End Game

Hello all,

There is no dramatic ending, no tears just a vey strong inner feeling of satisfaction which in itself wells up with a large amount of emotion but no tears. We are very proud of what we have done and really hope that it can act as an inspiration for others to travel with their little ones. People always talk about finance but seriously if you can save a bit and get out of the daily grind, most countries that we have visited are far far cheaper to live and to travel in, by bike in any case, than our own. Enough of the sermon but it is important for myself to get out of the mystique that it is something unreal what we have done. It isn't and never will be. It was just something we wanted to do and therefore did it. 

I wanted to write this in Istanbul but l never had time. We are now in Toulouse after spending Christmas in Cumbria where l also did not have time. I now do have some time at my in-laws after much of the family who all came down to be together from Belgium, have since left. The last time l wrote we were leaving Van in Eastern Turkey. This town has become my all time favourite place. It's nothing mind-blowing in terms of beauty but as l said in the last message, it has everything. Mountains, lakes, turkish baths, the best food on this planet and great boring stuff like easy transport links etc! We left Van first by bike and then by boat and then by bike again. The boat had no fixed timetable so we were told by some people to just turn up and wait and by others that it only went on certain days of the week when the trans-asia express to or from Iran was passing through as it was indeed a train boat and our day was not one of those. We thought we had nothing to lose so we went down to the port to ask and it looked a bit abandoned so we did not hold out much hope. Eventually we found someone and were told that it would go at 3.30 p.m. This was great news even though that was more than four hours away. It was a beautiful spot surrounded by mountains and many locals came down to have a cay (tea) with their families under the last of the warming sun before winter. It was actually really entertaining as the boys of the cafe were really keen on permanantly dancing to Turkish pop music which l was meant to buy before leaving Turkey. For the next time! The boat was late of course and after they had unloaded and then reloaded some frieght carriages it had turned very dark and l think it was after 7 p.m when we left. Before getting on the boat we had been treated to the best sunset we had seen on this trip. 

While on the boat l cooked our now not so favourite dish of pasta with tomato paste with my superb MADE IN CHINA stove and Oceanne eventually had a short rest. The boat was empty apart from the crew and carriages and us, so it was easy to bed down on the reclining seats. Somehow when the boat docked and even with the cold we could transfer Oceanne from the seating area to her trailer at the back of the boat without waking her up while we would ride into Tatvan to try and find a hotel at what was now approaching midnight. The one we had in mind was full and then luckily another one not so far away had one room left and luxury of luxuries, a bed for Oceanne. We slept really well! 

Our plan was to ride to Diyarbakir, the cultural centre of the Kurds and then take a train to meet our plane from Istanbul to Glasgow giving enough time in Istanbul to organise the freighting of our bikes and trailers and most of our bags direct from Istanbul to Montreal. There was no way we were going to drag all our stuff to England, France and Germany before going to Montreal. It would be a pain and also impossible with excess baggage fees. And so we did exactly that. A highlight of our ride to Diyarbakir including the totally refurbished Caravan Serai on the way into town was the town of Bitlis. Jammed into a ravine in the mountains and dominated by a ruined castle in the centre it is a really atmospheric place and also as a bonus for me had an ancient turkish bath that was working and in close to it's original state. I will tell you that there is nothing more satisfying than sitting in the original wooden reception area sharing a cay with your male brothers and watching Turkish football sitting around the fountain in perfect tranquility and warmth. This is all after being perfectly relaxed for an hour or two in the bath. I thank Dorothee very much for suggesting that l went as she knows how much l like it even if it is my turn to read the story! A Caravan Serai is a huge roadhouse used by the caravans of camels who used to ply the silk road by the way.

A perfect end to the biking part of our trip was the fact that we spent the last two evenings when we would normally have camped invited into the houses of Kurdish families. The first near the town of Batman with a family who did not speak a word of English and were a farming family and the second with a family who we could converse with pretty well in Bismil on the banks of the Tigris. I have some new Kurdish friends on facebook! Arriving in Diyarbakir, a great old walled city whose walls are supposedly second in length only to the Great Wall of China l thought would be strange as it was the end of pulling this little wonderful girl behind me but it wasn't l am afraid. It was planned and l had spent the day before just riding along listening to music knowing that tomorrow would be the end. I thought about all the strong feelings we had experienced together as a family but they would not just all come out just because we stopped. We had already felt them and today was just another day. I think, like as in the last big one from Alaska to Argentina, it comes out when you get home to your previous life. I expect it will be difficult again when we get back to Montreal. 

The bikes were stored in the garage ready to take the train to Istanbul in around 5 days. We would now do a bit of tourism in Diyarbakir and to Nemrut Dagi, one of the big must-see sites of Turkey. Diyabakir is great with it's little alleyways going here and there and it's walls and what makes it even better is that it is a large working city and not a preserved tourist attraction. Nemrut Dagi is a tourist attraction but at 2150 metres and because it was definetly out of season being close to the middle of December we were totally alone on the mountain. If you do not want to walk up which we did not as we did not have the time then you can get your guesthouse owner to drive you up as there is a paved road up to the top. It was totally beautiful and l made sure l stayed up there until sunset. It is a must-do to be on the western terrace at sunset if it is a magnificently clear day as it was. We were very lucky as it was the last day before the snow came to the mountains as then access would not be possible. We had checked the forecast in Diyarbakir and it turned out to be very accurate. Nemrut Dagi is specifically the burial site of King Antochus I and he went to great lengths to make a fine grave. Two terraces, east and west consisting of huge carved heads and bodies made of massive blocks of not just him but many other gods. In between is an immense cone built of the left over stone that rises up to 50 metres. It has not yet being confirmed if he is buried under this cone that is called the tumulus. 

After Nemrut the weather turned bad and snow covered most of Turkey and we were happy not to be biking in another cold winter. We got all our stuff on a train to Istanbul at 8 in the morning where the ticket said we arrived at 5.30 p.m. Little did we know that it was for the next day! It wasn't that far just that the train didn't move very fast. We were not prepared foodwise for this length of journey and because there was no restaurant carriage on the train l had to jump out at every major station and fill up on water, biscuits, crisps and kebabs. Basically whatever l could get my hands on and quickly. We eventually arrived in Istanbul at 10 the next evening after 37 hours of train. Oceanne did very well considering and slept pretty well in the train. We rushed to get the last boat across the Bosphorous to the European side of Istanbul as that was where we had a friend waiting for us kindly offering us free accomadation after a last and final official end of trip photo with all our bikes and stuff while waiting in the boat terminal. Thank you again Deniz and Negip for your kindness. Our friends laptop and telephone was indispensable in trying to find a cargo company to send our stuff to Montreal. It was either too small for the big shipping companies or because it was personal effects for some others or it was because of the bikes for another one. Eventually after two days of sitting in front of the computer and on the telephone we finally had a couple of options. Obviously l chose the cheapest one. After a couple of hours at the freezing cargo terminal at the airport we finally paid and said goodbye to our bikes, trailers and baggage. The guy who protected our bikes with cardboard was the star of the company in my view. We have since heard that our luggage has safely arrived in Montreal! 

All that remained to be done was a little shopping and l had a good friend coming out from London to spend some quality time together. We bought a solid, wool and darkish red Kurdish carpet to replace the dissapointment of Tabriz which should make a colourful addition to our living room. I also had a great time with my friend Richard going out on the town tasting everything on offer including Raki which is very similar to Pastis in France as well of course going to one last Turkish bath! It was a fine end to this adventure. The fact that our flight on to Glasgow from Heathrow was cancelled due to the recent weather problems did not dampen totally our spirits. We somehow got on the second to last train to Carlisle instead which was in itself blocked for 3 and a half hours because of frozen points near Wigan. Arriving at 2 a.m where my sisters were waiting for us asleep in the station car park was a welcome sight. We had arrived and now was the time to relax. Now to work, babies and dreaming of the next adventure. I did not mention the huge news that Dorothee is pregnant with Wilson-young no.2 and after her first scan everything seems to be fine. It was made in Uzbekistan! We think a typically correct way to end this story.

All the best and a very very Happy New Year 2011, Rupert Dorothée and Océanne.

14,534 km's and 35 flats.