Numerous camera shots, film sequences and interviews later, filming was completed. We once more trekked our way through Antalya airport, trailing lots of luggage and negotiating with the customs officers about the x-ray machines and the rolls of film that the cameraman was clutching to his chest.

From the palm trees  beside the Med, we made up for lost time and headed straight up into the hills and mountains at top speed. With a POV camera fixed onto the handlebars focussed on my face to capture every grimace I make as I skim through patches of gravel or glare at passing cars who were getting too close for comfort. The sheer number and variety of shots is amazing in the time we've had.

I'm sort of used to occasionally breaking down in the middle of nowhere (or at least it generally gives the appearance of being nowhereville), but what I'm not used to is then using a personal walkie talkie to screech out:"Oh no, I've had to pull off the road the shock has collapsed, and oh shit it looks bad"this being followed up by three support vehicles pulling u-turns in the main road and racing back in response to my squawk. I was extremely impressed, I then had all eleven of the crew inspecting the damage and making decisions about what to do.

Yesterday's shockingly early start was not repeated luckily - it had been a 4.30am breakfast! I got out of my tent at 6.45am to find I was the only one up - a quick dip in the cold river then tea and my breakfast porridge to start the day, before anyone else was stirring. 

We had a fantastic time filming yesterday in the mountains to the east of Antalya. Lots of gravel, sand and mud tracks, I'm having a ball. The "small" crew that are accompanying me seems to have grown somewhat - there are eleven of them in three vehicles, the support van for carrying stuff, the "disco" bus to transport the extra people - agency guys and production crew amongst others and the four wheel drive pick-up with Trevor the cameraman precariously crouched in the back of it capturing every moment of the ride. 

The plane amazingly arrıved on time and even more amazingly, all of my luggage arrıved safely as well. There was a production assıstant and even a car with driver to meet me at the airport, the drıver dıd look a bit concerned at the mound of soggy cardboard boxes that I was attempting to cram into his car, I'd had to get a connecting flight ın Amsterdam, and the various boxes had obviously been left standıng in the rain on the runway while arrangements were beıng made to squeeze them into the next plane.

I'm in Bristol writing this pondering how I am going to get my mountain of luggage into the taxi at 4.00am. The production company have given me a few more details, and for those who are familiar with The Long Way Round where Claudio, the glamourous cameraman has his own GS motorbike and rides alongside and even more off-road than Charlie and Ewan - well, mine is going to be a lower budget production with Trevor the cameraman perched behind me riding pillion with his camera.

I'm getting my stuff together ready for filming and travelling, which is a bit tricky as most of my travel gear is in LA and is being fedexed  directly to Bristol (200 miles from me) to be picked up on Saturday night. I'll be the one arriving at Istanbul Airport on Sunday wearing full bike gear, carrying my helmet and with a huge mountain of excess luggage including my panniers, topbox and tankbag.

BMW have announced they are launching a new advertising campaign and they are going to feature me! They're making a series of five short documentary films about real life BMW owners. Each film will be shot in a different country, I am the British representative and to reflect my travelling exploits they will film me travelling through Turkey. After having a chat witht he director via an inter-continental conference call (get me!), I've been informed that I am the only motorcyclist- the other BMW owners all have vehicles with four wheels- even more of an honour.

I had a great time at the bike show, catching up with many old friends, meeting new people and even seeing some familiar faces from other countries. One of whom I missed was Rob from Slovakia whom I'd last met in Shimkent, southern Kazakhstan when he was on the road with his wife. He was at the bike show the day before I got there,so unfortunately I didn't see him but he did leave a note.

Many thanks and hello to all those who managed to track me down, and good luck to all those who are planning their own journeys, I hope my advice has been useful and do stay in touch.