“Late afternoon on Friday, job over and 600 K to go: a good beginning of an interesting week end. Two bikes (BMW K1200GT with co-pilot and MV Agusta solo: the plan is simple: we want to reach Artvin at a distance of over 1000 K from Ankara by the morning of Saturday. We were invited by Mr. Ahmet Varan a dedicated rider who is trying to share passion and knowledge with the Artving biking community.

Not surprisly for Autumn the Anatolian weather got colder and colder and our destination for the night (Giresun) was appropriately abandoned short of 100 K to sleep in Fatsa. Town in the district of Ordu, spreading on the shores of the Black Sea and famous for the hazelnuts production, Fatsa get his name from Fanizan daughter of King Pharnaces II of Pontus one of the most powerfull master of this ancient region.

We arrived just short of noon and 15 bikers were already there waiting: this is the “hard core” of Ahmet Varan group working intensively to bring Advance Riding and ARA experience to this splendid part of Turkey.

ARA Theory Course, advertised by poster and newspaper, had an exceptional participation of over 60 people that maintained attention and interest from more than 5 hours of lesson and discussion. A very active community with a great potential for growth: Ahmet is already thinking of bringing ARA Control to Artvin in 2009 and OMM Ankara will do all possible for transforming the plan in reality.

After the course, bikers from Rize and Artvin invited us to a ride cum dinner in the mountain that make this region famous: place it in your itinerary if you want to see a real piece of “naturally wild and unspoiled” Turkey