Pictures from Finns camera

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:

Mayo Wynne Baxter

www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

01273 477071

Mayo Wynne Baxter is one of the leading law firms
in the South East with offices throughout Sussex.

&

Gossypium is a leading brand in Fairtrade-certified organic cotton fashion:

• All our products are Fairtrade & organic - we're the real thing
• We only use good quality cotton; organic, pure & strong
• We are responsible for how our products are made
• The eco-system & environment are never far from our thoughts
• We're independent: working together as a family - in business
  

www.gossypium.co.uk

&

(click image to expand)

&

Located in the south lanes close to the seafront Terre à Terre is one of Brighton's leading
restaurants and continuously retaining the prestigious AA Two Rosettes and Michelin: ” Bib Gourmand” awards.

www.terreaterre.co.uk

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SPONSOR US, YOU STILL CAN!

We are obviously trying to raise as much money as possible for the Red Cross, and the default sponsorship donation goes 50/50 for the Red Cross and towards the costs of the trip (Visas, Food, Internet Cafes, Maps etc). We are budgeting as much as possible but it is still difficult to keep the costs down because we cannot control the majority of our spending which is not on food or any other variable but on things like VISAS (It costs £95 for Iranian VISA alone) and maps and unexpected repairs such as my front pannier rack which has given way. Any excess sponsorship cost covering money will go to the Red Cross once we have finished the trip if there is any too.
If you would still like to sponsor us you can by:

Emailing me the amount you have sponsored us, your name, and the amount you want to go to the Red Cross and amount you want to put towards covering the costs of the trip, if any.
The bank account I have set up for the sponsorship money is:

Nationwide
Mr Mohan Everett
account no: 72433983
sort code: 07 00 30

You can pay money into that bank account via phone banking, online banking, cash (in bank) or by cheque.
I'm set up with online banking and will be basing my budgets and checking balance/transferring money with it throughout the whole trip, whenever I'm near a computer.

You can also pay via Paypal to:
Moohan13@gmail.com

Thankyou!

Blog update:


A few of the best photos from Italy, Greece til Turkey. Please start at the bottom of this post and go up. They are in order from bottom to top.

(PLEASE CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE THEM AS THEY ARE HIGH RESOLUTION)




The journey back from the islands all the islands are lit up.

We wer determined to swim before we leave turkey, so we hunted for a suitable spot. Moe checking out the cliff edges.

What a view, of the other islands closest to us.



Such a wicked day trip in the islands

Moe cycling up to the helipad.

Hassan at the top such an incredible view. On the heli pad at the top.

We cycled up a crazy road sooo steep to the highest point of the island. amazing view and very intense cycle.

The island we were on is prince island. no cars and only bycicles aloud its our heaven... the two guys hired bikes, and we set off around the island.

Some amazing islands, would love to camp on this one haha.

the boat crossing through the islands.

Our trip to prince islan with two Libian guys from our hostel. Hassan on the left and

Hagia Sophia at night lit up by the spotlights.

The other view from our hostels roof bar.

Our relaxing evening spent playing chess and smoking the shisha pipe in a local caffe.

The local bagel sellers by the blue mosque, we are their best customers.

Our visit to the grand bazzaar, is amazing but our budget prevented us from buying anything. Try explaining this to the salesman.

Moe joining the hundreds of tourists in this popular photograph spot.

The brıdge in istanbul full of hundreds of fisherman.

Arrival in Istanbul and this is the view from our hostel roof bar... Amazing and only 7 euro a night. Unfortunately camping isnt really possible in this city.

Moes second punture of the trip i still havnt got one which is very surprising really. This punture took us about an hour to fix as our tyre wrench is rubber and the tyre was very cold and stiff. So we were bending the wrench backwards and forwards for hours as it got dark.

Our arrival in turkey.

Moe and all our kit in alexandropoli late at night in the centre of town haha.
Once in thessaloniki we met a group of greeks who showed us a nice cheap bar for greek wine.
This was about as close as we could get to capturing this astonishing view.

After a hard 3 hour cycle uphill we were rewarded by one of the best view of our journey. from the top of the mountain we could see down through the thin clouds into the valley below. Unfortunately no picture we took could capture the view through the clouds.

Grapes everywhere

After one of the many close encounters with a pack of wild dogs, we recovered with some grapes by the roadside like true greeks.

another preying mantis we discoverd doing some crazy stuff and hissing at us in the early morning.

As we were approaching Thessaloniki the sheep took over the road.

Another french cyclist we met who was learning the language of each country he went through as he cycled. He had a book of greek in his handle bar bag so he could read as he cycled.
o
As the landscape got more remote and forested we entered bear country.

This was the hut as we found it, without our walls. It didnt look like a very nice place to sleep. But better than a tent filled with water.

After our experience with the leaky tent we tryed to avoid sleeping in our tent when weather was bad. Therefore even this skelaton of a hut was better than our tent in the rain as it had a waterproof roof haha. We made the makeshift walls using our tent and polithene ground sheets. This nights sleep was one of the coldest of the trip so far because the gale force winds blew under our flimsy walls and the wind even detached our walls it was that strong. So i had to rebuild the walls in the night. My sleeping bag is also completely ripped down to my feet so i had a very cold night.

After we had recoverd from our horrible cycle we had finally dried most of our clothes and shoes. We were back on the road very hilly but amazing views.

The abandoned caffe we sheltered in for 1 day and night in Ioannina. This was just before we cycled in the rain with no food up a mountain away from any towns or shelter or food haha.

Exhausted after a long cycle uphill in the heat.

One of the many preying mantis we narrowly missed squashing as we cycled through greece.
A wild dog pup who looked exactly like a wolf, and was living with a herd of sheep on the mountain side.
One of the many amazing views we witnessed as we cycled up and down the amazıng moutains of greece.
The view from our campsite of the mountins ahead.

The next morning we were both a bit ill and very tired. Insects everywhere and this enourmas spider was one of the animals we found as we dryed out our stuff.

The next day we left Nicola and John and headed north, the weather got bad quickly and this was the result. We were caught in a thunder storm and our tent was tested. It definately failed and within minutes the floor was one big puddle. Everything was soaked including sleeping bags and i definately had the worst sleep of my life. This picture shows our attempts to stop the rain and we had to wake up repeatedly and take it in turns to empty the pot outside haha.

Our private beach was lovely and we enjoyed snorkling here.
Our firs proper day in greece and we met Nıcola and John from the lake district. They had cycled here through the northern route of Romania, Albania ect. They are wicked was so good to meet other english people after so long. We traded books, and spent the night on this small beach.
An amazıng beach in a small town we went through.
Back on the road whith our repaid bikes. The scenery is amazıng as we approach the most south east point of italy.
Thıs was after my collision with a car in the town of Bali. My front wheel was completely bent and we attempted to fix it using the spoke tool. But after about 20mins of trying to bend the rim back into shape we decided i would need a new wheel. We pushed the bike into town and eventually after some very enthusiastic directions from a group of italian guys. We found a small bike shop which didnt look very useful. The shop was more of a museum. The owner had no spare parts only tools, and the walls were lined with pictures of him winning bicycle compatitions. It was amazing, he took my broken wheel inside and we watched as he speedily flew the wheel round and adjusted spokes like a true master. He bent the rim back into shape and in about 2 minutes my unfixable wheel was better than it had ever been. Anyway this picture is what the mechanic did to moes broken front rack. The rack is now super strong and although it looks a bit dodgy, the bit of metal he put in has saved us another lot of money. He charged us 10 euro for the lot which saved my about 60 euro for a new wheel.
This was an amazing sunrise from the roadside. We had woken up especially early because of our slightly dodgy camping spot ın a restuarant lawn. But had a wicked early morning cycle and covered a lot of miles towards greece.
One of our many afternoon lunch swims. The beaches were amazıng and kept getting better as we went further south.

Amazıng views as we cycled down the Italian coast. The scenery just kept getting better the further south we went. This was taken from a brıdge crossing one of the many small rivers that join the sea.

Gradually as we woke up more and more fisherman appeard until we were surrounded by them. I didnt see any of them catch anything though.
Waking up to find a new nabour the local fisherman who was probably fishing from about 3am. He carried on until we left at about 10.30am. He didnt seem to notice us sleeping in the middle of the beach.