Canakalle & Gallipoli

Hub & Lang at work 

May18 - Most of us get up a bit late, then spend the morning scouring Canakalle for bike parts, tools, spark plugs, etc. Lang & Hub are hard at work in the car park getting Lang's bike fixed.
A few of the boys have had haircuts at local barbers.

The plan is for everyone to catch the ferry across the Dardanelles to Eceabat and then run across the peninsular to the Kum ground/hotel. Martin & I catch the ferry late afternoon and then run to Anzac Cove - it's sunny and the water is a brilliant blue.

                                             Martin & Paul in front of The Sphinx near Anzac Cove

We meet John & Simon from the Gallipoli Association (www.gallipoli-association.org) - they are keen to get more members so look up the website if interested.

We head to Hotel Kum - a bit down at heal but comfortable and reasonable food.Close to the beach and with the usual empty swimming pool.

May 19th  We ride to Anzac Cove with Myles & Lee. Move on to Shrapnel Valley and climb up to Plugge's Plateau. Back down to the bikes and Martin's throttle cable is completely disconnected. I tow him back to the hotel. We both get on my bike to go to town to get parts repaired - about 2 km along and my rear diff starts to come apart - we limp back to the hotel.
Fix Martin's throttle and spend the rest of the day going to town, get tyre repaired, have lunch at waterfront and do a loop of the peninsula visiting numerous war cemeteries, both Allied & Turkish.

Many of the Turkish monuments are strikingly impressive - many large statues of Kamal Ataturk.

Finish the day a Lone Pine as the sun is creeping down.

                                                           Lone Pine War Cemetery

 Some General Comments: The bikes remain a big disappointment. We accept that they are old technology and need to be nursed along, but they are a constant headache. Hub & Lang are working hard to keep the show rolling and we appreciate their efforts.Everyone has had to pitch in and do their best with maintaining the bikes. Brian, Robert and Graham deserve particular praise for their mechanical skills and their willingness to help the rest of the group.

There are constant breakdowns and bits fall off with regularity.

The Ukranians who "restored" the bikes using Chinese parts (many of the air filter covers fell off the first day) would seem to be responsible for much of this unhappiness. Our head Ukranian mechanic is yet to join us after last being seen at the Ukranian border.

Sooner or later some bikes will be unfixable and will probably have to be left on the side of the road!