itinerary. Known for a very well persevered roman temple and a lovely medieval walled old town. It is actually part of the Unesco heritage list.

preserved by being turned into a medival storage bnuilding

We found a parking spot near the university within the wall – a good spot to explore on foot – strapped into our gear and faced the ongoing drizzle. It still turned out a pretty good location. Yet, there was a constant battle going for our moods between the grey wet drizzle from above and the picturesque sights right in front of us. We held on, mood wise, and Évora started to evoke other medieval old towns we have seen in the past. For me, it reminded me most of Avignon. Recent Carcassonne came to mind as well, although this was bigger and had a much more lived in feeling compared to the open air tourist attraction vibe of back then.

Lunch was a brilliant experience at an all vegetarian place trying to reinvent local traditional tastes in a vegetarian way. It was buffet style pay-by-weight and we both overstuffed our plate to make sure we can get a taste of everything.

… to make space for more

On our way here, we passed a tantalising window display of an arrangement of pastries. All kinds of tarts, including the mandatory pastel de nata as well as a local treat. The time on our parking ticket ran out, and so we split up. I went to renew the ticket and Nina did some window shopping with Number 3. Once reunited, it was time to tackle the treats! We had one of everything as well and sat down in this barn of a café. It was clear that looks were not what they were going for, but the vibe (and the pastry) were great. We sat right next to grandpa in his break, sipping a coffee and getting a quick round of candy crush in.

It was still raining when we got on our way to Lisbon. After half an hour, we decided that arriving was more important than saving some money and we hopped on the toll motorway. Some tolls we wanted to pay anyway, to get a chance to cross into town over one of the two colossal bridges connecting the south shore with Lisbon proper.

Earlier today, we finally abandoned the idea to switch up accommodation from campground to cheap room. So we arrived at the dreaded Lisboa Camping & Bungalows – and the grey sky amplified everything that seems horrible about this place. Overpriced, under maintained and horribly noisy due to two motorways surrounding it. The things you can get away with for being the only camp in striking distance of the city centre. A white whale could opt for one of the camper parkings, but we cannot.

Town really has to make up for this … at least tomorrow should be the last of this weather.

Wroooommmm …. woooooosssshhhh … wrooooooommmmm ….

  • farewell Mr. Donkey
  • Separation of labour
  • no respect for history
  • cool aqueduct, although this one is from the 16th century
  • preserved by being turned into a medival storage bnuilding
  • a lot of the towers have been integrated into other buildings
  • central square of Évora
  • never spare an oppertunity for an “i was here”, even in a chapel
  • tiles all around, even in the churches. Odd reminder of Iran
  • A lot of austentatious main altars all around
  • that stopped Nina in her tracks
  • Local variity, with cocoa
  • weather bad!
  • guy in a park
  • random free roaming peacocks
  • jup, up there he is
  • walking off our lunch …
  • … to make space for more
  • we take … all of them, please
  • this was when Number 3 called quits
  • 110m Jesus in Lisbon. Build as thanks for no WW2
  • Ponte de 25th Abril over the River Tejo
  • Flo unnerved by driver over noisy grates
  • one more motorway intersection and we are here ….

Day 3 – What do we want?

This is probably the least planned trip we have ever taken. One reason was obviously that we were somewhat busy in the last year or so. The other is that we, frankly, have become pretty road hardened. It just does not worry us to not know what tomorrow will bring like it used to.

The downside to all of this is that we have not had the long planning conversations to alingn our expectations and get exited about places. Neither the long days researching our destinations. So it is day 3 now, and we are getting more and more a hang of our setup. That brings the issue even more into focus. What do we want?

I mean to get to Portugal, first of all. But that is a bit of a useless thing to know. If we just wanted to get there, we could have flown, or taken the train. Good weather and beautiful nature then? Well, why not stop at the first opportunity then, like southern France? Should we push south; rest a bit; go to Spain and start exploring then? Quite frankly, we haven’t figured it out yet.

But we know that today was a good day. Smooth start. The sun came out (but not too hot). We like the campsites we are finding through iOverlander. Traditional sites, but a bit off the beaten track. And empty anyway, so early in the season.

To top it all off, Number 3 slept a lot during our 2.5 hrs of driving. Worth taking the motorway for a bit from Dijon just past Lyon to get to camp nice and early. 4 pm was a perfect time to catch up on the blog, cook dinner and even get a shower for all of us in time.

We will have to figure out what we want from this trip, though. Maybe tomorrow …

  • French eclair – approved!
  • Car fun for once
  • Some quiet time …
  • ahh, stop that!
  • Such a gangster…
  • No, I’m not impressed!

Day 320 – Homewards

And thus, the travelling part of this journey was over. Istanbul had been the last point for a long while, we then extended it to “after we’ve seen Gallipoli” but now, no matter how you looked at it, the travelling through Turkey was over. From this point onward, we’ll ride homewards.

On the last stretch to the border, Turkey was quite flat

On the last stretch to the border, Turkey was quite flat

Today, leaving Turkey and getting to Sofia was a “must”. We packed up early but still, we weren’t on the road as early as we’d liked. It was probably 10am already. Getting to the border between Turkey and Bulgaria didn’t take long. However, we got the first fine of the whole trip. Riding towards the border on a long straight road, we went at a 102kmh when the speed limit was 90kmh. Yes, we did speed…it was annoying anyway. There were only a few cars on the road and every single one of them was waved to the side of the road to receive their fines. It turns out that it is a common thing for countries in the EU to do as well. From now on, we saw police fining speeding before every border but we had learnt our lesson. Turkey remained the only country where we got a fine.

Last picture on the Turkish side. Bulgaria, here we come!

Last picture on the Turkish side. Bulgaria, here we come!

Spending all our coins in the town before the border, we were happy with the progress we made. Crossing the border before lunch time meant that we’d probably make it past Sofia today to camp near the border to Serbia. Standing in line, we got our passports stamped without an issue. Asking for the customs office, we got to the right place and they checked that our papers are in order and it’s the right bike. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. We had to wait for over an hour, closer to 1 1/2 hours before we could leave. When we crossed from Iran into Turkey, the staff put our information into the system incorrectly. So now, the computer protested and wouldn’t let them finish the process. Instead of copying all our documents, stamping us out and letting us go, they kept us waiting until the staff at the other border had corrected their mistake so they could finish their internal process. It had nothing to do with us or our paperwork and it was annoying as hell.

Having lost so much time rather unexpectedly, we were dreading the Bulgarian side. It is the entrance into the EU so we expected strict controls. However, all we had to do was ride through a spray of disinfectant (what?), declare if we had any cigarettes or alcohol and were sent on our way. Easy as. And so we entered into the European Union after four years away (not counting our single visit over Christmas).

Entering the EU, we noticed another step up in wealth

Entering the EU, we noticed another step up in wealth

From here, everything went smoothly. The motorway in Bulgaria is in a great condition, there are fuel stations and rest areas around and we made good progress again. It was unbelievably hot though. One of the things that struck both Flo ad me while riding north was how well off Bulgaria is compared to other countries we have been to. In Germany, Bulgaria is seen as one of those cheap countries you can go to for holidays but compared to most of the world, everybody is well off here. It was even a step up from Turkey. Europe, and the European Union especially, is a rich place and full of privilege; too often it is not really seen as such.

The corner of Sofia that we stayed in had lots of little places catering to our taste

The corner of Sofia that we stayed in had lots of little places catering to our taste

With the motorway under our wheels, we decided to push to Sofia despite being so late. We booked an excellent hostel online and with the place where we would sleep tonight determined, we set towards it. At around 6pm, we arrived at Moreto & Cafe which turned out to be incredibly lovely. After a quick shower, we walked around the block in search of food and found this corner of Sofia quite nice and interesting. It’s a pity that we don’t have the time and money to stay and explore but it’ll have to wait for another time.

The hostel organized a boardgaming evening that night and I ended up talking to people and having two cupcakes while poor Flo blogged. Then, we were too tired to participate and went straight to bed.

Day 316 – Bridge between two continents

Rain. That thing. The slight annoyance that you forget about after camping in sunshine for a week. Well, this morning, it was raining. It slowed down our daily morning routine and it dampened our mood. Packing a wet tent is also not fun. Enough whining, we got on the road and today, we’d make it to Istanbul. 🙂

stupid toll system, still not working!

stupid toll system, still not working!

The GPS routed us on a giant 6 lane motorway. Flo, scrolling ahead, said there seems to be a ferry which will shorten the trip considerably. However, the next signs told us that Istanbul is only 90km away and that there will be a bridge. That sounds great! Yeah, nah. As with the museum in Troy, people got ahead of themselves. The motorway led right to the sea…but the bridge isn’t finished yet. From this point, Istanbul was still 120km away and we had to circumnavigate all of the Sea of Marmara. To make things worse the toll road ended with a secured gate this time and instead of waving your paywave card, they wanted cash from you. We still have about 30 Turkish lira on the card which we will probably never use up so paying cash now felt like we had to pay twice. Flo was not amused, to say the least.

Time to move on. Rocinate still looks like a demo bike ;)

Time to move on. Rocinate still looks like a demo bike 😉

Didn’t matter, we were still on track for Istanbul. Our first stop was the Touratech Türkiye shop, just for a visit. As with almost all Touratech shops we have been in, it was lovely. The staff is good for a chat, we got free tea and coffee and we looked at what’s new. We didn’t need anything but I didn’t say no to the visor cleaners we were offered…insect goo is one of the constants of our trip.

Istanbul is big. The GPS calculated another 28km from the shop to our hotel. And there is a lot of traffic, especially because we wanted to use one of the two bridges over the Bosporus. Driving from the Asian continent over a bridge onto the European continent was our idea of ending the trip. Of course, we will have a look around the city for a couple of days but afterwards, it’s pretty much straight to Frankfurt. Europe will have to wait for another journey. With those thoughts in mind, the crossing was actually quite emotional. It took us almost 11 months to get here.

The last meters in Asia!

The last meters in Asia!

Our one room apartment, once we found it, turned out to be exactly what we’d hoped for. Hotels in Istanbul seem very cheap at the moment and the online offers are very good. We got our room for three nights for 62€ including breakfast. And it’s in the center of the city.

But riding through rain and traffic, skipping lunch and being emotional about this last part of our journey had left us exhausted. We had an early dinner and otherwise enjoyed the comforts of our room.

Day 312 – Marks of Empires

The boring part...riding the motorway

The boring part…riding the motorway

There was not much left to do for us in Pamukkale other than pack up and move on. From here on, there were four more points of interest for us: Ephesus, Izmir, Pergamon and Troy. Ephesus was only some 250 km away and had three campgrounds for us to pick from nearby.

The ride was pleasant and smooth, with the exception of the motorway of all places. The automated system is kind of a nice idea, but it does not work at all in practice, at least for motorcycles. Out of the four times we passed toll gates so far, it has worked only a single time. We went to the post office twice to check and pay before we would get a fine, but they could find nothing in the system. So either we slip the cracks, or more likely we will get an unpleasant surprise at some point.

Great selection of all vegetarian börek

Great selection of all vegetarian börek

We had a really nice lunch in a town along the way. We just pulled into a random börek shop on the main road and scored. Outside any tourist region it was dead cheap, tasty and filling. Plus, the staff was real nice, too.

We reached Ephesus around 2 pm. According to our guide book, the crowds should soon loosen up. We were “adopted” right away by an enterprising fellow on the parking lot. He was nice enough that his sales pitches were never too annoying. Plus, he was genuinely helpful. The site is set up in such a way that the ‘right’ way to explore it is to start from the uphill entrance and then walk down the main road towards the southern entrance, where we currently were. There are shuttles going up. One that goes straight up for 15 lira and one that drops guest off for a “tour” at a local leather factory, but is free.

Maybe something to look at in the future

Maybe something to look at in the future

We opted for the free variant, of course, even though we were a bit anxious about what to expect. Well, it turned out that our “guide” just so happened to be one of the drivers. He dropped us off and we soon found out. It was not too b

ad – a straight beeline into a super high class showroom full of lambskin leather clothes in the $500 and up region. It dawned on us that we might even be interested in this stuff, would we not currently have been broke and on this trip. I might check this out once back in decent employment, I guess.

Close-up of the arch

Close-up of the arch

It was over after 10 minutes and we could start the tour. Ephesus turned out to be the most expensive place yet. It was made all the worse by the fact that just about now, we would have been better off buying the 185 lira all-of-Turkey museum pass – with at least 100 lira still to come in Istanbul. Still better than a piece of wire in the eye, I guess.

The place itself was fantastic, though. Heaps of solid info on boards throughout the ruins and loads of uncovered and reconstructed marble architecture. All quite impressive. The ruins stemmed from a huge time period from the 3rd century BC into the middle ages under Byzantium, but most remaining (and impressive) architecture is from Roman times between 133 BC till the Roman schism.

Great place to build a theater on the first place

Great place to build a theater on the first place

All in all, we spend about two hours exploring the place. Happy but exhausted, we got back to the bike. Our enterprising friend had one more up his sleeve: Authentic silver coins of varying ages. Of course, for a real good price. We passed on that golden opportunity to get in trouble with customs and were content with a look through. I mean, how often do you get the chance to hold 2000 year old silver coins?

We checked the camp grounds in Kusadasi. One was full, the other one was packed in what seemed to be party central of the town. We considered for a second and then decided to go back to Pamucak and check out the last place in the area. That one was a score. A super laid back area right at the beach, with almost no one around. It sure had seen busier days, but right now there were maybe 10 of the 100 spots taken. We could place ourselves right next to a power outlet to get all the goodies charged again.

perfect sunset over the water here we come

perfect sunset over the water here we come

After our sunset walk along the beach, there was one more vehicle on the ground and it sparked my interest. A closer look revealed a Queensland licence plate on a bright yellow overlander truck. The travellers in question turned out to be a real nice couple, Cheryl and Guy, with many a country flag already decorating the truck. I got invited in for a brief chat and ended up staying up way too long …

 

 

Day 305 – Where’s the groove gone?

Time to finally leave the Göreme Camping camp ground which had been really good to us. The next camp ground would be at the Mediterranean Sea, some 250km away. Not really a big day, kilometre wise, and looking at the map…the road would be many-laned and fast. Thus we left, just to get the cloud cover back that was our constant companion before Cappadocia.

Loads of Lanes, no traffic

Loads of Lanes, no traffic

The beginning of the ride was unspectacular. Soon, we hit what must be the motorway…with a toll gate. There was no one around and no barrier, no sign that said motorbikes are not allowed so we just went on it. So far so good. About 20km in, we needed fuel and just to be on the safe side, Flo wanted to do a 3 km detour off the motorway rather than wait for a station on it. So we left the motorway again at the first exit. Again, a toll gate, no one around, no barriers. This time, when we left, an alarm sounded. Whoot? We stopped immediately at the side of the road to ask how to deal with it but THERE WAS NO ONE AROUND. Not even the alarm going off could produce a human being that we could talk to.

This time, with toll card

This time, with toll card

Confused, we rode to the fuel station and Flo googled how Turkish motorways work. There is a toll (*check*) and you need to have a card for contactless payment (*uncheck*). Okay, where to get such a card? “Every PTT and Shell station will sell them”. Asking the guy at the fuel station, we rode to the next post office about 5 km away. Fair enough, you can do that to avoid setting off any alarms. The real reason to fix this is because the bridge over the Bosporus us also a toll road and we really, really want to ride it. It took the staff at the post office about 15 minutes…to realize they could not help us and to send us to the post office in the next town. Great. By now it was 11.45am and with our luck, the office would just close at 12, right?

Bor, the next town, was another 8km away. Now it started raining. Yay. -.- Or not. There, the yellow of a post office! Flo jumped inside and while I got off to take cover as well, he came back out again. Too small, we needed a bigger post office. We took one wrong turn getting to the “right” one and I was thoroughly annoyed. This is hilarious…if they want you to pay the toll, maybe it should be a bit easier to get that stupid card?

We even got into one more brief rain

We even got into one more brief rain

Now things worked out. Flo got his card, we had to put 50 Turkish lira on it as the smallest amount (!) and I now felt as if I could eat a horse. Figuratively. The first place, of course, was a kebab shop but they were kind enough to point us to a place further up the road where vegetarian food would be available. We gladly sat down and after the initial confusion about a vegetarian I was offered a cheese pide with fresh salad as a side. So good! Flo enjoyed his pide with minced meat and we were so happy about the food which was freshly made (even the dough!) that Flo had tea as dessert while I chose the sweet rice pudding. Also really good. 🙂

Feeling much better now that we didn’t have to deal with things on an empty stomach, we got back on the motorway. This time, the entrance toll gate even gave us a green light. Riding for 120km, time and miles flew past. Soon, we were only 60km away for tonight’s camp ground and had to get off. Again, the alarm went off. WHY? No idea. It should be contactless payment but it didn’t work. This time we stopped near by the three men standing around but really, they just said it needs to scan the barcode and that we should simply ride on. You have about a week to go to a post office to tell them that it didn’t work before you are fined…

Checking out our first Mediterranean camp spot

Checking out our first Mediterranean camp spot

Welcome back to Europe’s bureaucracy. However, we don’t want to burn any bridges as we are unsure when we will want to ride through Turkey next so leaving with an outstanding fine seems like a bad idea.

To top today’s great experience off, when we reached the Mediterranean coast, we were not impressed. Mersin and the next towns looked too much like the Caspian Sea in our eyes: Rows of hotels blocking the view. Arriving late at the camp ground next to a construction site of the road, we are left with a feeling of uncertainty as not even the coast excites us. Will we be able to enjoy Turkey or should we really just power through to get to Frankfurt?

Day 287 – Humps and bumps

Totally sealed, Garmin, totally sealed

Totally sealed, Garmin, totally sealed

It seemed we had managed to hit the perfect camp spot – not too hot, not too cold and undisturbed the whole night long. I felt really well rested getting up this morning. Besides, we had only a light day ahead, so what was there not to look forward to?

Maybe I should have been a bit more suspicious of the fact that the Garmin found a “third way” over the mountain that was neither on the Lonely Planet map nor on our Iran paper map. But it was set to avoid dirt roads, so clearly it knew something the others did not…?

The condition of the dirt road deteriorated quickly

The condition of the dirt road deteriorated quickly

Well, as it turns out it may have been that avoiding a 50 km “detour” back to pass number two overruled the no dirt rule. Or the open street map is a bit ahead of its time, since for the most part there were roadworks actually on the way to transform this into a proper sealed pass. For now, however, it was not. For about 60 km we had everything from a perfectly compacted gravel road to “this is a muddy riverbed at a 30° angle, if it rains now, we die”.

You can see our camp spot and the tunnel we came through

You can see our camp spot and the tunnel we came through

In all fairness, it was mostly good though. I mostly enjoyed the exercise, but I also could do without any more drama on this last leg of the trip. In the end, we made it and were rewarded with another set of fantastic view from up to 2400m back down to the valleys to the north.

Once on the other side, the motorway called and we got back into full cruise mode for a short hour to cover the last 120 km. Traffic truly got interesting once we got into greater Tehran, but nothing much surprising left to it. The Lonely Planet calls it “a Darwinian game of chicken”. There are still rules to it, though. They end up in a higher risk game than most sane people would engage in, but on the other hand, people get from A to B much quicker than they would in high survival rate countries under the same circumstances. I just go with the flow and compensate with better gear for the worst case, I guess.

Quite the shock to be on the motorway into Tehran

Quite the shock to be on the motorway into Tehran

We had lunch in a hip cafe at the House of Arts – good burger and veggie pasta for once. A lovely place we probably like to come back to (the House of Arts, that is). For now though, we need to find a place to stay. Hotels are pretty expensive, so we settled on one place slightly too expensive, in the knowledge that A: There is not much else cheaper and B: we had saved some by camping the last few days.

When I parked the bike I saw another overlander bike from the Netherlands and back in the hotel found out that we were next door neighbors, so I knocked and introduced myself. Joris and his partner were busy for the day, but we agreed to catch up tomorrow.

That was pretty much our day, except for the one hour it took me to find some bread around here. The entire neighborhood – a full city block – is exclusively dedicated to selling auto parts. Not even a single little grocery shop anywhere among them for the most part. I did, however, get a replacement for the second screw that had vibrated off our windscreen in Iran.

Day 232 – Packing in Bangkok

2 lanes frontage road, 4 lane highway and 3 lane tollway (overhead) all going the same way ...

2 lanes frontage road, 4 lane highway and 3 lane tollway (overhead) all going the same way …

A whole day to get into Bangkok. Not to be bad with just 250km to go. Unfortunately, it was 38 degrees again which felt like closer to 50 degrees on the motorway in the scorching sun. Also, getting into Bangkok is simply a nightmare. Motorbikes are not allowed on the proper motorways where you pay toll so instead, we were going on the same road as all the trucks and scooters. This meant jam-like conditions starting as far off as 60km before Bangkok. In the heat. The whole ride was just exhausting, nothing more. At some point we stopped at a 7eleven and hid inside just to get our core temperature down again in an ac’d space. BUT, even the worst traffic moves and we arrived at our accommodation at lunch time.

Dropping all the luggage into the room, we just headed out again to have lunch and acquire some form of dinner as our room was out in the sticks, close to nothing but the warehouse where we needed to go tomorrow. We found a local market for some veggie noodle soup and a 7eleven with the option of toast and cheese. All set for the rest of the day, we went back.

Yeay and ney piles will soon be forming.

Yeay and ney piles will soon be forming.

Cooling down was the most urgent point on our to do list now. Luckily, a pool was available (in the shade) which provided us with ample opportunity. Afterwards, we unpacked everything we own, checked if we could take it on a flight or had to chuck it out and repacked. It sounds like a neat package in one sentence but it actually was a lot of work. The spray cans of WD40 and chain oil had to go (flammable) so Flo actually cleaned the bike before applying both for the last time. We updated the route on the world map on our pannier, put the paperwork, clothes and toiletries to the side as we will need this here in Bangkok with us for the next couple of days and packed the rest.

In between, we had a lovely afternoon break patting the resident cats and figuring out that hiding inside our room is really the most comfortable option.