Sunday, 8 November 2009

Pictures from Finns camera

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:


Mayo Wynne Baxter
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.

Pictures from Mohans camera.

We have been kindly sponsored and supported by:


Mayo Wynne Baxter
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 weather improved since we've been here and it was actually sunny, warm with blue skys! Nice Istanbul sea (though a bit polluted).


Fresh fish stall! This sold cheap fish which was caught by fishermen who were all on the big bridge of istanbul about 100m from here!


The DIAMOND of a man we met in Istanbul!!
We were on a search for a new O-ring for our stove (after a tip off that we could get them in Istanbul, from Friedel who commented our last post - thankyou!) This man went around loads of shops in istanbul with us for about half an hour trying to find an O ring that fitted our stoves piston! The last place we tried had the right fitting for our piston-case but not the right size hole to clip onto the piston itself. So the man cut a smaller one to the right size with a scalpal blade. He did this 3 times so we had spares and didnt charge us!



Finn getting his hair cut by a LEGENDARY Turkish barber! He left a tail on the end of his head til right at the end of his hair cut and convinced finn that he would leave it! Haha! He also left that big tuft on the front of his head for most of it... It was so cheap! Cost us about the equivalent of £1.75!!!


Our stove broke after we had bought about 3 days worth of stove cooking food, so we had a feast when we got this baby started! Tea, pasta and rice for everyone.





A fire in the Turkish woods.


Cute laughing little stray kıtten. It scrounged lots of cheese off us.







The hut of gloom. We slept here for 3 nights during a 3 day storm it was GRIM. Bad but funny memories.


A view from a greek mountain we cycled up. (Yes that is a motorway down there).


If that hut had a roof we probably would have slept in it...


A translucent mist covering the beautiful Greek countryside we were cycling over/past.


A roadside snack of pineapple..


haha.


Another hut we slept in...



Close up of our bodget made hut.


The hut from a distance.


One of our home which we slept in, in the Greek mountains. It was a skeleton of a hut. So we fastened our groundsheets, tent waterproofing, and polythene lining sheets on the walls to reduce the wind and potential rain. It was a cold nights sleep because we were pretty high up, but I was fine because of my beautiful Snugpak sleeping bag... Finn was not so lucky even though he slept in all his clothes, my jumper, his sleeping bag and my bivvy bag.


This picture has more to it than you can see-
We were caught in some light rain which started to develop as we set up our tent. This worried us but it wasnt heavy enough to penetrate our easily water permable tent. However, in the morning after a good sleep the rain started to get very strong and the clouds were very dark. We quickly packed it away and cycled off set to the nearest bit of half decent shelter to eat breakfast in and wait to see if the rain would reduce.
We found a big sheltered terrace type thing which was part of the restaurant we were sitting outside. The place was being refurbished and as it was a sunday the builders were not there.
We sat under it eating a nice breakfast of choc spread on a mashed up loaf of bread (it had been stuffed in one of our panniers for a couple of days) and had multiple cups of tea. And cocoa.
The rain carried on and on... and it was far too heavy to cycle in. As the evening came and still no sign of the rain reducing, we decided we would stay there. We spent the evening deciding on what we would do the next morning if the rain was still the same as we didnt want to stay there and also the builders would probably continue their job on the restaurant. We decided that we would cycle and so we made sure all our stuff was double waterproofed - we wrapped our clothes in our groundsheets in our panniers etc.
We then slept in our usual sleeping gear but without the tent, and got up at 5.am. Ate a breakfast of just plain rice and mentally prepped ourselves for the big cycle. It was absolutely grim weather! Torrential rain with lots of fog. We decided we would just wear our shorts and a t shirt because we could power as fast as we could to keep ourselves warm and it would mean we would keep most our clothes warm. We also had a mountain to cycle up so thought that it would be ok seeing as we'd be powering uphill.
We made two wally mistakes.
The first was that we didnt waterproof our shoes! and the second was that we actually went ahead with this not thinking that mountains are not all uphill - there is a downhill on the other side. So we powered it up the mountain and got SOAKED. We then came flying down the other side absolutely FREEZİNG! We had to stop every 300m or so to do star jumps because we felt dangerously cold. It is the coldest I reckon I've ever been! Not good! We then saw a sign saying the next town was 10km away ...nooo!
We both agreed we didnt think our bodies would take us that far in their current condition let alone mentally. So we eventually found a house with a garage which didnt have door which we rolled into and got out all our wet clothes. Dried ourselves with our towels and got into our dry warm clothes and sleeping bags desperately trying to warm up.
The fact we were both starving did not help and we had no food and had used the last of our petrol in the stove cooking our rice which we ate for breakfast!
We made a lot of BIG mistakes in quite a few areas! But we learnt from it.... the hard way.
This photo is Finn pouring the water out his shoe when we were in the Garage after we had warmed up and the rain had cleared!!! And we went (cycling in flip flops and socks because our shoes were soaked) and found a petrol station soon after which sold biscuits which took us to the next town.


Our temporary home with the lovely view.


The night after the storm we found this and the sky was cloudy so we slept here to avoid the same thing happening before we had been fully recovered. It turns out it did not rain at all but the hut was a lovely nights sleep and meant no fiddling with assembling tents and less packing!
A tramps paradise!


After the worst nights sleep of the trip to date.
-After a strong storm which lasted all night and soaked the whole tent. It was like a little crap cold swimming pool all night. Both of our sleeping bags were soaked through and we struggled to stay warm. It was like sleeping in a big wet sponge. We both felt very crap the next day, but at least it was sunny, or we would have been baaad! This pic shows us drying all our kit the next morning!


My beautiful bike on the Greek beach.


Finn having a very blue swim.


Finn with Nic and Jon.


Having a swim and snorkle (taken by the brits we met)
On a little secluded beach ın Igoumenitsa where we camped with the English cyclists Jon and Nic.


Treating the upper body a bit!


Chin ups on the ferry from Italy to Greece!


Nice view as we came down the other side and went through an olive tree forest.


The hills coming closer


Mountains in the distance!


Sunrise (from where we woke up) After a night without the tent.


Cloud of mosquitos


Nice view as we walked over a bridge in İtaly


Finn using the very low cashpoint.



Kilo of pasta! :)



Swim



Italian beach in the morning.



Our veggie dinner in Italy. We got it from a roadside stall.

Sunday, 1 November 2009

Cold Istanbul.

We are now fınally ın Istanbul!
Fırst thıng to report really ıs the temperature!! Its FREEZING!
It was 2 degrees C at 15.30 when we arrıved here 2 days ago!!! mad.
It ıs now around 7 C and ıt ıs 8.20am here.
Despıte beıng cold ıt ıs really nıce here ıt ıs SO dıfferent to Europe already!
We have already been hassled to buy chaı tea too many tımes and a man ınsısted on cleanıng Fınns shoes whıch he refused haha.
We arrıved here two days ago and the sıtuatıon was raın dark cold etc.... We made for the nearest (I say nearest but we ended up pushıng our bıkes about 4km) Hotel whıch was cheap ısh. As there was and ıs NOWHERE to camp as you may be able to ımagıne ın a cıty as bıg as Istanbul.
It was also peeıng ıt down as a bonus whıch we were eager to avoıd havıng been soaked ın the tent the prevıous nıght and havıng to get out of the tent ınto the ıntense wınd to put pegs back ın whıch had been yanked out by the wınd.
So we found a cheap crap hotel happıly and crashed out...
The next day (day 2 ın Istanbul) we ran to the nearest ınternet cafe and searched all hostels ın ıstanbul and settled for the cheapest one whıch was 10km away ın the central area.
We eventually found ıt wıth the help of frıendly Turkısh polıce after lots of cold searchıng and cyclıng round ın cırcles (we have no map) dıscoverıng that we cycled past ıt twıce.
We have put our bıkes away safely here and started the logıstıcs of our next move - gettıng an Indıan VISA ın Turkey whıch seems to have been quıte problem for some people accordıng to the Lonely planet websıte forum etc.
Aparantly they are not keen on ıssuıng VISAs to non-turkısh natıonals. BUT a few people have got them fıne wıth the help of the Brıtısh consulate wrıtıng a 'note verbal' whıch basıcally confırms that you are the holder of your passport whıch ıs a bıt stupıd because ıt's just a letter whıch would obvıously be easıer for forge than a passport!
The maın drawback of thıs ıs that the Brıts charge you 70quıd each for thıs!!!
But I guess ıf ıt's gotta be done then ıts gotta be done!
It was Sunday yesterday so the Consulates were closed and we are now about to head down to the Consulate and try wıthout the letter and see how ıt goes.
The plan/only optıon ıs that we stay here tıl/ıf our VISA has been processed then book the next flıght to Indıa (you can book 4days ın advance wıthout ıt beıng more expensıve than bookıng months ahead wıth the aırlıne we are lookıng at).
Once we have establıshed the vısa sıtuatıon we are goıng to order a new pump for our stove whıch has packed ın (the O-rıng on the pıston has torn) so we have no pressure ın our stove.
Basıcally we just want to know that we havent got to go to Ankara to the Embassıes there (as the are just the consulates here) as the stove pump would probably take a week or so to arrıve so we want to know that we are goıng to def be here!
Anyway all ıs well apart from all the confusıng paper work sıde of everythıng :)
Thıs hostel ıs cheap and decent so we are happy.
Wıll re update wıth more blog-vıdeos whıch we havent uploaded yet as soon as we are ın the waıtıng posıtıon here.