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Travels in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan & Northern India
Part 7: 16 October 2002
Location : Gent, Belgium
Total ridden kilometres till today : 28,076
27 days in Turkey (return journey) / 3,340 km
9 days from Italy to Belgium / 1,900 km
We pull up at the service station just across the border in Belgium to wait for my brother and sister-in-law. They will accompany us by bike for the last 60 kms home. We're hours early for the appointment so we'll have to while away some time in the restaurant here. A man walks up to us and the bikes, his hands in his pockets. He starts talking and asks in the dialect of this region : "Do you come from far away ?" We look at each other, not really knowing what to answer on such occasions. Hesitantly, Iris says : "Well... yes, we come from India." -
"From India ? You mean... India ???" We nod and mumble a yes.
"But... what about the men?" the astonished man asks.
"There are no men." - "Oh, I see, I see..." We slowly gathe r our things to go and sit inside. Then the man adds : "It's a hobby hey, it's a hobby for sure... !"
From our idyllic spot in Turkey at Ucagiz, we finally get moving again. We still had a solid bit of road left before reaching home. Via the luxurious port of Gocek and a smaller port in Datca, we made of Selcuk our last Turkish stop before taking the boat at Cesme.
Southwestern Turkey was so "western", the shock of hitting Europe turned out to be a smooth transition instead. Boarding the ferry took ages in a biting sea breeze until a collective uproar of the 12 motorbikers shattered the ferry personnel. All bikers had been touring in Turkey, but two Italians had done extensive adventure journeys before. One of them, a friendly and humble enduro rider,turned out to be an incredibly talented tuning 'amateur', a BMW-GS freak who had tuned several bikes to his specific desires. He made his own casts for a carbon fairing, and turned a brake disk on a lathe to provide his GS with perfect rear stopping power - have a look athttp://www.touareg.supereva.it He also managed to slim a GS down to just under 150 kg, an achievement that made my chin drop.
The two nights and days on the boat passed by without getting bored, but then reality hit hard when riding from Ancona to Brescia : 418 km in a freezing, pitch dark night. Our friends in Brescia spoilt us again with food and drinks and their washing machine. We were even officially welcomed at the Brescian town hall with local and gay press present
Then it was on to our German super-mechanic, Walter Seifert, whom we only knew from lots of pre-journey contacts and orders via Internet, and who had helped us out instantly via e-mail on a few occasions during the journey. We thought kindness and hospitality was more or less limited to countries outside the western world, but he and his wife proved us very wrong. And when he checked Iris's bikes valves (because we couldn't think of anything else to check), he was amazed to find he didn't have to adjust any. With more then 50,000 kms without any adjusting, he said to Iris she was "ein sehr humane Motorradfahrerin". We were collectively proud the two Suzukis had made it without any problem on this long and sometimes harsh journey.
After southern Germany we headed for France in a right angle, and had our "last" tte-tte supper drenched in real champagne. The next day we continued to the French-Belgian border with a strange knot in our bellies. We hadn't been nervous before, but now we were REALLY almost home. We promised each other to keep maximum concentration - two friends of ours had had accidents right before getting home from a long journey, and this was the last thing we wanted.
On Sunday October 13th, at 5 p.m. sharp, we turned around the corner of our street... and couldn't believe our eyes : there was a crowd and banners and music and french fries and beer and wine and even local press. We were home. Without accidents or break downs, without the slightest drop of rain in Europe.
Now we're sitting in a cosily warm living room, the rain beating against the windows. Just done a small dishes, and finished folding away three loads of laundry. Flowers, and several bottles of wine and champagne with congratulation cards are spread all over. Our luggage lays partly unpacked and there're two boxes full of mail. We pick up something, then read another newspaper, put on a CD. We're slightly confused.
But we're home, two heads full, grinning from ear to ear, proud, and happy.
Iris and Trui
P.S.: in a few weeks time our website will be updated with a new selection of photographs, the ones we had in our panniers from Ladakh till home. The captions will also be added on all images new and old.
The final statistics:
- total of fuel consumed (both bikes together) : 3,001 l
- most expensive fuel : 1.25 Euro / l, in Turkey (outward journey)
- cheapest fuel : 500 rial = 0.065 Euro / l, in Iran
- number of tyres changed : 4
- number of punctures : 0 (YESsss !!!)
- number of horns lost : 6
- total weight of luggage (on both bikes together) : 86.1 kg (including 5 l of water; not including weight of the panniers (3 x 5.7 kg), racks (2 x 6 kg) and fuel (2 x 24.5 l = 40 kg)
- weight of one motorbike (empty) : 147 kg
- hottest day : 58C upon arrival at noon in Bam, eastern Iran (outward journey)
- coldest day : 5.4C leaving from Vhringen, Germany at noon (return journey)
- longest day : 968 km / 9 h 55 (true riding time) from Zahedan to Mashhad, eastern Iran
- shortest day : 63 km / 1 h 23 (true riding time) from Lahore, Pakistan to Amritsar, India
- highest average speed : 104.3 km/h from Ancona to Brescia, Italy (return journey)
- lowest average speed : 27.7 km/h from Darcha to Sarchu on the Manali-Leh road, northern India
- number of times severe diarrhoea : 4
- number of other diseases : 0
- number of pages written in our logbooks : 526
- number of fines/bribes : 0
- number of lost kilos (both girls together) : 6 (12 halfway, in Pakistan)
- number of different lodging places : 87
Total number of days travelled : 195 (6.5 months)
Total number of kilometres : 28,076
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