Thursday 19 September 2013

Quad Bikes - Fun for Some.


As I'm sure you've gathered by now, as the summer approaches, we withdraw from busy Bodrum and decamp to the countryside where we hope to avoid the crowds, traffic and the general hullaballoo that hundreds of thousands of humans on holiday create.  We have no sea view and are over 30 kms from Bodrum, so have for over 20 years managed to avoid acquiring any neighbours.  Google earth shows our house isolated from just about everything except trees and a pond.   We are not totally anti-social, friends do come and visit but the thing we love most about our hideaway is the sound of the wind rushing through the pine trees and the occasional hoopoe swooping over the garden.
We don't much appreciate revving engines and peeping horns which is why we've been a bit peeved this year.  Since May we have had the dubious pleasure of being on a Quad Bike Safari route.  Not once, not twice but three times a day, ten or so bikes roar past whipping up as much dust as possible by skidding sideways  and then proceed to pointlessly drive round and round the pond just below our garden wall.  If this isn't bad enough, as they approach the start of our garden,  the leaders encourage everyone to punch their horns for the whole length of our boundary.
We've put up with it or rather Teo has as I've been away for most of the summer but last week I was in a bolshy mood and decided enough was enough.  There is a whole forest to drive though with no houses and yet they choose the one path that borders my house. If I was to plan a safari, I certainly would steer clear of washing lines with M&S smalls hanging up and I definitely wouldn't deliberately cover them with dust three times a day.


I marched down to the pond in my "firm but reasonable" walk and confronted the leaders. I managed to stop myself telling them that they should be wearing helmets like their customers and that smoking in front of clients is not good for their company image and asked why they had to peep their horns. The answer "it's fun".  I then pointed out that by driving round and round the only natural water source in the area they were depriving the wildlife of water.  I was answered with a shrug.  I asked if they could dissuade their clients from throwing away their water bottles as they drove  - no they couldn't.  I wasn't getting very far but I did have a trump card up my sleeve.  I asked if they could change their route but was told they had permission to use all the forest roads.  Ah ha! "Were they aware that they were driving over private property on their way to the pond?"  No they weren't so they agreed to use the newly opened road which thankfully doesn't border our garden.   They are still peeping their horns but at least we've been saved from the dust.


24 comments:

  1. Having experienced it firsthand last Saturday and how annoying it is, even on the road, I can imagine how furious you were when it was even closer to the house. There must be some way of getting it stopped, although I'm sure you've thought of everything?

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    1. They are making lots of money at 45 quid per person for two hours - they won't be stopped easily. I thought using the forest roads had been banned in summer but obviously not.

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  2. What a miserable way to spend a holiday...and what a surly bunch of organisers.
    What luck you have the private road.

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  3. I wouldn't argue with Annie in her firm and reasonable mood. Glad you told 'em where to go. I don't want that kind of thing when we visit :-)

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    1. I didn't have my hands on my hips - that's the "look out" mood.

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  4. B to B, Just reading about this makes my blood boil. Noise and other pollution, in Turkey, is just something that it's understood you have no right to mess with no matter how crazy-making it is. It's one of our crusades so we're glad you struck a blow for freedom.

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    1. We could invite you all to stay and we'll have a sit in on the road.

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  5. . . home-made 'stingers' Annie - a bit of wood with 4" nails scattered around the area. Repairing punctures and rescuing yobs and yobettes gets expensive - just remember where you've scattered them.

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    1. It's tempting Alan but we are trying to avoid all out war.

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  6. This must be so frustrating - I admire how you calmly deal with them, that would drive me mad. Hopefully they respect the privacy of a private road and above all the wildlife, one can always hope..

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    1. The ladies in the village weren't too happy the one time the bikes drove through. They came out with sticks and chased the bikes away.

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  7. What a bunch of planks. I'd be tempted to leave an open box of carpet tacks in my bag; you never know, they could jump out on the road without you seeing. A few punctured tyres would keep them busy for a while. Or you could go and make some noise at the local town hall or police station with photos/film footage of the planks on wheels. Good luck to you....

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    1. Can you believe they pat 45 pounds for 2 hours?

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    2. Geesh. 45 quid to choke on dust and pollution and duff up your eardrums for a whole two hours, bargain! But 45 quid probably wn't buy them a new tyre if it accidentally gets punctured. I've just noticed that Alan suggested a similar solution: that's 50% support for the theory :-)

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  8. We've had a lot of fun on Quad Bikes and have even thought about buying one. But that would be to use on proper roads.

    Riding round and round in circles with other quadbikes beeping hooters is not our idea of fun. Nor is disturbing the wildlife.

    They take quad bikes around the protected wetlands in Pamucak which is horrible. Though what I really dislike is the jeep tours. I can be very snobbish when it comes to jeeples on the beach...

    Accidentally spilling carpet tacks does sound like a tactic. I guess we're fortunate where we live as the worst thing we have to worry about is tractors.

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  9. Sean Lock has a good name for them I think!! ;-) xx

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  10. One of our neighbours, just across a small cut, has a quad bike, and it drives me mad......he only uses it a couple of times a week, but that noise is awful, so my heart goes out to you having to put up with 10 of them....and organisers who are clearly complete prats. Well done for getting stroppy with them.

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    1. Only a month left of the tourist season so we shall have a quiet November I hope.

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  11. I think your response to this aggravation was very restrained. How deeply inconsiderate and indeed stupidly childish they must be to be encouraging this show-off behaviour so close to a house. It would serve them right if they ran over a nail or two sometime - carefully scattered far enough away from your house that you couldn't be held responsible.

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    1. The leaders are fond of driving facing in the wrong direction with one hand on the steering. One day!

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  12. I too think you've been very restrained and agree that the odd nail on the pathway could come from anywhere. I used to hate it when motobikes rode round the town but at least here in the country, we don't have too much of that anymore...unless someone plans a quadbike route around our property! Heaven help them if they do.

    Hope the season is soon over and that the dust clogs up their exhausts. Or something. Axxx

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    1. There's obviously a market for it so I doubt it will stop soon - but hopefully they'll find a more interesting route next year.

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