Day 53 (Turkey): just after Kesenler - Sulumenli

today’s distance: 107km
total distance: 4305km
riding time: 5-6h

A rollercoaster type of day. Emotionally. I woke up late and could feel the strain of the last few days in my body. I am a bit exhausted. Covered quite a bit of mileage and a lot of altitude. So I stayed in the sleeping bag, the sun was shining and I knew I had some good chocolate pudding to take care of. Then some cows showed up not far from my tent.

I crawled out and after a really slow start finally set out. It was slow going, I somehow couldn’t find a rhythm. This was pretty much the story of the day, though maybe it was worse in the middle of the day.

Lunch in Kirka didn’t help much to improve the situation. The sidetripping that I had intended to do was a no-go. Just didn’t feel like it. After completing another uphill it also started to rain a bit. Almost blue skies all around me, but it still rained. The hellos weren’t that welcome any more. I felt exhausted mentally also. I waved feebly, but didn’t want to interact in the usual way. Just wanted to get away. Saw this …

With a big push from the wind after a change in direction I arrived in Afyon. The idea was to look around town and then move on for a bit, but not much. Given that I had felt crummy I wasn’t up to doing a lot of distance. I visited the local mosque which was stunning.

Then I saw the hammam and decided to go for it. Hammams are good inventions, the Turkish version of the sauna, but with a different feel. Lots of roomy caverns with white marble and plenty of watersplashing all over. This one was apparently over 500 years old. First off, the sauna - which was relaxing. Given how I felt I didn’t want to stay too long. Then I opted for a massage. Hussein, I will always prefer yours over the one I got. It was interesting. It was also rough. Not sure how many bones cracked in my body during the whole procedure, but the guy did an expert job for sure. My muscles could have used some longer massaging though. But when I got out, I felt so much better. A long shower later and after leaving I finally headed out of town.

Got my groceries and looked for a place. Not a good area. Too much industry all over. Then the airport, that didn’t help. I finally found a road and was ready to go for a spot when the sulphuric smell made me think that this might not be the best spot. It was pretty much dark by now. Not a good situation. I headed into a village, asked at the local market. No common language. But we somehow managed and the owner said to come along to the wedding that was raging in the center. 50m away. The town isn’t much bigger.

I was clearly in conservative land. I saw no woman without a head scarf, everything was strictly separated. Never saw bride and groom together. Somehow it seemed that no one spoke Enlglish or German until an old man showed up who had lived in Heilbronn, though his German was shaky. It was all good fun … lots of people barraging me in Turkish, no sign language included. Kind of hard to converse and this is totally my shortcoming of course. I still didn’t know where I would sleep, but knew something would be done about it. I ended up in the storeowner’s house. The night was great and ended very different from what I expected. Lots of gunshots and Turkish dancing later (there was no escaping) I feel that I will be out like a light in a bit.

I got a number of questions from some blog readers - since they may be of interest to others, here we go.

Orientation: I use a map and have a general sense of where I am going and then decide on the spot oftentimes. Take the next few days. I know I am heading to Goreme and will try to not go into Konya. That leaves me with several options. The maps from Reise Know How have been extremely helpful, though sometimes I wish that they were more detailed. I would have to be shlepping more maps then though, so it’s a choice I made.

Overnights: I mostly sleep in tent, so that is a rather simple affair. Where possible, I as a farmer whether I can pitch. I also get a number of invites to people’s homes. Until Turkey, I have been using couchsurfing.com and hospitalityclub.org a lot more.

report writing: I use an HP Ipaq supplied by HP (thanks!) and a foldable keyboard to type things up and will post a picture of it. I try to type things up every day and then upload it from an internet cafe. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions, I will try to answer them here or privately.