The road from the border of Iran winds its way around the volcano's to Dogubayazit and Mt. Ararat. Its great to be in Turkey as the food here is much better and we can also have a beer after a long dry spell.

Mt. Ararat

We head south to Lake Van and spend a night in Gevas from where we visit the Island of Akdaman Adosi and its little church build around 1400 years ago.

Our route takes us to Bitlis, Mus, Bingol, Elazig over the plains and trough the mountains into Kayseri and Göreme where there is the most amazing scenery of limestone houses cut into the rocks.

From here we make our way down to the coast and Mersin, we follow the coast to Tasucu where we find a great little camping spot right on the waters edge and our first swim in the Mediterranean sea.

The coast road to Alanya is breath taking, carved into the cliff side and over mountain tops with amazing views over the coast. Analya is our first European holiday town where the sun chairs and umbrellas cover the sand as far as the eye can see. We stop here because we are in urgent need for a new set of tyres and the mechanic we find is very helpful and gives the bike a quick once over. All good.
As we stay in Olympus we get the sad news that my father has past away. We where so close yet still so far away.
We head back to Anatalya to book a flight to Switzerland witch is no problem as hundreds of flights come in and out of Anatalya every day.
Our flight is scheduled to leave the next morning at 6.30 am direct to Zürich. We arrive at the airport around AM with the bike parked in the secure parking area.
After check in we proceed to the passport control where Maggie walks trough no problem. As it comes to me they ask me to follow them into the office where I get told that I can't leave the country because the bike is stamped into the passport and I need special permission from customs. I try to explain the situation but to no avail. So we miss the flight and also lose the ticket as it was with a charter company with no money back guarantee if you miss the fight.
Anatalyas Custom House is at the commercial harbor about 45 min from the airport. The process of getting permission with the bike looked up at Customs takes us about 3 1/2 hr after that we are back on our way to the airport in a taxi. Luckily we can get a flight that afternoon at a ridiculous price.
One week later: We arrive back in Anatalya on a Friday afternoon just in time to get the bike out of Customs ( they are closed over the weekend) We head south just to get out of town and look for a guesthouse to sort ourself out and get back into the travel mood.

Kas is our next stop with another camp spot right on the water. There is a creek that flows into the sea here so the top lyer of water is very cold and crystal clear.
we drive passed Fethiye out along the coast road to Butterfly cove and on to Faralaya high above the meditterrainien.

Butterfly Cove

We continue north towards Mermaris stay just outside the town at Turunc for a couple of nights and then on to Detca from where we take a ferry to cross over to Bodrum and on to Yalikavak another great fishing village along the Turkish coast.
Then its on to Foca, Canakkale and the Trojan Horse and finnaly into Bandirma where we take the fast ferry over to Istanbul.

Trojan Horse

Istanbul is a amazing city with lots to do and see, amongs them are the Blue Moscue, Palace, River cruise on the Bosperouse and so on.