Pearls On Wheels

Heavy breathing outside our hotel room signalled surprise visitors. Several balloons were making the most of the wind direction which brought them over Göreme at sunrise. That was a lovely wake up call. We wanted to pack the bike to be ready for a quick getaway after breakfast. We headed east. A deliciously cool 21.5°C for the first couple of hours.   Rolling hills ahead, terricific roads, some resurfacing going on. A stop to look at a Massey Furguson and for a drink and then through recently  harvested valleys and hillsides, over two mountain passes (1900m). Then dry desert landscapes punctuated with green apricot trees  as we ride to Makatya in temperatures in the high 30's If you have eaten dried apricots lately they probably came from this region of the world. I have included some photos I took from the aeroplane when we flew over Turkey on our way to Croatia. Malatya and our next destination, Erzurum, are both on the flight map.  It is really interesting to be riding through p

We feel very welcome at Kelebek Hotel. After we settled into our room in a fairy chimney we went out for a cultural evening and dinner.  Wow, almost 2 ½ hours of music and dancing. Including some audience participation - sorry, there are  no photos of that. The folk dancing was precision dancing aided by talc on the floor. Spinning, high kicks and  energetic Cossack type folk dances. The precision, agility and speed of the male dancers was breathtaking.  Next morning an early 4.45am start for the balloon ride. Absolutely worth it.  Butterfly Balloons has a well-oiled procedure for their flights. Strong team members  and our pilot Mike was a gem. When we landed as I climbed out of the basket one of the men did a Snatch Olympic lift and lowered me to the ground. Champagne awaited. Back to the hotel for breakfast and then off to explore southern Cappadocia. First to  Derinkuyu  underground city.  We descend deep down through narrow tunnels as we explore  8 levels of the underground city (

Some days we are truly blessed by strangers we meet on our journey. My hope is that sometimes we reciprocate. You will meet some of these people in today's blog post. There are also some very modern techologies and facilities in Turkey. Today it is traffic lights in Tarsus and the service centre on the motorway. We wanted to go to the birth place of the apostle Paul.  There is a site in Tarsus purported to be the ruins of the house he was born in and a well. We have been riding through lots of countryside that  Paul   may have walked and visited by boat in his second and third journeys through Asia Minor in the middle of the first century AD.. For example in the Acts of the Apostles we read that he journeyed on foot and by boat from Antioch and Tasrsus and at preached at places that exist today either as ruins or places today... Troy and Ephesus, inland in Galatia, Caesarea in Cappadocia. While we were in Tarsus I met a couple of  delightful men reading the paper and chatting over

This is the 505th post I have made on my Pearls on Wheels Blog. This means that during  the last four and a half years I have had at least 505 days on the back of the Bike with Dick. I began the blog when we set off with Ken and Shirley from Vancouver to Prudhoe Bay in June 2012. We rode to Ushuaia in Tierra Del Fuego.  El fin del mundo -   The end of the world, the beginning of everything Since then Dick and I have ridden around Australia and in 32 states of the USA and five provinces of Canada, and now 25 countries in Europe and Scandanavian and Turkey.  Prior to this we rode in the Indian Himalaya with Mike Ferris. Around 140,000kmin total. Quite a ride! Now about today's ride...