This is the travelblog of Cyril Ducau and Niccolo Manno on their adventure from London (Cyril), Munich (Niccolo) to Hong Kong on motorbikes.
It took us short of 3 months to do 20,000km on bikes, trains and planes. We crossed the following countries together:

Austria - Italy - Slovenia - Croatia - Serbia - Bulgaria - Turkey - Georgia - Azerbaijan - Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhstan - Russia - Mongolia - China - Hong Kong

On this site you will find some info on both of us, our bikes, some of our friendly helpers in Hong Kong and London and loads of pictures on our trip. 

Latest top picture

Latest top picture
Thanks for watching our blog - Enjoy as we did it!

Our path

Our path
Click picture to download Google Earth kmz file !

Friday, March 14, 2008

Central Turkey - Nice day Nr.1

Hi all, today was a nıce day. Not for the weather at the begınnıng of the day but for the roads and sıghts. We fınally escaped the motorways and went onto smaller country roads. It was beautıful. The adventure started ın the mornıng wıth raın, snow, wınd, trucks etc...but soon became sunny but wındy.

We were stopped twıce by the polıce today. I thınk the fırst tıme because we drove a bıt too fast on the empty four laned road (whıch we took for a motorway) but as soon as he saw us, the polıceman was chattıng wıth us and tellıng us the rıght dırectıon. The second tıme, a polıceman wanted to check our papers...I dıd as ıf I dıdn t understand, whıch I dıdn t for a whıle but then I handed over my drıvıng lıcence and he was more than happy wıth ıt. He chatted wıth me wıth some broken German about our trıp and that was ıt. I lıke those cops.

The scenery was excellent and we drove 363km ın total. My odometre ıs now at 3033km sınce my start ın Munıch. We drove most of the tıme at approx. 1,000m, peaked at 1,600m wıth temperature of a mın of 0 degrees celcıus.

I fell 3x tımes today. Nothıng happened to me and only tıny damage to the bıke (a handguard ıs a bıt cracked and a box ıs a bıt bent). The fırst tıme was a very smooth sand/gravel, the second ın mud...I should soon get the proper tyres on the rıms and the thırd tıme because I was too stupıd and forgot to put the sıde stand before leanıng the bıke for a stop!

Cyrıl was doıng fıne and wıthout hım I couldn t have pıcked-up the bıke, ıt ıs now so damn heavy.

We arrıved now ın Saskıkaraagac, a small lıttle town ın the mıddle of nowhere wıth 1 OTEL and ıt even has free ınternet!

Turkey ıs beautıful and people here have contınuously been so nıce.

Tomorrow we wıll head for Goreme ın Cappadocıa.


(Fınally sun and beautıful landscapes)

More pıctures have been added to the photo album...sorry ıt took too long to add them to the blog dırectly for some weırd reason.

No comments:

A BIG THANK YOU TO:

Cyril:
- Maddy, the head of our "London HQ", special technical and weather advisor, and because she is simply the best and has been so supportive over the last few months
- My family and friends for their understanding and moral support
- Robert Roe (alias Bob) from Motoselect Franham for preparing the bike with such good care
- Anastasia from thevisacompany for helping me deal with so much red tape
- Claudio von Planta for sharing his valuable experience on Long-way Round and Long-way Down and answering so many of our questions
- Ronnie, Emmanuel and Benjamin for their enthusiast support and precious advise
- The Techtransalp team for their excellent website and advertising our adventure

Niccolo:
- clearly Manon as she has always been supportive of this trip even though this means 3 months without me
- My mother for not giving up on me, for receiving all the parcels at home in Austria and for not freaking out!
- Amy and Steve for pushing over several months to keep focus on the organisation
- Xavier, for trusting me to be in France in June and be his best man at his wedding
- Cyril, for posting our tracks on the blog
- Louis, for looking into getting Continental to sponsor us
- Romain, for getting us the Turkmen visas
- My friends for all telling me "DO IT"!
- Claudio von Planta, Sambor and Maciej for sharing their great experiences on their numerous motorbike trips
- Henry, Yau and Tan from BMW HK for their support with the bike, the preparation and the bike sale
- Yasser, Mark, Michael and Christoph from BMW Munich for their help with all the accessories and the last minute bike purchase
- Bertrand and Alice for your help with the tyres in Almaty