Posts from — May 2008

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.

today’s distance: 132km
total distance: 4557km
riding time: 6h

Waking up to sunny weather is a good thing and for the last few days this has largely been the case. It has been kind of cold though during the night as well, going down to 5C last night if not colder. Good thing the sleeping bag keeps me warm.

I left the nice spot I had found the previous night, ran some errands in Ilgin and continued along the way with a beauty of a tailwind which was to last all day, hence the distance today. I have been following a good-size road for quite a while now and was happy to turn off finally and get into some quieter territory. The turnoff to Sarayonu signaled just that. Hardly any traffic from there on out. It was great … gently rolling hills and a tailwind and hardly a car to be seen. Temperatures have now risen during the day time to the point where for the first time I am riding in only a t-shirt and bike shorts. Good stuff.

After finding another Fenerbahce fan along the route who was - despite them not winning the championship - in a great mood (the other team - you know who - shall not be mentioned). Even less cars after Sarayonu through farm territory with mountains in the background. In the places that I stop the same story repeats itself every time. Kids try out the two sentences they know in English - mostly how are you and what is your name without really wanting an answer. They just bugger off and eventually find the bike extremely interesting. When I leave they want to race me and after a while of following the strange foreign guy who doesn’t know their language, they drop out of sight.

Well, on to Altinekin, or so I thought. I cross a highway, had seen the Jandarma (some form of police, quite military style) at the red light. Didn’t pay much attention to the van. It pulls away, I mind my own business and realize it stops. Me thinks this is because of me. Oh well …

Two young guys get out, slight their assault rifles around their shoulders and stand on both sides of the van. One motions me to stop. I laugh and can’t believe it. Guy from the shotgun seat gets out, the others become a bit stiffer even and the conversation ensues:

“Where are you going?”
“China.” (as if that isn’t obvious)
Perplexed look on the face.
“Where are you going now?”
“Altinekin.”
“No, you are not.”
“Yes, I am.”
“You are going to Ankara!”
“No, I don’t want to go to Ankara. I quite like it here.” (smartalec Markus, stay where you are)
“You are on the wrong road for Ankara.”
“I don’t want to go to Ankara. I want to go to Aksaray. I can show you on a map.” Markus pulls out the map and shows where he wants to go. “Is there a problem?”
“But why not Ankara?”
“Because I don’t want to.”
“OK.”

Surreal conversation. I ask why I was stopped and all of a sudden he doesn’t understand any English. I ask again and he says that he thought I had gone the wrong way. Hm … makes me wonder with all those huge signs at the red light. At any rate, I try to end on a lighter note and ask them for a picture. Here is the result.

In Altinekin I am introduced to the caiphone and the caitokens. Ingenious. A cell phone store is my internet connection and all of a sudden, the whole place is full of people. The caiphone is like an intercom that is hooked up from the store (from almost all stores it turns out) to the cai cafe. Cai comes a minute later and in return the cai server takes cai tokens with him that are in a big plastic cup. I should have taken pictures … next time.

A geography teacher serves as translator for everyone (more or less), but expertly draws up a map for the next 20km. It worked like a charm. He also hooks me up with oil which is not a gallon or 5 liters and keeps the now 20 kids surrounding my bike in check. 

I go up the final climb of the day, no one on the road now. I pass through pretty desolate villages and flat farmland. Riding is great. No good places to camp though. Everything totally open, no trees. Hardly any area which doesn’t serve as a field.

Just as I was nearing the 130km marker, two dogs come after me - I just barely saw them and just outdo them. Kind of close. They were nasties, one of them wearing a big nail-spiked collar.

I finally get to a place with lots of trees. Looks like Fort Knox kind of. Mehmet makes short shrift of things, asks me in, continues to fix his roof while I set up my tent and eventually we set up dinner. He had learned some German in school, his wife is a teacher, speaks a bit of English and so we pass the time communicating about this and that. She keeps asking me Why? Why? I should point her here. But she doesn’t really want the answer. It’s a beauty of a night though.

today’s distance: 120km
total distance: 4425km
riding time: 6h

I woke up in a room that I didn’t know. That sometimes happens when you change places all the time. It just takes a second to realize what happened the night before. Sleeping in my tent gives me a feeling of being at home, it is one of the few constants at the moment.

I had breakfast with the family and left. Mohammed’s farewell bidding was extremely intense and took me a bit by surprise. I set out and tried to cover mileage. The wind wasn’t a big factor, the sun was shining and the terrain not terribly challenging. I am currently bopping around 1000m (3300ft), sometimes a bit higher, sometimes a bit lower. The day was a bit uneventful and I quickly covered miles. Despite not really wanting to do so, I ended up with 120km over the course of the day and didn’t feel thatI was pushing it too much.

The towns along the way are rather interchangeable it seems … but the gas stations sometimes aren’t.

More miles and cross-cultural fun in the afternoon, trying to get a small amount of salt instead of buying one kilo. It somehow worked in the end. The area was pretty as you can see.  

I ended up at a gorgeous spot a bit off the road and the attendant noise, watching a beautiful sunset and sitting in the bright moonlight typing things up. 

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.

today’s distance: 100km
total distance: 4198km
riding time: 5-6h

I was woken up by the morning prayer call - unsurprising given that I was sleeping next to a mosque. I turned around though, it was basically still dark and too early to take off. When I did, I was in search for quick food. It took a while, but I started putting calories into myself.

When in Eskisehir, I started taking care of some things. Greasing up my shoes, trying to find some small plastic screw top containers, updating the website and mailing some letters. The latter proved more difficult than the former tasks. I enter the post office building. A security guard sees me and signals that it’s OK to leave the bike inside. Good. I want to go up. No. 2 comes down and goes into my face right away. He was up the ladder from No. 1, that much was clear. He wants the bike outside, I refuse. Get ready to leave. He pushes the bike around. It seems that we agree on a spot 2m away, still inside. Too much traffic outside I thought. Things seem settled. I go upstairs. No. 2 talks to someone and motions me over. His supervisor apparently, No. 2 indicates that he speaks English. I ask what was wrong and super says nothing. Just looks at me and finally shrugs his shoulders and utters “nothing”. I ask whether everything is OK and he nods emphatically. Meanwhile No. 2 storms downstairs again and I didn’t have a good feeling about it. I reach him as he is about to move the bike outside. I motion to leave it there … and if not that I would do it myself by leaving. For some reason he starts shouting. I realize a young woman watching us. Bike is outside, he smiles sardistically I thought. The woman appraoches me and says in perfect English that the building also houses the local courts. I tell her what went on upstairs and she wants to stay with the bike or ask a judge. I was taken aback by her kindness, tell her that had studied law as well and we get into a short conversation. I didn’t want to take up her time with waiting for me and said I would seek another post office.

Sure enough, on my way to Seyitgazi one comes into view. I mail my things off without a hitch. Should have known about that one and I would never have gone near the first one. I also made a feeble attempt to get another container in a hardware store. That has been a thoughie for a while. I need it to keep my dish soap. Needs to be tight. I ask the owner and we can’t find anything. Then I come across this … it is perfect. I shout out. He stares at me and says I can have it. Seems like he wanted to get me out of there. Just kidding. Problem solved.

I move on over more hills and suddenly hear a clink … part of the pedal has come off. I can attach it again by tightening the screw in the back, but the screw heads holding it in place from the top are gone. Just gone. Here you can see what I mean, you have to look kind of close, the right one being the damaged one.

Will have to see what can be done about it. Welding maybe, if I can find an aluminum welder, which might be difficult. If all else fails, Speedzone will send me a pair of new pedals. I talked to Dieter today and heard that Dirk has crashed while riding his bike and can’t work for the time being. All the best to him. If you’re so inclined, please drop him a line at info@speed-zone.biz.

I get to Seyitgazi and get my hair cut (the guy goes nuts, what I thought was a 10 minute affairs turns out to take 40), find a small bottle to put oil in, buy my supplies for dinner (and because there is no store with tomatoes, people send me to the local restaurant, where they give me tomatoes, cucumbers and dish soap), am surrounded by tons of kids. These two were part of the last holdouts.

Eventually I reach a great spot under some will trees next to a little stream. A farmer in an adjacent field offers the whole place, indicates I should camp where I want. After a big pot of pasta and a salad, I hit the cookie jar … life’s good. Some fruit as well …