Leaving Istanbul was a pretty easy affair. A 10 mile cycle along the waters edge led us to a ferry port where we caught a boat. This took us to a small town called Yalova and straight onto a quieter route towards Ankara (500km away).

Boarding the ferry, a mere £3 for a 1 hour trip.

The road out of the town was over 1 big hill then down beside a lake. We carried on until the light faded and camped in a olive tree field.

The next day the sun came out in full force, a healthy 35 degrees celcius. The roads were good quality and very quiet most of the time.

We wound around a lot of small mountain passes, giving us delightful views and really fun downhill races!

Barry cruising on one of the long downhill stretches.

Barry got his first puncture of the entire trip from London one morning. The shard of glass had gone through his tyre and inside the inner tube!
Being a bicycle courier as a profession it was a quick repair turnaround before setting off again.

Turkey has already made a big impression on us. Its beautiful, colourful and incredibly vast.

It has been hard to cycle longer than 30minutes before stopping to take more photos.

This was a photo I wanted to capture, its the first pass and probably the smallest we will cross over that is measured. Upon riding in central Asia our altitude will hit 4500+ metres.

Every few hours upon topping another hill we were rewarded with a nice outlook to rest at.

Camping spots presented themselves in abundance but this particular spot was too early on in the day.

Berry’s second puncture was due to a few miniscule glass shards from the first puncture that had penetrated through the inside of the tube causing a slow deflation. This time the inner tube was replaced. Whilst he got on with business, I brewed up some coffee!

Our camping spot another night was beside the road, however no drivers seemed to mind. Usually just waving and honking their horns.

The sunset provided a lovely backdrop for when we ate our dinner.

The final ride was along dual carriageways. However as you can see it was basically empty and we had a very generous shoulder to cycle in.

Upon reaching Ankara we treated ourselves to a proper kebab.
We’ve spent a week here as that is how long it takes to obtain a Kazakstan visa!

So now we have 2 visas (Tajikistan & Kazakstan), we have 2 more to go (Azerbaijan & Uzbekistan) but we can obtain these whilst moving.

We now head down to the region of Cappadocia. A really popular area and a must see attraction. Hoping to also take a sunrise balloon ride too!