Category — Turkey

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 …

today’s distance: 120km
total distance: 4098km
riding time: 7-8h

The day presented itself with a good number of climbs. It started out with a steepish one, gaining over 500m within less than 6.5km. The good thing was probably that I couldn’t see the top due to the heavy fog only got denser the higher I got. It was also better as it would have been a bit discouraging I guess. The temperature had dropped to below 10C, necessitating a change of clothes on the top and a rather warm setup for the downhill, which was good fun though - albeit short - and soon enough I arrived in the town of Yenisehir. I encountered these scenes, apparently a local celebration for high school students. Though I may be wrong. I was also approached by what seemed like every student. Once an old man got angry when some students said hello, apparently because they weren’t solemn enough in the face of the flag and Atatuerk’s flag (the latter one of course being a slighly blasphemic comment).

Did lunch an hour later in Inegöl and then headed to an internet cafe. Funny things, these internet cafes in Turkey. They seem to do self-censorship for the most part. Youtube is practically blocked everywhere. Flickr however is freely accessible on private connections most of the time, but some of the internet cafes that I’ve been to block it.

I headed out and had decided on taking a route that looked like a straight shot without much traffic to Bozuyuk. Boy was I wrong (or rather the map that depicted a straight line). The start was OK, but then the road simply wound up the side of the hill for 13km, covering roughly 800m in altitude. Again, temperatures had dropped considerably at 1000m. After a brief stop at Pazaryeri I got to Bozuyuk to do some updates on the website and headed out again.

I arrived at Yörükcepni and asked to pitch my tent. Needless to say, this was followed by some tea, at which point I was hoping that I would be pointed where to set up. Nope. Somehow something was planned for me. I had no clue of course, conversation was a slow drag. Problem was that I was extremely hungry and needed food. And I couldn’t just leave of course. Eventually we ended up in a building adjacent to the mosque. Still no food though and certainly too late to fire up the stove. I munched on cookies and fruit. Tomorrow will be food day galore … so will be the days after I hope. People meant well of course and that’s what was important ultimately.

I also wanted to thank Eva for an email she sent me. Eva has more or less stumbled upon the website through mouth-to-mouth propaganda and has just told me that she would like to contribute to the donations for the Tajik village that I am supporting. A big thank you!!! If you want to consider contributing as well, there is more information over here. 

today’s distance: 115km
total distance: 3978km
riding time: 6-7h

I woke up too late. I had meant to say goodbye to Fatih in person early in the morning. That didn’t work. He left before 6:30am and I only heard the door close and he was gone by the time I had been out to open the door. Bummer …

After an uneventful ferry ride I continued on the other side until I hit the road to Iznik. It was some good uphill work for an hour with some good views. Not camera-good views given the so-so weather. After a similar downhill, I was out of energy. I could feel it, slowly slugging up the next set of hills. I pulled out at the next store, got my sugar levels back up and continued on with rain setting in. Only slight rain, but temperatures dropped. Dressed up for colder weather and continued to Iznik. I filled up the bags for dinner at the local bazar, got some baklava and was invited for tea at the bakery. Finding a spot wasn’t that easy today, but am now in an olive grove with the rain hopefully staying away.