Biketour Southwest Turkey.

Click on a picture for the enlargement.

The autumnvacation was approaching and this year we would take a trip to Turkey.
Of course one doesn't get a chance very often to have a bikeride in foreign countries, so I planned to rent a Harley for a day and explore some of the Turkish countryside.
Harley Davidson doesn't seem to be very popular with the Turks, because I haven't seen any.
Renting a heavier bike isn't easy either. Bodrum is a reasonable city, where a lot of tourists come every year. The first evening it already became clear. Walking the busiest shopping-street, we were addressed by intrusive vendors, who sold amongst other things: clothes. They told us that they were selling cheaper than Zeeman and Wibra, so they were used to Dutch people.

Day 3, I walked to the only bike-rental-store with heavier bikes. As soon as I walked in, I saw some unknown brands and a Japanese Harley, that should be mine for the day.
After paying 50 Euros, the owner handed me the key and after the lender dropped the 50 Euros on the floor and picked it up again (seems to bring luck), my trip could start.
First I drove past the harbour, where there are beautiful wooden clippers. Not one, but serveral hundreds along this part of the coast.

Leaving Bodrum, I drive to the next village, called Gumbet. Along the Bay, I follow the coast. I mean to follow the coastline of the entire peninsula.
The temperature was good and I really enjoyed the panoramas seen from the mountains. The first part of the tour, I really had to get used to driving without a helmet, had not done that in 33 years. From one of the mountains I suddenly get a very nice glance of a view on the Bitez Bay.

Carefully I touch the brakes, it is quite dangerous to use the front-brake, because of the loose gravel at the size of dice. It is not uncommon that the sewer-covers stick about 10 cm. above the road-surface.
While looking over the wall, I carefully pushed the bike closer to the edge of the road. Suddenly the Honda dived down and pulled the steeringrod out of my hands. Close to the wall, there was a milled gutter of 30 cm wide and about 40 cm deep. Boy, what a hard job to lift this machine out of this trench.

I realise, that I'd better pay more attention to the road-surface from now on. That wasn't a bad thought, because a while later, there stood a cow in the middle of the road.
Later I was startled a few times by goats crossing the road suddenly. It is a wonderful feeling to drive the mountains up and down at a teperature of 25 degrees.
The scenery is varies by pieces of rough nature and a little later a sleeping village, with flat grounds, close to the coast.

Every village has one or more mosks. You recognise them easily by the slender minarets. First I thought there were so many, but then I realised that in the Netherlands, every village had one or more churches. It was extremely quiet on the roads, which suited me just fine, because I really had to pay attention on the road-surface.
After passing the picturesque village of Turgutreis, my eye fell upon the white dust clouds next to the road.

On a field surrounded by wire-netting, men were busy with large grinders, making statues out of white granite.
About 20 years ago I used to make wood-carvings for classic yachts an I still am interested in visual arts.
So I placed the Honda on its jiffy and walked through the gate, towards the closest artist. Close to the man, I called him and he put his grinder aside, in order to talk to me. He told me they made sculptures on demand. When I told him, that I used to make statues out of wood for classic Dutch ships, he asked interested, if I was from the Netherlands.

After I confirmed that, he asked me if I knew Freek de Jonge. Well, who doesn't know Freek. A few years back he seemed to have made a 2 metres tall wooden sculpture for him. Boy, how small is the world, I thought. On the picture, the hoisting crane is visible. They use this to overturn the blocks of granite and for placing them on the pedestal.

Right after the village of Uranium, I travel along the most beautiful Bays into the direction of Yalikavak. Beyond Yalikavak I would travel landinward to have a look at some 600 years old windmills. They are scattered over the entire peninsula, but these were special, as they are on the highest point of the road-network. Here I found myself on 650 metres above sea-level and had a fabulous view over the biggest part of the peninsula and a panoramic view.

While enjoying this wonderful view, I overheard a car that came grumbling to a standstil. So I dismounted the view-point and offered the driver of the car a lift to get some help. He was thankful that I offered, but he had already phoned a friend who was on his way.

I continued my trip and drove up on a small mountainroad to the village Karavil Dagi, that lay high upon the mountain. This road was so steep in places, that I drove with dragging shoes in fear of falling. There was so much gravel and sand on this road that you could not exactly speak of a hard surface. Using the fronk-brake was a big "no no". On arrival in the village I had a sanitary stop at a simple diner.

In contrast to the seaside resort this place was very cheap and I bought an icecream for only 0,35 ytl, which is the equivalent of about 17 Eurocent. This was in a sharp contrast with the fuel-prices, because one litre euro 95 was here 2.76 ytl. That would mean that it was about 1,37 Euro, so even more expensive than in the Netherlands.

After leaving the village I decided to turn back, the trip down the mountain was nerve-racking.
From time to time the rear wheel started blocking in the gravel, if only I used the engine to slow down. Then the machine was almost uncontrolable. After a nerve-racking 20 minutes I reached the main road and continued this road to the North coast, along Agacli Bay and kept following the coastline from here.

The small villages that I passed looked like ghost-towns. There was nobody in the streets. That was nice actually. 30 Years ago on an early sundaymorning it could be as quiet as that in the Netherlands. Close to Turbuku Bay I discovered a small shipyard where wooden yachts were restaured. During a storm a few yachts had been washed ashore as you can see in the picture. After visiting this shipyard, I took the highway to drive the last part back to Bodrum.

A beautiful biketour of about 180 km. with wonderful weather.

I think that this was my last tour of this year, but it certainly was a wonderful closure of the bikeseason.

J. de Lange.