Day 186 – From Duragan to half way up Sakiz Pass

Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 76.12km
Average speed / 平均速度: 11.4km/h
Time on bike / 走行時間: 6h 10m
Total distance to date / 今日までの積算距離: 2661.5km (plus 4200km)
Ascent / 上り: +760m
Descent / 下り: -430m

I was camped just outside of Duragan, so I cycled back into town or breakfast. On the menu was a herby white soup with rice in it, along with the complementary bottomless bread. I love the all you can eat bread thing at Turkish restaurants. You can eat as much bread as you can. Today’s soup and bread cost NZ$1.

As I was cyclig out of Duragan, I noticed that I had dropped my sunhat somewhere. Not only would I be in trouble sunburn-wise, but the hat is quite special to me. It has written on it messages from friends in Japan.

So I cycled back into Duragan once again. I arrived where I thought I must have dropped the hat, and one of the local taxi drivers rushed over with it in his hands. He motioned that he was about to drive out to find me. He then proceeded to drag me into the nearest tea house for some tea. Jolly nice lot, these Turks.

With the hat safely iside a zip up pocket, I left in the direction of Boyabat, 26km away.

I arrived at 11am, just in time for a break, so I checked up on emails and comments on the website. Left the internet cafe at 12:30pm, and had Lahmacun for lunch.

I decided to give the big coastal town of Sinop a miss and head for some smaller roads going to the Black Sea. Passed through a town with a very long name…

Half way up Sakiz Pass, I bought some eggs, a tomato, and a potato at a small store in a village. The locals were concerned that I wanted to sleep out in the wild. They said I would get eaten by wolves.