Here we go,

made it out of Istanbul! Almost 90 km of honking trucks and busses. people were staring in disbelief. just had a well attended show at the local park where I was cooking some macaroni on my stove. about 30 boys from 6 to 18 were standing round me with almost no safety margin. I could have bought a Dürüm but I wanted to cook some weight off the newly bought gas-cartridge.
Things went well in Istanbul besides the fact that i was pissed by the tourists, got my first sunburn after i forgot to slop when ridin to find one of the more professional bike shops in the wealthier parts of the city on the Asian side (right next to the Fenerbaçe stadium). The whole trip turned to become some sort of lets-do-Istanbul-in-one-day-ride since i had to check my bike anyway.
Originally i planned on getting up very early and see if they let me cross the bridge by bike, but then i slept till 5:30 and took the first ferry.

gonna write some more detailed stuff later on - gotta do another 85 kms.

so long – till

Merhaba,

while my stomach is still acclimating to Turkey (diarrhoea) my elbow healing nicely. had a little bump over the handlebar as i didn't see the whole in front of me (this time no blow-up moment for i lost the key somewhere in Istanbul)
first real mountains today after I had an early bed yesterday (90 km). after cruising through town for quite a while i found a teachers hostel for an affordable price (15 million = 8 EUR). Got up early to do the first real climb to Bolu. After having 500 g of yogurt, honey, two bananas, some chocolate goodies and a litre of orange juice I felt tired and didn't know whether to go on in an uncomfy way or havin an early check-in at the local hotel.
I went to the hamam.
I tool an hour an I felt much better. Had a few grapes, got back into my dirty cycling clothes and went up another long but not that steep climb.
Had a little encounter with the local highway police after takin a ride with one of the real slow trucks up a mountain. the elder one was indignantly telling me in Turkish that I would have to pay many million as a fine for the crime i just had committed. The younger of them was smiling at my gestures that it was THAT steep and that my bike is VERY heavy.
In the end the chief officer gave in and let us (the friendly truck driver was also included to the interrogation) go not without telling me that i had to do the hills myself and that it was a very healthy thing to do. I told him that on my way to Tiblisi I would do a lot of workout and would loose a lot of kilos. He agreed and we all parted smiling.

alright, gotta buy some cheese for the pasta and tomate-frito I am carrying for the last 200kms ...

It will be another wild camping in the mountains at approx. 1500 m.

I'll write again within two days having already left Ankara where I have to buy some bike parts.

Thank you for your encouraging comments In the guestbook and also by email.

güle güle – Till

Kirsehir 650 km:

Welcome back,

I've almost reached Cappadocia!
Today was the toughest day so far. 160 km over the hills with sunshine that almost knocked me out. Drank about 12l but reached the town of Kirsehir 1 hour before scheduled time due to helpful tailwinds and myself hammering across the highway the last 40 km in 50 min. Not too bad, eh?!
My fitness is improving so I can go up small hills just by pushing a little harder.
Next thing will be buying some desert-expedition-hat as my right ear is hurting from a severe sunburn.
The news about my nicely healing elbow where a bid rashly. Under these extreme climatic conditions there is no easy healing. It'll take at least three weeks according to the guy at Delta-Bisiklet in Ankara who helped me tighten the bottom bracket and the crank so I can ride without this anoying "ti-dick, ti-dick" when ridin uphill.
Enough of these technical details. Ridin into Ankara was as challenging as to find the tourist information. Went round the city-centre in circles asking numerous people who either didn't knew the meaning of " tourist information" or pointed into opposite directions.
They didn't let me see the Atatürk Mausoleum so I rode straight to the south to find a suitable camp spot for the night. It was kind of an experiment the most beautiful hilltop so far just near a well. The only thing was that it was in an exposed position to the road. But I didn't care for I knew that an emergency downhill to the village I'd just passed would take me 40 sec.
The only thing I WAS afraid of was that crowds of youngsters from the village would show up at night to do the customary "whatsyournamebybyhellomisterwhereareyoufrom". The latter didn't happen instead a snake ate some of my rice with tomato-stew which i had left in the apsis of the tent.
In the mornin I was woken up by the sun heating up my black tent and the first pack of shepherd dogs who watched me grimly packing my tent.

This is just a little insight. As soon as I take a day off (that will probably be the case in Malatya I will try to write a real travel report an put it on my website.

best wishes – Till

Kayseri 920 km

Salam Aleykum,

It is quite hot down here. Left Cappadocia in the mornin and made my way eastwards. Couldn't find no Hasir Shapka (desert hat) but the kerchief which was given to me by the lovely PKK widow still works fine.
Since there is no sun care > 30 I'm now "slopping" every two hours. I'm very eager to go for the mountains ahead. I don't like the big Mideastern Cities too much. There simply doesn't exist a simple solution for a simple problem. It's a notorious "HELLOmyfriendwhereareyoufromnoproblem" which still takes me 5 min to be as courageous saying "Thank you, I'm gonna sort out that problem myself" and leave. The nonexistent modern time market economy makes it all so time-consuming.

so long, wish me good luck in the mountains.

Yours truly ;) – Till

Malatya 1270 km

Sick(de) in Malatya

Hi Folks,

reached Malatya yesterday at noon after finishing up with the first real mountainous part of my journey. It was a vast high-plateau after the Kaysery climb. Met the Baku-Ceyhan-Pipeline (under construction) and made my little foto series for the after world.
End of the day was set by eyes in tears (no i know why they wear these very expensive sport-sunglasses). There was only little civilization ý.e. villages where I could have bought some food for the night. But Ý was helped by a nice Kurdish family. I wanted to go on but suddenly my eyes where really hurting.
Found a bed in a road construction-workers camp. They didn't intended to give me food as the chief in staff was in opposition to the overhasty consent by one of the senior workers that staying at their place wouldn't be a problem. They kept arguing right in front of my door for two (!) hours and at some point i was worrying that it would get physical.
Got up and off at 6 in the mornin and found a rich breakfast at a village 20 kms further on.
To make it short, I did a heroic second day across several passes and arrived in a "German" village where I could sleep and eat.

I'm feelin really ad at the moment as Malatya made me sick somehow (probably the olives). Hope to recover soon and get on twords the slightly hillier second part on my way to Tbilisi.

regards – Till

Hallo,

today was the first day on the road after four almost private (the hotel boy was frequently knocking on my door and rushed in for some voidness without permission as soon I opened the door) in front of the TV takin a little holyday from the humming streets of Malatya.
I got an insight into the Turkish music-biz and the way it sells its instant icons, watched Bundesliga, Turkish League, and the Olympics. It took some time for my digestive system to rebuild on Coke and pretzel sticks after it collapsed due to an overdose of salted olives (that was painful!)

Unnecessarily my heel began to hurt but luckily didn't affect the cycling.

Tonight I'm gonna sleep in my tent after five days in bed. Ahead is 1200 km of very mountainous terrain all the way to Tbilisi.

You'll get some en-route info in the following days.

By to all – Till

Bingöl 1526 km, 11:30

Hi There,

still 190km to Tatavan. Did the first climb in the early morning hours. Had a nice chat with some "German" Kurds in the villages in the mountains.
The vegetation is either very green and beautiful or harsh and moon-like. The latter happens if the sheperds burn the place every year.
Saw first two tanks today but that's all part of the official "we-are-here-to-protect-our-country-against-all-enemies-policy". Everything's quite and nice here.
Acco0rding to the truckers the road will improve from now on for the last 50 kms it was a mess. Not so much the actual tarmac-road but the gravel-road they temporarily made out of it in order to to build a bigger and better highway through the mountains. For me right now it means a lot of dust from passing vehicles -> cleaning the bike every 50 kms.

so far so good. The next milestone will be Van which is still three days to go.

I'll give you some update on the way.

cheers – Till

Dogubayazit 1986km

Leaving Ararat

Hello there,

It's been a long time. Took me five days to get rýd of another bad diarrhea. I was lying in one of these 3 EUR hotels reading some Konsalik-Novel a fellow traveller might have left there decades ago. Today I was cleaning the driving-chain, cooking pasta up in my room (for I don't really trust the lokal food anymore).
To give a brief update on what was happening before:

it took me two days to get to lake Van. It was hilly and boring (roads/people). In Tatvan I took the hotel ate two kebab (out of which one must have been poisoned) and went on the next day along the northern coastline of the beatiful lake (turkoise coloured beaches ...), had my rear-spokes broken and repaired and reached Ercis after sunset. Another very cheap hotel, nice Hamam, delicious Kebab (but you never know). The next day was supposed to be the most difficult so far. All the training on the way would pay off on my way up to 2700 m through vast high-plateaus. It turned out to be the most masochistic day ever. I was barfing on the sideway, eating was no option so was the drinking. I knew that i had to make it over the peak to Dogubayazit in reach of Ararat for there where only little villages with reserved to unfriendly people (probably a side-effect of the ongoing civil-war like clashes between the army and self-proclaimed freedom fighters). So i made it up the hill.
First time I saw Ararat really knocked me out. The rest was an easy downhill 20 ks to Dogubayazit. The expected easy downhill became monstrous the moment I was already at full brakes. Seeing that I wouldn't make the corner for five seconds I had enough time to pour out every adrenalin I had to forearm for the expected bump into the gravel.

I came back to normal (that means cursing myself for everything) 15 minutes later sidelined by some helpful men from the nearby village.
The next thing was gettin on one of these army Land Rovers. They took me to there unit where the doctor disinfected the grazes and told me that my right hand wasn't broken (it is doin well by now). They gave me food and wishes for convalescence. The chief in command came by to cheer me up and so this was also a very interesting insight to the omnipresent military.

I just met a couple who came from Indonesia by bike in the I-cafe. We might do a little joint ride along Ararat to Igdir tomorrow.
It'll take not more than six days to reach Tbilisi - so at least I will make it in August.

Thanks for holding on and have a nice endofaugust wherever you are.

Schüss – Till

Tbilisi 2646km

A long journey is almost finished. Everything from now on will be additional to the big symbolic Istanbul-Tbilisi strech.

Having left Ararat and Dogubayazit behind after 20 ks my saddle broke off. But no such problem that I had to take the bus or anything.
What followed was fore nice days with Inge and Jarich who where on their way from Indonesia to Enschede NL by bike. We saw the Armenian border another great volcano in the clouds, went to Ani the ancient Armenian capital which is today a bid worn out not only by the earthquakes but also by the Turkish vandals who partly demolished the old frescos and some dickhead-official who decided that over painting all of the frescos with white colour would be an appropriate way to hide these acts of barbarism.
The Armenians are building big terraces at the border that is just 100m from Ani to have at least a good lookout to "their" cultural and historical heritage.
The last days in Turkey my tire-problems worsened so I had to pump up the front heel every 15 km for I couldn't find a real hole in the inner tube. Just before the last major climb up to 2600 m the back wheel made a big bang, lucky me it happened just outside a Jandarma Unit. As always this only outpost of modernity provided food and encouragement until I mended the tire with Gaffa tape.
Round 5 o clock I was at the summit to see the most amazing landscape so far. I don't think the pipeline is too bad for it brings a wealthier future for those who without it wouldn't have any chance of makin it there. It is like building an Autobahn through the Alps, not really beautiful but I pays off in a way.
The Turkish customs tried but failed to hassle me, the Georgians where as expected newly installed and exerted to show that it is now a new Georgia. Got myself installed in Ahalcihe and went on to Borjomy the next day where i got hooked up by an American peace corps volunteer. It was a nice evening eating thanksgiving-like chicken reading Atlantic Monthly and to sound what their opinion about all the crap in the states was like.
What was left was a 170 km power-ride to Tbilisi that showed me again that I hate forceful headwinds more than steep climbs.
Luckily that Kiel-contact worked out so fine that I just had to follow Sonja and Mamuka to their lovely apartment got a warm shower and glorious food, just all I needed to fall asleep.
Yesterday we went to the local Bike track and sorted out the wheel problems, afterwards found out that not even the Turkish bank would buy some of my spare million Turkish Lira for the Georgian Lari is skyrocketing at the moment due to the growing confidence in the new Georgian government and its policies.

I'm planning to leave Tbilisi tomorrow for a four day round-trip across the region of Kachetia where they make the wine and are told to be the most welcoming people in the world. After that there will be enough time to check out Svanetia which is now said to be a save place again after they cleaned up he pace a little bit from the thugs who used to hang out in a castle up in the mountains.

well, hope youre all doin good.

regards – Till