Never a dull moment .... until the ferry

Difficult to guage the feeling as we straddled our bikes for the relativly shorter ride to the ferry port.  Some felt guilty about having a rest day, others felt 150 miles was not a challenge.  Anyway, we decided on a later 9pm departure, with not much planned for the day, thinking it might be uneventful.  However, due to this, Dave had decided to add a couple of extra "sections" of "smaller roads".  There was fear in Thorpys eyes as Dave could not guarantee the surface of these, but we decided to stick together.

Leaving the city was easy, and we headed east along a coastal road ....

Shortly after turning off onto a side road that wound its way around the cliff edges, I suddently noticed our leader make a rapid stop in a layby.  At first I didnt realise why, but pulling closer it became apparent that one of his Roc straps (bungees) had loosened, and allowed his luggage to slide onto the tyre, resulting a friction burn, or should I say, "hole".  The undies might have survived, but I doubt the waterproof qualities of the bag are any more ...

So with the bag remounted, as we all jumped on our bikes, we heard a bump, and saw Dave rolling across the road.  Nothing as spectaular as a major accident, but in mounting his steed, the "KTM race prooven" bolt holding the side stand snapped, dumping the bike on its side, and its rider on the road.

Dusting Dave off, and putting the bike on its centre stand, we all struggled for reasons as to this mysterious failure ...

Anyway, the next problem was in our safety concious world ..., modern bikes wont "go" if the sidestand is down.  Apparently if its missing complelty, the same safety feature kicks in.  We then spent some time jury rigging the bike into thinking it had a sidestand.  Tape & cable ties to the rescue.

Onwards and upwards to the next section as promised.  This turned out to be a dirt track through the equivalent of industrial greenhouses, but was relativly sedate to Thorpys relief ....

The dirt section was short lived and we enjoyed tarmac from the top of the mountain to rejoin the main road ...

We made uneventul progress to the ferry port at Tasucu, and had so much time on our hands, diverted to a local beach to kill a few hours.  Dave braved the sea, but any watet that close to the harbour is not going to be the cleanest !

Now for reasons that are not fully understood, we were told to check-in about 6pm, for a ferry that was boarding at midnight, to set sail at 4am, and arrive just 4 hours later.  Had a quick meal before boarding, then just set about killing time.

There was some concern that Dave and Neil might not be allowed to board if they did not pay their speeding fines from a few days earlier, but after getting a load of help from the Ticket lady, Google Translate, and eventually an App we downloaded, it became apparent that they had omitted Daves registration details, and got Neil's wrong ... with fingers crossed we thought we would chance it.

It was fine, and we were ready for loading...

The ferry itself was pretty dire ... the bikes were shoved into the bowels, there were no cabins available, the seats did not recline, and everywhere you walked had that lovely blend of saltwater mist, mixed with Turkish cigarette ash.

We all found our various bolt holes to try and get some sleep, but if the smoke didnt find you, sure enough a screaming Turkish kid playing hide ans seek would.  Still, with dawn breaking at 5.30, those of us that slept on deck were treated to a decent sunrise ...

Now as a spoiler alert, we did arrive Cyprus as planned ... but I will cover the ordeal in the next episode.