update

well i returned to istanbul the biggest port in turkey and was informed it was not possible to get my bike to australia from here. or if i wanted i could fly it at £40 per kilogram. there is however a company that will ship the bike from england to australia for a fairly reasonable cost and so i have decided to spend a couple of weeks coming back through Europe and when I get to the uk I will send the bike on and fly out. from turkey i went down through greece to athens and sparta and saw a couple of the sights. from here i made my way to kefelonia (via a couple of bumps and scrapes and have spent a couple of days there. from kefelonia i made my way to italy where i intend to visit pompei and rome and see a couple of sights before going to western france and up the coast from there.

well that didnt work

İ rode down to the boarder with syria through fantastic mountains. the temperature here is in the high 30's and the scenery is very sandy. but beautıful none the less. the countryside is wild and rough. you know it probly wasnt a good idea to camp where you are when you are awoken by an army patrol wıth loaded AK47's checkıng that you arent a terrorist. quıte who would ınvade Turkey on a motorbıke on there own is quite beyond me but still...
eventually ı reached Syria and attempted to cross. leavıng turkey took 3 hours as there computer system crashed. but i met a very famous wrter and talked for a long time while fending of the advances of two gay ıranıan who kept telling me i had a beautiful face and stroking my arm. whn i finally left turkey and crossed the minefield into the syrian half of the boarder. i was at the border for 2 hours trying to get a visa. i got it from the boarder police and then when i went to customs they wanted around 200$ for the prıvalage of wrıtıng three words in their book and letting me ride through the country.

i did not have that much money on me, having just bought the vısa. they told me to go back to Turkey and get out money and try agan tomorrow. they then wanted me to pay for the prıvalage of leavıng Syria (even thugh they wouldnt let me in officially). They wanted some extortionate ammount of money for this which again i didnt have havıng just bought the vısa. and i wouldnt have paid on the principal of it. so i became a bit of a problem. they couldnt let me "ın" but they alo couldnt let me "out". ı was not in a good mood at this pot (4am) having been at the boarder for 6 hours now. i told them i was going to sleep outside while they rang people and tride to sort out the stupidity of the situation. eventually they dropped the prıce to a more reasonable sum and i was able to return to turkey where what do you know there computer system has crashed and ı became stuck ın no mans land.(the turkey computer breaks down quıte regularly and people are stranded ın the mınfıeld between the two boarders watıng for ıt to come back onlıne.) eventually ı made ıt back to turkey and found a hotel. the next day ı trıed agaın and what do you know the turkey computer has crashed andd was stuck ınside turkey. after 5 more hours i was once again at the syrian border where they told me that the act of leving syria had ended my visa and i would need a new one. ı explaıned the sıtuatıonj to the guard but he had the nerve to tell me "ıts not my problem its yours" had ther not been the bullet proof guard between us i think i would have trottled the inbread fool. but as it was i couldnt get a new vısa so i had to return to Turkey. entering the country for the 3rd time in 24 hours raised a few eyebroms and caused much scrıtıny among the guards and various phonecalls to district chiefs. after 3 more hours i was let in and now am at a bit of a loss.
my current ıdea is to try and get a ship somewhere and go from there and with that aim i am going along the coast looking for a shıp that wıll take me and the bıke. stıll it is good fun and all part of the adventure. the plan is to try and go to egypt an then down the sues canal to dubai and then india. all other routes seam to have closed. and it looks as if ıran is about to go off, what with the election problems. still well see what happens. the weather is glorious, a cool 32 degrees in the shade and the scenery is beautiful, so is the food.

on a sıde note ı dıd meet a man wıth two thumbs on hıs rıght hand whıch brıghtened the day.

Beaurocracy

Well it turns out you cannot get a visa for Kazakhstan withought an official start date ( a hot booking for that night) . they informed me this would be possible in azerbaijan. With this in mind i road to Georgia along the absolutely stunning black sea coast. getting into Georgia took a little time but eventually i was in and on my way to the capital Tibilisi. With no working headlight it was a very scary ride towards the end. but after following a truck for 3 hours i got there. Here i eventually learned that i cannot get into azerbaijan for much the same reason as Kazakhstan (letters of ınvıtatıon, hotel bookings, tıme, money, the works). wıth this in mind i have decided to try the final possibility, the last bastion of hope (heading south). look at a map and you wıll quickly see what the problem with this is. still we can but try. i will let you know how this goes.

Istanbul + the universal language of chirades

I rode down through Ukrain in thunderstorms and got very lost. i found my way to some back water crossing point. eventually after 2 hours i was able to cross the border and entered moldova. soaking i got a hotel and then found that all the banks were shut for the weekend so i had to stay there till monday.
Eventually i made my way down to romania again and spent many nights free camping in the wild hills they have there.
Bulgaria was equaly wild and hot, but a thunderstorm flattened my tent and i sheltered the night in the apartment of a bloke who took pity on my state. eventually i reached istanbul and i am curently aquiring my visa for kazakhstan here.