Day 56 (Turkey): Topraklik - Dogantarla (don’t bump your head in low doorframes or: why am I tall?)

today’s distance: 136km
total distance: 4693km
riding time: 6-7h

Mehmet was adamant I take a different road and after some drawing in the dirt, I was convinced that his route would be the right one. I said goodbye to him and his wife, them waving me off and making sure the foreigner would not go the way he intended. They had been extremely kind to me, worried much about me being cold during the night and inspected the tent before I went to bed. I am deeply indebted to them.

The route back was to lead me past the two dogs, but the next village promised a short cut which I was glad to take … only to discover that the two dogs were now coming from the right towards me as they were accompanying a shepherd. Nothing to boost you like a good chasing in the morning. The shepherd didn’t seem to care at all, which sort of left me fuming. But I was on my way by then.

A couple of villages later, another serious dog was chasing me for about half a km. He actually snapped for one of my packs and got a hold of something. The bike all of a sudden bucked, but he quickly let go and I couldn’t see any real damage. Still, what the hell … if you know your dog goes bananas when s/he sees a biker (alright, one once a year in those villages, happened to be me) why do you let it walk freely? No recourse of course, can’t go back, the dog will be there waiting for you. And I’m sure it’s gonna think “come on buddy, if you dare”. Can’t talk to the person most likely as they are in the fields and my Turkish is limited. And because of the collars, there isn’t much you can do to the dog, not that I would want to.

I hit the first of two Karavansereys today, the wind deciding to give me a run for my money for a while. It eventually switched to be a tailwind for a good part of the afternoon.

In Sultanhani I visited the second of these quite amazing buildings, serving as waystations on trading routes. The inside is quite nice and cool even in the warm temperatures that are around during the day.

For the next 40 or so km I was able to coast along the highway at extremely high speed. The wind wasn’t fierce in my back, but it gave me a good push. I also saw this raptor …

Two men had let this one free and I turned around to see what was going on. It had a broken wing and was certainly going to die sometime soon. There wasn’t much to do … it may have been better to kill this once proud bird rather than let it fend for itself. A veterinarian? I suggested as much to the two guys, but one of them said that he wouldn’t kill it and leave it to the one above. A strange notion I feel - certainly a good deal more suffering for the bird in the next few days.

About 20km before Aksaray I filled up the stupidity meter for the week. I was stepping out of a bathroom after splashing my head with water only to bump my head into the low door frame. A sudden clonk, my head started to hurt and blood came spurting out for a bit. It soon stopped, everything was OK. Damn those low door frames.

Once in Aksaray I pondered what to do and decided to go for the Ihlara Valley for a couple of days, followed by the Goreme area here in Kappadokia. My initial push there turned out to be just that. Person after person pointed me in that direction. Turned out to be a dirt track in the wrong direction. It made for an interesting ride for sure though. The shepherds I asked had no clue (though me thinks that they are sitting together right now, laughing about the strange guy on the bike, slapping their legs and having a good time). Once back on a main road, two wardens at a gas station seemed to know what they were talking about and gave me good directions. Things worked well and after a bit of a search I found a nice place to pitch my tent.