Good wet old Scotland!

The flat is still there, Tim's back at work and Sara is surviving her first day in Uni, well and it is raining...everything back to normal! (updated stats page)

What a great time we had! Plenty memories in the bank! No doubt more adventures to come....

...but for now that's all from us -Thanks for reading- Tim & Sara

Levsos, Chios & the long way home

We are in Wales! After almost 24hr travel with bicycle,ferry, taxi, plane and car we made it home to Tim's parents.
The last few days in Greece were great. What a lovely finish to a fantastic trip.
First there was a bit more chilling out on the beaches of Levsos...

Then we took the ferry to the island of Chios where we stayed in the beautiful B&B of family Topakas.

After a idyllic breakfast in the courtyard we loaded the bikes one last time...

...and rode the 40km over the inland hills of Chios to get to the island's second Port in Mesta.

We passed the pretty village of Armolia, famous for its colourful pottery...

...and the picturesque town of Pyrgi with steep winding streets, painted houses and sundrying tomatoes hanging in the door frames...

We then boarded our last ferry to Lavrio and finished cycling with a final total of 4349km. What a trip, it'll still all have to sink in. We shall do a final sum up when we reach Scotland.

Sunrise,Tzatziki & an island or two

The last couple days we cycled from Kavala to Thessaloniki using the old main road along the coast. We are now on puncture 14! Other then that we thouroughly enjoyed our roll along the sea - with some hills, some tourist villages and with warm but not too hot weather - Lovely.
We rolled past vinyards, sugar cane and cotton fields.

Now and then archeological sites and monuments appear along the road like this impressive 1600 year old lion statue,which is the "Lion of Amphipoli" build in honour of one of the admirals of Alexander the Great...

We enjoyed watching the sunrise at breakfast...very romantic indeed.

In Thessaloniki we hopped on the overnight ferry to Levsos....see below about to land in Mytilini, the main town of the island.

We chilled out in the harbour and will move on tomorrow night to the island of Chios before taking the last ferry to Lavrio,on the mainland SE of Athens and then heading for the airport...
We are slowly trying to ease ourselves into the fact that we are in our last few days...

Puncture Perfect!

So, here we are in Kavala. After the highways of Turkey we headed for Dadia forest nature reserve, host to 36 of the 38 species of birds of prey found in Europe. We stayed at the eco tourist centre which has rooms of hotel standard for hostel prices. Very nice.

The staff however seemed little disorganised and uninterested. We decided to forego the minibus trip to the hide with 'Stavros' and cycle up. Glad we did, others were shipped out with barely a chance to unpack their binoculars...

We spotted some Black Vultures, Griffon vultures, Egyptian vultures and various types of eagle. The WWF play an important part in monitoring the birds and regularly provide donkey carcasses to supplement their diet. With the abundance of food you can pretty much turn up any time and be guaranteed to see the birds.

Onward to Alexandroupoli and we decided to hit the smaller roads through the mountains and were rewarded with fantastic traffic free roads and stunning views.

Had to keep an eye out for the tortoises mind, could have caused a bit of a surprise dismount. These two were having a bit of a lovers tiff involving lots of shell biting...

Back to the coast between Alexandroupoli and Maronia, passing a number of ancient archaeological sites including a small amphitheatre, cemetery and watch tower.

Not satisfied with the roads of Mongolia we decided to do a bit on the gravel tracks. Got a little more than we bargained for, very steep and rocky and would certainly have been impassable by car. Just the way we like it...

We arrived in Maronia to discover the camp site we had spotted on the internet did not apparently exist...Ah well, the only accommodation we could find was a 4 star hotel, so we had to make do...

More coastal riding to Fanari and back to camping by the beach.

As always food is never far from our thoughts. A delicious tuna, feta salad ala Sara...

Yet more interesting wildlife at the Vistonida Lake. Here a pod of pelicans...

Punctures, punctures, punctures. Unbelievable...After having only 3 punctures up to day 80, the Greek roads seem to be throwing their best at us. Here Tim repairs puncture no. 9 in a single tube over a period of three days...glass, thorns, wire...you name it, we've managed to ride over it...

Arrival in Kavala and time to work out how to get to Athens in 5 days and take in a Greek Island or two...

Bye Bye Turkei - Where are the big birds?

Today we crossed the Turkey - Greece border at Kipi and it's just as hot on the other side. The last few days have been good. From Silivri we cycled the main road towards Ipsala and sampled some rather croweded and noisy campsites.

But who cares as life revolves around food and after the last 6weeks we thoroughly enjoy long, tasty breakfasts - yammm..

Yep - we both now have matching sunhats, sunglasses and Birkenstocks! Marital behaviour has definitely fully set in - doh!

Couple of days ago we met these chaps, Henry and Jamie who are on a 18months adventure from London to Sydney - they are riding to raise money - check out their website and donate here. Thanks for the Greek map guys!

So we cycled on in hilly Turkey on small and main roads and we were granted an entire! day with tail wind - nice!

Then we ended up on the Autobahn - Motorway in Greece. Photo below: We just had climbed the fence to the right as our little road just stopped so we had to continue on the motorway - that was a first (and hopefully a last).

Now we are off to Dadia Forest Reserve to check out some Big Birds - apparently 36 of the 38 European Birds of Prey come through this migratory path - see what we can see....

Off to the beach!

See also two NEW posts below (Gobi & Beijing)...

The flight and check in at Beijing airport was remarkably smooth.
At the packaging desk the bikes got cardboard protection.

And it was no problem to get them on the plane. The flight was 10hours and we were treated very well. Two excellent meals and personal screens wıth plenty of movies, Audio books,TV etc to choose from - Turkish Airlines all the way!

We landed at 4.30am, put the bikes back together, packed up and waited for daylight and then set off at about 7am. Soon we reached the coast.

It is hot, the roads are busy, very busy. We really still feel the proximity of Istanbul - and are glad we did not cycle into the city which sounds mad with 20million residents spread over only half the size of London - aaahh!
Navigation was tricky, especially as we tried every opportunity to avoid the dual carriage way. We ended in dead ends a few times, one of them a massive industrial port - not sure how we managed that, must have been the lack of sleep!

But with the help of some extraordinarily friendly people who just approached us and helped, when we looked a bit lost we made it. In the evenıng we rolled ınto Silivri campsite (SouthEast of Istanbul) after 82km rather then the estımated 55km by google maps - oops. Since then it has been bliss - beach, swimming and wining and dining with Paul and Jane from Essex (UK) who are on a 7months camper van tour through Europe - Lovely!

We are slowly catching up on sleep and are getting used to the heat. Tomorrow we are setting off
towards the Greek border.

We are looking forward to pass through Macedonia and will try to cycle mostly in the mornings to avoid the big afternoon heat.

Beijing - an easy Tourist life!

Beijing - we loved Beijing! The city ıs home to 18millıon people and is the same size as Belgium! People were very friendly and calm. Everyone cycles or uses electric mopeds and the bikes rule the traffic - with red lights seemingly optional to pedestrians and cyclists, which took a bit of getting used to. Yes, Motorists toot their horns, which is blissfully ignored by all 2-wheelers!

Wandering around the streets we encountered quite a few strict rules though, enforced by eager police men and women and signposted by these signs, see below. So better not think of flying a kite or making a bondfire in Beijing!

We enjoyed strolling through the "Hutongs" - Sidestreets of the city.

And then we dived into the mad tourist stream at the forbidden city, one of six world heritage sites in the city and a major attraction.

Rather then sun cream the Chinese make use of umbrellas in rain and sun.

And it was full of people, a 15mın walk turned ınto 2hours weaving around umbrellas. But all in a chılled out atmosphere. Below ıs the " Gate of Surpreme Harmony" one of the palace buildings of the forbidden city. It's an impressive array of palaces built mainly during the Ming Dynasty 600 years ago and since then home to 24 emperors.

We relaxed in a side street poetry cafe afterwards and made a more or less artistic contribution to the guestbook.

We also enjoyed the food - Beijing is all about food with something like 60 000 restaurants. Not to forget the famous "Peking Duck" which was advertised everywhere.

Our hotel (Kıng's Joy Hotel) was great! Big, right in the centre, clean and good breakfast.

We spent many hours exploring the city on our bicycles...also in search for a bike shop...

We had almost given up - all bike repair stands were more geared towards the typical get-around-the city-bike and had not the type of wheel we needed to fix Tim's bike. But then on Sunday night at 8pm we stumbled across a proper mountainbike shop - complete coincidence and luck (apparently it's the only one it's kind in the whole city). The guys in there were very friendly and built Tim a new wheel right there and then, despite it was passed their closing time! How cool is that!

We met Satoshi in the shop, a Japanese guy who lives in Beijing and is a keen Mountainbiker. He helped us with vital! translation - Thank you again!

One evening we enjoyed an interestimg couple of hours watching a show about the story of kungfu in the Red theatre.

And then there was the great wall! We used the offered tour by our hotel and joıned a tour bus to Mutıanyu one of the visitable sectıons 90km NorthEast of Beijing. We took the cable car up...

...and walked along the wall turning Tim into a real man - as in China that's what it takes - touchıng the great wall!Done!

The steps were very steep ın places.

Best about this section of the wall is that there is the option of a toboggan ride to the bottom - great fun!

On our last day, 25th August we packed up and rode to the Airport.