January 21st, 2007 | categorizilation: all categories,Turkey
Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 89.2km
Average speed / 平均速度: 13.9km/h
Time on bike / 走行時間: 6h 25m
Total distance to date / 今日までの積算距離: 2273.7km (plus 4200km)
Ascent / 上り: +715m
Descent / 下り: -1335m
The day began with a fruitless adventure, trying to cycle along a half finished empty canal. It all began when I began noticing tunnels all along the side of the road.
Now me being me, I just had to go check them out. There were sounds coming out of most of them suggesting that work was being done, so I resisted the very strong urge to explore the insides.
The canals however, were all deserted, so I cycled for about 2km along one particularly good stretch.
The degree of completeness quickly diminished however, until I was cycling on mud so sticky that on two occasions I had to remove the back wheel completely to clear out the mud from between the mud guards and tyre, that had caused the wheel from stopping turning…
“I know, how about we cycle to England on those well formed sealed roads down there!” I finally said to myself, thoroughly convinced that the last two hours of slow progress were not worth it at all. Made some nice photos though…
The rest of the day was spent battling short uphills followed by equally short downhills. The upside however was that I was chased by a gentle but persistent tail breeze.
At around 4pm, just as I was approaching Rushadiye, I spotted a group of men down by the river having a BBQ. They spotted me too, and began furiously waving me down, inviting me down for a feed. I joined them for chicken and tomatoes and bread.
Rather than stay in a hotel in Rushadiye, I pushed on for another 4kms to a riverside camp spot for the night just out of town.
You do like adding to your adventures! Did you ever find out where the tunnels were going? Looks like the natives are still friendly – did they speka de English? Charcoal BBQ or just a fire by the river?
Has it warmed up a bit? There is no snow in the photos.
Hi Robert
This is fatih ,Noriko san`s boyfriend. i hope you can remember me we met each other while stayin in Hita.I was so bussy before so i couldn`t keep in touch with you. what you are doing now, it is really admiring thing.If you would like to ask anything about Turkey I can answer on it. My family lives in Ankara. If you go there They can guide you throuigh the city. In addition to that, my friends generally live in Istanbul, also I can try to contact with you if you want. i read your comment about kurdish people. honestly Turkish people dodn`t have any problem with kurdish people. Our problem is with PKK which is terrorist organization. This organization killed 35 000 young turkish soldier within 15 years therefore some turkish people hve stereotype about Kurdish people. Anyway I am glad that you like Turkey. Take care and enjoy your trip. Now I am working in macedonia, if you would like to come here, I would be so happy.
The proverbial short-cut – always takes you longer than sticking to the road!
