MONDAY 13th JULY 2009 (ISTANBUL to BANDIRMA)

MONDAY 13th JULY 2009


With ferry tickets booked and confidence (!) in the bike we were ready to leave Istanbul. Our ferry tickets to BANDIRMA were booked but first there was a VERY important job to take care of - the ol' 'green card' vehicle insurance. Can't travel anywhere in this country without it.

Adil came to the Hotel and took Paul to the Insurance office on his Transalp - much easier to weave in and out of traffic. Adil is a 'fantastic' rider and was 100% on the ball when it came to negotiating the traffic - weaving in and out, up on the footpaths then back on the road, Paul only scraped his knee once on a car door...!!!


Paul did wonder how the 'green card' process might go (after being scared off with all things bureaucratic) but Adil's friend came to the party and all went okay. They were back at the Hotel by midday.


We said our goodbyes to Adil, packed, loaded The HORS - all set to go. The whole street came out to watch. Nurullah (our carpet man) said he can't wait for us to go as EVERYONE looks at The HORS....NO-ONE looks at his shop opposite...!!! We were told every evening that hundreds of people photographed The HORS during each day - it rivaled the Blue Mosque as a tourist attraction.



Paul kicked her in the guts and ....... NOTHING. Not one sound. A bit of investigation revealed the battery was FLAT. With half-an-hour to go before our ferry leaves we had to ring and re-book for the 6.30pm ferry. Of course they didn't understand English so Nurullah did the translation for us. Part of the conversation seemed to indicate that we bought ten carpets from him - he WAS holding our credit card...!!!



Lucky for us an 'electric man' was around the corner and the battery was removed and taken for charging. This has Paul worried - he knows something is draining the battery but has been unable to find the cause. But we also wondered with the hundreds of 'locals' sitting on and fiddling with the bike that this may of also caused the battery to go flat. Who knows?

Before long Adil returned to help - he went and collected our battery on his scooter. Meanwhile Paul checked the sidecar wheel bearings - not that happy with the situation because the sidecar swingarm has been welded crooked by about 20mm thus loading the sidecar wheel bearing which will cause the bearing to fail eventually. Is this why they have a spare wheel as 'STANDARD'...???



Before long all was back together. First kick and The HORS fired into life. Arrhh, what a good sound. We bid our farewells - AGAIN - and followed Adil to the ferry.






We caught the 6.30pm ferry to BANDIRMA which saved us a few hours on the road. We were surprised to see the ferry was made by 'Austal' in W.A. It was a very uneventful crossing, water smoother than a baby's, many ships in passing and eventually the islands and land mass of the far side of the MARMARA Sea appeared.




We disembarked, found a dingy, down-and-out, cheap 'Otel' up a steep, narrow street at the bad end of town and actually quite enjoyed it. The bike was safe right outside the booking office and the taxi stand was on the other side. We got talking to the taxi drivers and they loved The HORS and would look after it for us.





And so, another day of travel over and done with.

Distance ridden - about 10 kilometers...!!