It's all too much

What is it that we need, really?

I've been living for just over a month out of a handful of bags. To be honest I've gone nowhere near 80% of the contents. The other day I arranged to get some laundry done instead of trying to hand wash my clothes. Im living it seems on remarkably little.

It's not just my trip either, I'm getting on with life and accepting a few different elements to life than I would experience normally. The flat I live in when I'm back in Scotland is too big, it's nice, it's comfy when its not freezing outside and I love it in a lot of ways. Yet here I am living out of bags. I don't need the half of it, though I'll admit I'm in no rush to change my standard of living when I return. It's simply a thought that I have an easy life yet felt the need to get away from it but I've spoken to lots of people who have made comments along the lines that they wish they had the same opportunities as me, and to be honest most of those come from having a British passport and being born into our less than perfect system.

At the end of the day, we need food, water, shelter certainly helps, while friends and family make things a lot better on a day to day basis.

Im typing this on top of my bed in a small hotel in Karaduc about 12km short of the summit of Mount Nemrut. Im listening to music Ive brought from home and I'm connected to the internet. Do I need any of it? Nope. Im happy to have it though. The connection side is strange, I'm really in the middle of nowhere yet connected, though I've been in the centre of towns with nothing near me and no sign of the outside world.

But I'm not herding goats, I am on a big journey and I am lucky. Im not lonely though. Between the internet, email and any number of people around me I've always had some form of company. Today is the quietest for a while though but its not a problem as I've quite enjoyed the peace to read books. Over the last few days vie spoken to Turks, Malaysians, Canadians, English, a fair few Dutch as well as Portuguese and Brazilians. I couldn't help but have a chuckle to myself while talking to Terry and June and it was all I could do not to think of the tv programme theme tune. Which reminds me about seeing a bizarre American version of Fabio Capello which in turn reminded me of someone else from work. I sometimes do have an overactive imagination. Some of the Dutch guys was talking to were out looking over routes for a big tour in the late summer when they are hoping to do an off road rally with about 60 bikes. Ill be keeping an eye on rallymaniacs.nl for more of that with my horrid interpretation of Dutch through O grade German similarities. Ill understand the photos at least.

Meanwhile I've managed to get a variety of messages across by making faces, speaking German or more normally people speaking English to me. It's such a lazy language for English speakers to fall back on and sometimes I feel ashamed at not being able to communicate better. It is quite funny on occasion falling back onto German as a means of communication though and seems strangely surreal in the middle of Turkey talking to truck drivers while sheltering from thunderstorms.
I have to say that Im not sure what's happening with the road construction here. There's a huge difference between riding along dirt tracks to perfectly smooth, perfectly straight roads. The only thing that drags the surface quality down is the apparent insistence to turn everything into a dull, straight dual carriageway. Great for the trucks Im sure but dull for the bike.

My last thought is about signs again. I struggled (more my fault than anything else) to get to Nemrut last night but in general the Turkish signage is really good. my task for tomorrow is to get some photos of signs showing warnings of cows with sore heavy backs and big udders, warnings of school kids crossing with nice pigtails and bows and also of roadworks where the level of detail is down to the man shovelling with his shirt sleeves rolled up.

I'll be working hard to keep on the road in the meantime.

Location:Karaduc,Turkey