Advertisement
Published: January 19th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Anzac memorial
The sun seemed to be shining on us and our fallen brothers. Now begins the second part of this little tale.
It starts where many great journies of the world have started, in Istanbul, Turkey. This was my fourth or fith visit to Istanbul in the last couple of months. But this time it was a little different.
Why i hear you ask my dear reader.
Well, it marked the start of a bike ride from Turkey through the Middle East and Central Asia and onto Russia.
Having never done any long distance cycling before, and to be honest not a great deal of short distance cycling, i was feeling a bit of trepidation about the next part of my trip. Many people had asked me about the ride- where we were going, why we were doing it, did i realise how cold it gets in central asia this time of year. Of course i brushed off all these questions with bravado and macho, and that typical aussie phrase "she'll be right". While i was confident about the trip i was also feeling nervous about what lay ahead. But this nervous energy was good, it meant i was going out of a comfortable existance and into unknown territory, both
What a view
The view from our hostel in southern Turkey. Cool eh? physically and mentally. Bring it on!
I flew into Istanbul and with a few days before Kris arrived met up with Chad and Callin. We spent an awesome week or so in Istanbul and down the south west coast of Turkey. It was awesome seeing them again and cemented a great friendship between us all.
I what seemed like a flash of time i was back in Istanbul and drinking celebratory beers with Kris Longmore. The 6ft 7inch freak of nature i would be attempting the bike ride with.
Before the bike ride though we had one important piece of business to attend to. A pilgramige to Galliopli.
Im sure most people know the significance that the Galipolli campaign in WWI holds for Australian's, so it was with a great deal of excitement that we headed down there. First we had a bit of a hic-up. Due to a few too many beers the night before we missed our 6:30am bus trip. All was not lost, being the dedicated men we are we jumped on a later bus and were deposited at ????? We roamed around for a few minutes and quickly located a taxi that would take us to the Peninsula. It was about 9pm by now, and still feeling a bit doughy we piled out of the taxi and went in search of Anzac Cove.
Through pine forests, dirt tracks and thick as pea soup fog we managed to find Anzac Cove. It was a very sombre moment, the dense fog and gentle lapping of the waves seemed to negate the need to speak. The peace and silence of the area belied the intense fighting and sacrifice (by both sides) that occured on the very spot where we were pitching our simple tent.
The morning revealed the Peninsula streatching past us to the south, and the steep hills heading inland. We cooked up a quick breakfast and knowing that camping is banned on the Cove we packed up and headed into the hills.
By this time we had a new member of the team, a stray gangly brown dog had adopted us for the day. He was quickly called "browny" and was a faithful companion for the day.
The day was spent visiting the sights, Schrapnal Alley, Lone Pine and several other sights. It was a very moving experience looking over the graveyards and endless names, ages mostly in the early twenties. Standing there under the heave grey clouds, looking onto the calm Meditteranian sea I couldnt help but think what if that was me standing there all those years ago, rifle in hand, mates on either side of me breathing the thick bloddied air, waiting for the order to dive over the dugout to face the enemy. And in many cases find certain death on the other side. We kept walking to try and shake these heavy feelings.
We Walked though old bunkers, tunnels, and many memorial graveyards. Towards eary afternoon we started to head back to ???? Hitching a couple of rides into town. Then onto a bus and back to Istanbul.
Back in Istanbul we got down to the business of visa hunting. We managed to be reasonably efficient and picked up our Uzbekistan and Syrian visas in a couple of days. Kris and I were both getting super pumped now. Having these visas really made the trip seem more tangible, it was really happening.
Somewhere in here it was my 27th birthday. I was reminded by this after breakfast when Kris came with birthday offerings of a hoodie, jeez what a guy! Our new Canadian friends (hullo Lauren, Caytlin, Jo, Ash et al!!) wished me a very happy birthday. I was pretty stoked to be around friends like this for my birthday.
That night we celebrated with a couple of beers and a couple of three lira kebaps from the world famous three lira kepab man. God bless that guy! While not a traditional Aussie birthday night of getting drunk and being silly it was fun playing cards with Kris and the girls all the same. The next morning we said our goodbyes to the girls (another sad parting, dang these are getting a bit tough) and they headed back to France.
Spider and I on the otherhand were headed to Capadocia in central Turkey to start our bike ride, happy days!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 76; dbt: 0.0633s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb