Two bikes too big for a photo

We started the day by waving off Danny and Sharon while we waited for our motor bike to be delivered. They both happened around the same time and my first impressions of the bike was not good; especially when he said that I had to put oil in every two days. It was probably about 100cc when it was new but had lost half its power during its long and hard life. We set off towards Icmeler and it made an awful racket which seemed to make everyone turn around and take a look at what all the fuss was about. Most people laughed at us; I even saw a dog stop and look around and I’m sure he was laughing too. The further we travelled the more noises seemed to spring from the wreck and the more smoke it kicked out. After we got to the other side of Icmeler there are very steep windy hills that take you towards Turunc, our destination. The bike laboured more and more as it pumped out more and more smoke but luckily there were no people around to entertain. It slowed so much I couldn’t balance it and had to put my legs out and stop. Every time I started to have another go I didn’t move but just billowed out poisonous smoke everywhere. We realized that this bike was going no where so I switched the engine off to cool down while the smoke cleared while I turned it around to take it back. It seemed capable of going down hill so it wasn’t quite seized up yet and once it had cooled down I switched the engine back on and pottered it home. The noise and smoke were horrendous and everyone enjoyed the show but it got us back to the bike shop.

“I want my money back”, I demanded, you have made fools of us and wasted half our day. He said that we could have another bike but the others looked similar to the steaming wreck we had just returned. “I get you a new one” he insisted so I agreed to wait while he rang a mate to bring one along. I told him that I had just filled the old one up with petrol so he set to work with his big plastic container and a tube to siphon it all out. The other bike turned up but Claire had already got bored and walked back. A nice new one and 125cc, so far so good. He replaced the siphoned fuel and poured it into the new bike and I could set off and arrived back at the hotel just as Claire did.

Again we headed off for Turunc and this time with no trouble at all on the hills; we both quite like this bike and had so much more confidence in it than the first one. Turunc is a pretty little coastal town and we had a beer and walked around the place and just settled for a chicken kebap in wrap which we shared; quite tasty so Claire ate as much as me, sometimes I prefer the crap ones. We set off home stopping at Icmeler for a sun bed and another drink before returning home. We had a lovely meal at our local last night while Claire put her blog on taking most of the evening but it was worth waiting for. It’s the first time we haven’t had the special and we both enjoyed it. We decided to walk our meal off and headed up the road away from the sea and stopped at the Robin Hood for our last one where we saw that they did an English breakfast for 99p. They also had specials on with starter of soup, garlic bread and dips, and steak dish and ice cream all for 18TL. By the way, Claire got her £ and Lira mixed up yesterday, we don’t want to put people off; the Rhodes trip was 60TL each and they made us pay a further 15Euros at the port each.

We arose quite late considering that we had an early night, not getting downstairs until about 9.45am. As we had been charged for our cups of tea with our free breakfast we decided to try the 99p one at the Robin Hood and took our bag of laundry with us to drop of if we could find it again. The breakfast was not a patch on the 5TL one we have next door and we had to wait ages for everything then they charged us 6TL for two teas. In fact the best thing about it was the HP sauce; how is it possible to overcook the yokes while leaving the whites all sloppy? Never mind you live and learn. We never did find the laundry so took it back to our hotel for them to do it. I did ask where it was but was faced with a blank look. “Where is the Laundry……. , the Launderette? Another blank look, “where can we wash our clothes?” “ Ahh the Laundry”. It must be my Melton accent.

We eventually headed off to the Hisaronu Peninsula at 11am taking a little overnight bag in case it was as big as Claire expected. There are two peninsulas near Marmaris, one to the West and one to the South West, we were taking the latter today leaving the other for another driving day because we booked the bike for the whole of our last week. You take the same road out of Marmaris and it splits after about 18km. Just after the split you have wonderful scenic views of the sea and mountains all the way ahead of you. We stopped for water at a little market shop where they charged Claire 0.15TL for a bottle of water, about 1/10 what they charge by the sea front in Marmaris. We stopped by the sea at a little place that is not on the map but there was a camping place there so a few restaurants and bars had accumulated but they were charging more than in Marmaris. We stopped briefly at Orthaniye where one of our bar staff had told us that you could walk right out to sea with the water only up to your waiste but decided to head onto our destination because we had such a late start. Next stop Selimiye which the guide book says is the ultimate contrast to Marmaris. It’s a lovely little boat building village and we had a beer at the only place by the sea that we could find. Two large noisy ducks terrorised the coastline but at least they provided some entertainment for me.

Our final destination today was Bozburun and old fishing port and village that sprawls around the whole bay and is quite pretty. Lots of tourists are there for the day that have mainly arrived in hire cars. We had a walk around and opted for the most up market spot for our lunch. They didn’t have a menu but all fresh produce that you had to chose from inside. I was a little worried because they had no prices and I had almost run out of Lira. They charged us in pounds and it seemed cheaper than our usual lunch so it all ended ok. We headed off home leaving just enough time for me to have a paddle and pee in the sea at Orhaniye before our drive home. We did stop at our little cheap market shop to stock up on water. Probably our best day so far with unbelievable views, it’s a shame I can’t share them with you because the views were just too big for our camera.