Today has been a rest day staying in Elazig. Steve’s tyre is not due in till Tuesday now so we shall be staying here till we get the tyre sorted. By last night I (David) started to have a distinct uncomfortable right ankle as a result of the crash yesterday. When I woke up the ankle was clearly swollen (not too bad) and very stiff. As a result we made the call to not do much and just recharge our batteries. So today consisted of washing our clothes (the hotel room is like a Chinese laundry at present), getting food supplies from the local shop catching with our Turkish friends for Cai (tea) and a chat and generally mooching about. Oh, we also had time to watch England play France in the David Cup tennis! I took the opportunity to also keep my ankle elevated whenever possible as I do not want this injury hanging around. Tomorrow we are off to the motor bike shop of our friends where we plan to wash the bikes and run a spanner over them.

Weekly Statistics;

Kilometres for the week – 1,899km

Average speed to date – 74.1km/h

Average fuel consumption to date – 5.1 litres per 100km

Punctures – 1 to Steve’s rear tyre

Crashes – 1 to David

Post Script; Shortly following posting the day’s events while sitting in the hotel lobby, a brawl started just outside the hotel. Large crowds, Police and several Turks were engaged in “conversation” with the Police doing what appeared a very good job of control the environment without undue force.

The end score was the Police “nicked” three men and when we asked what had caused the disturbance would you believe alcohol was the answer! Things are the same the world over!