LONG WAY HOME - 1st August 2005 Kars, Turkey Mick: Monday 1st August and another border beckons... now heading west at an alarming rate. We hope to slow down a bit in Turkey. (the last country a visa will be required) We pull another hour back and are now only two hours in front of home. Sad to think that at one time we were eight hours in front!) Visa paid for in US dollars, paperwork done, and we`re in Turkey. Leaving the border control we climb into the mountains, into heavy rain, which then turns into sleet and hailstones, thunder and lightning. It`s so heavy we can`t see a damned thing (and no, Sue didn't still have her sunglasses on) so we pull up... and so does a friendly Turkish van driver... for no other reason than to let us shelter in his van. People eh!
We head for Kars and find the Hotel Karabag... again such a warm and friendly welcome is given out to two, by now, scruffy motorcyclists. Then today (Tuesday 2nd) we take it easy and ride one of `Sue`s Loops`, a mere 160 miles to Erzurum, but spend them all in the hills and mountains, amid green and lush hillsides, waving to friendly people waving to us. Turkey... we hope to meet up with an old pal Paolo Volpara from the One More Mile Riders. I used to come to Turkey once or twice a year to train motorcyclists, and Paolo was the instigator of this. We hope to slow down our rate of progress west a little, look at some of the sites, maybe meet up with other old friends, and generally `chill out` a little. Turkey, a country where petrol is more expensive than the UK! When we leave Turkey we`re back into Europe!