Day 16 - Tuesday 5th July - mileage 3543 - Tasuco, Turkey

Up and away from the apartment by 9 am. The bike would not start and had to be turned over a number of times before it eventually fired up. I wonder whether this is a function of the last service only changing the oil and filter and not the plugs. It has started up ok since being stopped on the ferry for 7 hours, so I can only hope that it was to do with being stood for 5 days. Anyway if there is a problem it will show itself and we will have to deal with it.

On to the border (the British Sovereign) crossing at Versoullyses near Derynia. The Greek side just waved me through, but true to form I had troubles at the Turkish side. The woman at the kiosk said that I had the wrong insurance and that I should have had insurance that had been issued by a computer and not the hand written document that I had. This is rich considering all the debate there was between the different authority factions when I entered the country. She said could I go to Nicosia and resolve the issue. By now I had learnt to say no and told her I had to be in Kyrenia by 10:30 to cat h a boat. She phoned a few people and then decided to relent and just stamped the passport and said ok go.

On the 50km to Kyrenia and then started all the paperwork trail again to get out of TRNC. Eventually arrived at the Sid of the boat and they parked me up to allow all the other vehicles to board first. I sat in the shade under a lorry trailer that had been parked and waited. The boat was due to depart at 12:00, but actually only left the port at 13:40. However it was quite interesting to watch the lorries reverse onto the ship through the narrow bow opening. Took some pictures of the process and the bike in final position.














Managed to find a row of seats close to an air conditioning blower and so stretched out and managed to get some sleep on the 7 hour crossing.
Landed at Tasuco on the south coast of Turkey and again went through all the bureaucracy of paperwork and officials. Had some help from a Turkish family whose daughter had been studying at Cyprus University and they told me where to go and when. The customs official was searching all the lorries and cars, but when she came to me she checked all the paperwork, and was leaving and so I asked whether she wanted to search the motorbike panniers. She looked at me and smiled saying "you have not got anything in there".
Found a nice cheap hotel with air conditioning in Tasuco and went and got some Turkish lire and then a meal, and off to bed ready for the long ride needed tomorrow.

More later
TOR.

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