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Our 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets

Posted January 4th, 2010

We were nominated by the lovely Nora of The Professional Hobo to share our 3 best travel secrets, as part of a Tripbase project to bring some great tips together from across the net.

My only problem with this mission is that I could probably list 20 secret travel places but in keeping with the theme, here are 3 that spring to mind. And yes, the ride there is as wonderful as the destination.

Aphrodisias, Turkey

Aphrodisias

Most tourists in Turkey head straight for Troy and Ephesus, the archaeological sites along the coast but when we tried to visit we were overrun by tour groups, who kindly made sure they also provided entertainment in the form of actors dressed as Romans (in fetching plastic capes), jumping off the ampitheatre and just being generally annoying. The solution? Head inland to Aphrodisias and enjoy the peace? The amazing theatre and stadium are some of the best we’ve seen anywhere and you can marvel at the architecture in silence.

How to get there: Highway E87 leads from the coast towards Nazilli. In Nazilli, head south briefly, then east on a back road that goes through many small villages (Pirlibey is one of them and has a shop and cafe) before hooking up with the D585, which will take you straight to Aphrodisias. Nearby is the village of Geyre, where you can camp and get a room or a meal.

Kobarid on the Soca River, Slovenia

Slovenia’s Soca River takes top prize for the most beautiful river we’ve seen anywhere and the variety of activities you can do in this corner of Slovenia is impressive. Go hiking, rafting, rock climbing, diving or just visit the local towns. Kobarid has a great museum. It’s just across the mountains from Italy. Why don’t more people come here?

How to get there: Take Route 52 out of Amaro, then the SS646 in Italy, up and over the mountains to the small town of Kobarid. Just beware the hills after Lischiazze!

Titirangi Bay, New Zealand

It took a long slog up a dirt road to get here but when we crested the top of the hill and saw this view of Titirangi Bay, our jaws dropped open. Here, at the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, you get to savour this landscape mostly on your own. The majority of tourists don’t come right to the top of the Marlborough Sounds or, if they do, they don’t stay the night. There’s only a rustic campsite (cold water, no showers) but you do get the use of a stunning beach and plenty of inquisitive weka birds circling your tent.

How to get here: Go to Kenepuru Head in the Queen Charlotte Sounds and follow Titirangi Road until it runs out.

Part of the object of this post is to get other blogs to do the same. I’m hoping these travellers will participate:

Posted in Cycling Trips, New Zealand, Slovenia, Turkey

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Turkish Carrot Juice

Posted January 6th, 2008

When we were in Turkey we noticed juice bars everywhere serving up a purple mix, which we assumed was beetroot juice. Well, it turns out this was actually ‘fermented carrot juice’ made from a purple type of carrot and other tempting ingredients like bulgur wheat and hot pepper. When we saw a bottle in a supermarket we couldn’t resist trying it out, although after this taste test we’re not sure we’ll rush to buy another bottle!

Posted in Food, Turkey, Video

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Iran, we’ve arrived!

Posted January 3rd, 2008

After months of anticipation and fretting over visas we’re finally in Iran! The border crossing went much more smoothly and quickly than we expected. No prying questions or searching customs inspections, just a polite official who welcomed us to the country under a huge portrait of the holy leader, filled out all our forms for us and waved us through. On the way out we lingered for a couple minutes in front of the Iranian duty free shop. It was perhaps the most bizarre one we’ve ever seen. No alcohol or cigarettes here; just a collection of blankets, saucepans and vaccuum cleaners. A mere half an hour after we first entered the Turkish side we were cruising down our first hill in Iran to the frontier town of Bazargan. The winter air is icy this far north and we had tears in our eyes from the wind as we cycled along on slippery roads. (more…)

Posted in Cycling Trips, Iran, Journal Entries, Turkey

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40km Killis to Gaziantep

Posted December 31st, 2007

This time last year we were in southern Spain, swimming in a salt-water pool at a luxurious campsite. This was the memory we dwelled on as we tried to get up the energy to emerge from our cozy sleeping bags into the freezing early morning air. With our stove on the blink and no hot coffee for breakfast it was more of a struggle than usual. We packed our tent up in record time and headed from the olive grove where we spent the night into the town of Killis.

For breakfast we were craving a bowl of steaming hot çorba, the soup Turks specialise in, but first we had to get some money. We slid our card in the machine as we’ve done hundreds of times on this trip and waited hopefully for some shiny new bank notes. Unfortunately, just at this moment the machine was turned off for restocking and our card was swallowed into a black hole. We optimistically made our way into the bank to get our card back.

The bank teller insisted we must be mistaken. “There is no card in that machine,” he said, looking at us as if we’d imagined it all. We persisted. He insisted he was right. This went back and forth for several minutes until finally a woman working next to him went to check (what a novel idea!) and found our card instantly. We breathed a sigh of relief a little too quickly. (more…)

Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Turkey

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55km Midanki to Killis

Posted December 30th, 2007

Turkey is notorious for being hilly so it wasn’t a surprise when we saw plenty of peaks looming in our path as we approached the border. We’d hoped to reach the crossing point well before sunset but it turned out to be a last-minute dash because we took so long working our way through the rolling mountain roads. It was nearly dusk when the Syrian border guards tried to win the prize for intense questioning:

Q. Where are you going? A. Uhhhh, Turkey.
Q. Where is your stamp for your bicycle? A. We don’t need one.
Q. You need to buy one. A. No we don’t.
Q. What is your name? (asked while looking at passport) A. Fatima Falafel and Mohammed Shwarma
Q. Where are you from? (also while looking at EU passports) A. Canada.

That was the first checkpoint. At the second one we joined the queue for our exit stamps and laughed while three Turks tried to push in front of us by stuffing their passports with money in quite an obvious way and shoving the documents towards the guard serving us. The guard chuckled and ignored them so it looks like all that bribery cash was for nothing. At the final checkpoint all the questions were repeated again by three guards before we were allowed to pass through no-man’s land and into Turkey.

At the Turkish border post we were hoping for some swift stamping of papers so we could get on our way but just as we thought we were free a customs guard came to inspect our baggage. “Can we sleep in there?” we asked, pointing to an enclosed shelter with a stove and benches. “Because if not it’s going to be dark by the time you’re done looking at all our bags and we won’t be going anywhere.”

The threat of sleeping with two cyclists seemed to work. “Any cigarettes, alcohol or tea?” our man asked. We pulled out a jar of camomile tea bags but apparently this wasn’t the tea he had in mind. “Get going then,” he said, waving us onward. We were rather disappointed. The shelter looked a fair bit warmer than our tent was going to be. Luckily for us it wasn’t far to the next olive grove and we set up our tent in record time. The stove wasn’t such a success. We’d replaced our gas and cleaned the line but it’s still burning horribly and we only just managed to cook supper on it. It looks like getting the stove working again will be our New Year’s challenge.

Posted in Cycling Trips, Journal Entries, Syria, Turkey

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