45C in the shade, only there isn't any on the way to Alanya

My bike gear was a little cleaner and dry as a bone after a night hanging outside on the balcony. In the back of my mind, I was kind of hoping that it might still be damp to keep me cooler today.  Anyhow, having had to buy a prepaid card for the Turkish motorway, I decided to use it today and make some miles west. On the way out of town I passed a couple of these statues commemorating the Silk Road.

Motorway driving etiquette is definitely in its infancy here. All that nonsense about indicating, confining your vehicle to one lane, overtaking on the left, driving the usual direction drown the carriageway, no picnicking/hawking food etc have not made it into the psyche yet. I have found that all my normal 'driving rules' don't apply and sometimes it gives me quite a fright when some 18 wheeler over takes me doing 140kph down a hill when his posted limit says 80kph. The temperature climbed and climbed until it reached 45C. My cooling solution of soaking my under clothing in water started to fail as it was drying out before I had gone 30 miles each time. I resorted to more drastic measures and asked the car wash guys to spray me with their hoses and that worked much better.

I stopped for lunch and absently pointed at a few dishes in the counter and had to face this lot….I only ordered two, the rest just seemed to come complimentary. It would be a great improvement for UK motorway services food if some of these guys would set up shop….excellent nosh.

When the motorway ended the fun began. The coast road to Atalya is in the process of being ruined by turning it into a dual carriageway but enough of the original sinuey blacktop exists to make this a real pleasure. I had 4 hours of real enjoyment broken with breaks to drink hot sweet tea and re-soak myself. With the heat and the general murk in the air, I didn't feel like taking pictures until very late in the day and by then I had pawed the lens so I didn't really bother. To make matters worse, a few days ago, I bought a bar of dark chocolate and I found it again today……it was a brown slurry coating the bottom of my tank bag. That'll teach me to leave chocolate uneaten.

I am in Alanya on the Mediterranean coast tonight. Picture Magaluf, Ibiza, Los Christianos and you have it. It is midnight, 30C and the place is pounding with competing sound systems and young people out on the town. There is a difference in the music though, there is definitely an eastern flavour to the whole deal. I am writing this listening to traditional Turkish music with the waft of the sheesha smoke in the air. The coast here is the most touristy in Turkey. I passed 5km of 'beach resort' hotels on the way in to the centre. I even tried to register in one but it was totally dedicated to the all-inclusive package holiday market.