Posts from — June 2008

today’s distance: 108km
total distance: 5401km
riding time: 6h

Souli must have been up way before I was - but my body needed the rest and so I let it take whatever it needed. After a good 9 hours of sleep I got up at 7 am and we did breakfast - fried potatoes, homemade cheese and bread and as always olives and tomatoes. When I took off, lots of kids gathered around us and waved me off. The road continued up the valley and then very steeply dropped off into a little plain, sourrounded by high mountains.

At the turnoff to Adiyaman I briefly stopped at a gas station and the warden made clear: “I know where you spent last night.” News travel fast around here it seems. I looked at him kind of puzzled. He said that I had stayed at Koluk and pointed at his chin, indicating that I stayed with someone with a beard. I laughed and couldn’t believe that five villages later, this was still something that people told each other.

The ride towards Adiyaman was … hilly. A short uphill was followed by a long downhill which I found thrilling only to see the road climbing steeply on the other side of the river. Ufff …. and that was the story for the next 3 hours.

The surroundings were amazing and I was enjoying the very small number of cars that passed me on the backroad I had taken. It was great. It was also hot though and I went through a lot of water in a short period of time. When I finally reached the pass I could see the Ataturk Lake (man-made) in the distance, far below me (and barely visible in this picture).

This long downhill was interrupted by a number of climbs that were quite challenging, but I eventually got to Adiyaman. On the way down I could feel wave after wave of heat coming at me. I dropped a lot of altitude and it was getting seriously hot now.

Once out of Adiyaman (after a longer break to wait out a bit of the heat during which I talked to Rob from www.14degrees.org over instant messenger; it was his birthday a few days before - if you have some time, head over to his extremely interesting blog as he is skating across China at the moment), the terrain became undulating and when I was finally in Kahta, I was done for the day. The city is dusty and not interesting, but I really needed to just lie down and not do anything for a while. This I did and soon enough I was good again.

today’s distance: 98km
total distance: 5293km
riding time: 5-6h

I was woken up early (say 6am) and chatted it up with Ibrahim before doing breakfast. He told me about how Alevis are apparently persecuted (must have been much worse in the past according his account), including a number of things that I would rather not divulge here on the blog. This was no longer chatting though. Interestingly, he was doing the same with the Sunni majority as people in the other town had done the night before. He said to be careful and so forth … which struck me as odd as he was a person who chose his wording carefully. The time with him and Hane was very rewarding and a big, massive thank you.

After breakfast I headed out into much warmer weather, it was getting hot. It was also getting a bit steep. After a good number of climbs (and downhills) I reached the top and could let myself roll down to Akcardag. On what I thought was the last climb, I was overtaken and overtook these guys several times (they are transporting hay, yet still seem on the verge of collapsing all the time).

From there I headed out to Dogansehir, thinking that I would spend the night in the vicinity, a plan that worked out only partially. I soon arrived at Oeren and asked for a route that would not lead me around the big massive mountain that lay in front of me (it was big, the climb around the Western side clearly hard). Turns out that once in the store, a Turk living in Zurich approached me and helped out. His cousin eventually led the way through corrugated back roads that I could never have found myself and over a few dips and climbs to a paved road that was eventually going downhill and certainly a place that few bikers had been on.

During that downhill I spotted something odd. This will sound a bit strange I realize. But as I was heading downhill, I looked at a house and saw two people in front of it. The man was wearing shorts, which was a bit odd. But even more surprisingly, there was a woman wearing shorts as well. I did a double take … I wasn’t hallucinating. Sure enough, I was called over - the guy shouted in German and as it turned out they are from Karlsruhe, less than 60 miles from where I grew up. I never caught their names unfortunately, but we had a great chat over the course of 30 minutes or so. I eventually moved on and felt that my gas tank was running on empty, but there were few places to resupply. Once I did (in Suerue) I was ready to hit the next suitable place for the night. Alas, I couldn’t find one. Water, fields, too much in plain view … A bit frustrating. As it was seriously getting dark, I stopped to have a drink and unbeknownst to me, I had stopped close to a mosque. The men were just leaving and … as so many times before, there was one person who spoke German. Souli made short shrift of things … no camping he said, you’re coming to my house. Wow … I was floored and similarly tired. I didn’t last long, but the one thing that did stand out was his continuous use of “freilich, freilich” (sure, sure) as he had spent part of his life in Nuremberg. Just as Ibrahim and his wife, Souli also spoke in what didn’t sound Turkish to me … he uses a mishmash of Turkish and Kurdish, but made sure to let me know that he disliked the Kurds and that I should be careful when I am heading further towards the East. Where did I hear that before?

today’s distance: 78km
total distance: 5195km
riding time: 4-5h

As promised, Shule (this is as close to the English spelling I can get, for the German speakers, it sounds like Schule) picked me up at 7am and off we went with her nephew to Gökpinar, a beautiful lake about 10km up the mountains to have breakfast. The color of the lake is quite astounding, but see for yourself.

Breakfast was great. We talked a good deal about how her life as a teacher influences her ability to live together with her husband (it’s tough right now) and also that while they may be married on paper, no one really knows until they have their wedding ceremonies (that is two - one for each family so they don’t have to travel; the more the better I guess). They are both teachers, her husband in Erzurum, a good 500km away and so they don’t get to see each other too often. Schule actually grew up in Gurun, but they are planning to move to the Agean Sea in a couple of years when both can apply to be moved to a different location. Apparently doctors have it much worse, teachers are only tied to one place for 2 years or so, doctors and nurses for 10. Sounds like a killer for a lot of relationships (though not all).

We then drove at high speed through town to a canyon, took a quick look as she had to be at school at 9am.

So I was going to leave at around 10am I thought, but that wasn’t to be. The director of the teacher’s hotel had other plans for me. He wanted to videotape an interview with me, following another one he had done with the deputy head of the Turkish military who is apparently from Gurun. I am following in big footsteps. The idea was that it shold be inspirational for students. So Shule had to come back to do the translation - lots of fun questions thrown my way (e.g. What makes Germans so successful despite losing two world wars?, but also other things like whether I had any advice for Turkish schoolchildren in how to succeed in life. Nope, not really, but I played the part.). Apparently this was all borne out by the fact that the director was impressed by my future job [question #3 the previous day] and my age [question #2 the previous day]. This whole interview was a lot of fun though and I got a copy on my USB stick. I will have to see what to do with it - maybe use part of it in the next video.

So I eventually left Gurun and headed for the road. It was slow going at first, I  could feel the previous day for sure. U will be happy about this as he - fresh on the heels of M & M’s offer to donate the km of one day in about a week - has promised something similar today. Thanks a lot for contributing!!! The road was flattish at first, but then the first of two climbs came up, temperatures considerably higher than yesterday, reaching the low 30s C.

A quick break in Darende was followed by a more serious climb, which was a bit of a struggle. Halfway up, I was invited for tea, an invitation which I gladly accepted. We chatted about this and that in German and French before I moved on. Just as I was heading out, I was warned of the next village - people are no good there they said. This made me more curious than anything else. The promised 3km of uphill turned out to be 10km almost by the time I got to the top (there was a five minute discussion about this which made me a bit suspicious), but the area was quite amazing.

On the downhill I saw the town people had warned me about and I was going to stay either there a bit further up the road. As I came down the steep hill, I realized that something was missing. The minaret. Made me wonder a bit …

Needless to say I was invited for more tea as I wanted to buy my stuff for dinner. The first guy spoke German, then another and as it turned out of the 15 men about half spoke German. All had worked or are still working in Germany. My question about a camp spot was met with a big debate. Since there was no mosque, they offered the school. Not a problem they said - tent seemed to be out of the question. Then loads of tea over which I found out what the deal with the missing mosque was. They are Alevis - who have no grandiose prayer building. The women wear no headscarf either, at least not here and if so not for religious reasons I was told.

All of a sudden the “warning” was comprehensible, though not understandable as far as I am concerned. It again goes to the question of the “other” - since they were not Muslim as the previous town was, they had to be strange and ostensibly bad people.

I was invited for dinner by Ibrahim who said that I could go to the school afterwards. Turns out that he - as Özcilek does - works for Siemens in Berlin, though the name doesn’t ring a bell (it is apparently a large branch of the firm). Once in their house his wife made clear that she would not let me go there and that I should be staying at their place for the night. My question of whether this was really OK and that I had no problem to sleep in my tent was met with indignation. There weren’t any more questions and soon enough I had a carbohydrate rich dinner (yummy pasta) and homemade yoghurt and cheese. It was all extremely tasty and the conversation very pleasant and informative. 

today’s distance: 104km
total distance: 5117km
riding time: 5-6h

Rain pelted my window at 5 am. Yikes. I turned back to sleep and got up when my body was ready for it. It was time to get back on the road today. First I needed to fix up the bike though. The brake I had given only a get me to the bus station job and the pedals were still the old ones.  

After a bit of fussing around, the bike was ready to go. I headed for my friend, the owner of the local internet cafe - who back two weeks ago was a major help and would refuse any payment, neither then nor now. I got more of your messages and also uploaded yesterday’s post. A couple of you suggested trying to get DPD to make a donation and I contacted them about it. We shall see whether that draws any response.

Then it was time to go. I admit to having been a bit apprehensive about it. I wasn’t sure about the bike or myself. And sure enough, the road threw a good number of climbs at me today. And that wasn’t the only problem. The towns that were supposed to have ben there didn’t exist or had no market. So I slugged throughout the day on a few cookies and bananas. But the surroundings sure made up for things.

Once over the first pass, the landscape changed from windswept plains and rolling hills to more demanding territory and deeper-cut valleys, but it was extremely pleasant to be back on the road and the grin on my face was interrupted only when the last climb of the day began and I could really feel the lack of fuel I was suffering from.

The road was under pretty heavy construction making riding difficult for parts of the morning and the afternoon. But all of this was made up by just doing what I had been hoping to do for a while now. And that to get back on the bike. I gained more and more confidence in the bike again … which is a good thing. I will have to rely on it for the next months still. I could also feel though that the last two weeks left their mark … I am not completely out of shape, but was certainly better trained prior to the break. But all went well in the end and after a couple days I should be back in good condition. The goal had been to be somewhere to watch Germany play Croatia … so I aimed at Gurun. I didn’t have much of a choice as there wasn’t much food available before anyway.  

Once there I was looking for a place to stay. I also wasn’t going to go any further. I had covered over 100km today, starting out after noon. I also wanted to watch the match. The hotel choice was limited, but I was extremely lucky. Here is the introduction to a concept that I hadn’t heard of before: the teacher hotel. There are also military hotels, police hotels and a range of others. They are run by the government and are designed as meeting places for all teachers, but mainly house those teachers that don’t have their own appartments and - this is important - those that aren’t married. So I was surrounded by a bunch of teachers from Gurun. The person running the place called the English teacher, she came around shortly after and everything was set up very quickly. Everything is veyr basic and I am not sure how many German teachers would put up with it. But it seemed to work fine. Sure enough, Shule (I am completly hacking her name her, but it is Arabic and means flame) translated for the head person and I will be a on a personal field trip tomorrow with them (means early morning for me) to a lake and a canyon. Needless to say we need to be back for the start of school - and Shule was quite enthusiastic about the idea of a class visit. Head person also wants the local paper to do an interview with me … so I am looking at some fun tomorrow.

today’s distance: 8km
total distance: 5013km
riding time: 1\2h

I couldn’t motivate myself to get up. The bed seemed like a good place to be. I also figured that if the package was going to come in, I would receive a phone call. I didn’t … And when I went to inquire at 10am, nothing had come in. According to DPD’s tracking system, the package hadn’t moved since 10:41am the previous morning and was still in Istanbul. I called the Turkish courier company (DPD contracts this out it seems) and the rep told me that it was to be delivered today after first reading out loud what I had in front of me. I asked at what time I could expect the delivery and she said late afternoon. My hint at a promised early delivery was met with: “I will call you back in five minutes.” I had heard that before. But she did and told me that it would be delivered before noon. I happened to talk to the hotel manager at 11:45am (”Do you know any more than yesterday?”) when the delivery arrived. I grabbed everything and put my new rear wheel and a new chain on, had to fumble a bit with the break and after some other adjustments left at around 1:30pm to get to the bus station.

(click on the picture for a larger view and to read the notes; since I had a package coming, I decided to have other things sent in that I would need eventually like a replacement chain)

Once there I was told that the earliest bus wouldn’t leave until 9pm, which would be a bit late. Turns out that I found one that left at 3:30pm and would get me back at around 10pm. I jumped at the occasion and after a brief stop at Kayseri hopped off a pretty subdued bus (the miracle of today gave us a live feed of the Switzerland - Turkey game, Switzerland just having scored the first goal; Turkey would eventually win the game with a goal in overtime; the reporter sounded very much Latin American with his elongated Gooooooaaaaaaaal, Gooooooaaaaaaaal) at Pinarbasi. 

Though it was dark, I still remembered the places that we passed. The first major climb out of Kayseri seemed to effortless on the bus, the place where I stopped for lunch (banana and Coke because of my upset stomach that day) or the place where I realized that my rim was busted. All the while I was thinking of the many messages that I received from all of you. I checked my inbox in Kayseri quickly and found a plethora of messages. Let me just say thank you!!!!  These messages mean a lot to me and as I was sitting on the bus I was in good spirits that things will turn out well. I will try to get back wit you individually, but that may be a couple of days or so.

Interestingly, I also got a message on the comments section of the German blog from a DPD employee. It seems like at least one person is reading this blog now (welcome Petra, no sarcasm intended) and thanks for the clarification. I understand that there are two customs inspections (which is what Petra had hinted at), but that wasn’t the reason for my disappointement with DPD in this whole - rather frustrating - experience (without wanting to rehash things, but “forgetting” to pick up the package for two days and giving out a lot of wrong information to name a few). But maybe I can convince DPD to make a donation for the charity part of this project??? Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if this is something that you’re interested in.