After a few days in Istanbul, I’ll follow the Dardanelles Strait, then skirt roughly the coast to pass through Izmir and Antalya before heading up to Cappadocia. Then I’ll head back up the Black Sea to Georgia, where I should be before the end of June.

Initially I wanted to go as far as Azerbaijan, and leave from Baku. But it seems that Azerbaijan’s land borders are closed. So I’m stopping in Tbilisi and from there I’ll see how I get around the region.

A route that will be hilly, but in principle without any particular difficulties.

A big thank you to Philippe, who accompanied me to the airport and thus helped reduce the stress : it was the first time I’d put my bike on the plane !
I also had to negotiate with the Turkish staff : according to them, new regulations required that cardboard boxes be wrapped in plastic film. The guy who did this explained to me that it wasn’t easy to do and that I wasn’t going to pay the standard price. So I explained that I didn’t want to pay and they ended up saying OK :)
I was a little stressed on arrival too, as my panniers weren’t part of the luggage... in fact they’d put them with my oversized bike !

After a day’s ride and a good nap (it was a short night) I was about to get back on my bike but the rain started to fall...