February 2nd, 2007 | categorizilation: all categories,Turkey
Ascent: +1600
Descent: – 1600
Rain rain go away, come again no other day…
After a very wet dash to Inebolu Town a few days ago, Jean, a visitor to the 14degrees website, suggested that I duct tape over the zips on my jacket to stop water from getting in through the zips.
Jolly good idea, so much so that when it started raining today, I did just that. Worked a treat too. Only one small problem, and that is that water wicks under the tape via the outer fabric of my jacket, causing the adhesive on the tape to unstick. The tape kept much more water out than if the tape wasn’t there, so a success.
Cycling in cold rain (the temperature was 3 degrees centigrade) is no fun however, no matter how sealed up you are. With the big climbs again today, I was sweating in no time. Wet from the outside, wet from the inside. As soon as I stopped, I got cold very quickly. At one stage I decided to wait for the rain to stop. I hid in a bus stop.
The rain however wasn’t cooperating, so I headed out again.
Lunch was an hour late, at 2pm in Cide, a town of 9,000 people. In summer I imagine it is quite the tourist spot.
The day had a warm ending however. I was hoping to get to Kurucasile for the night, however it was already 6pm by the time I descended into Kapisuyu I (there was Kapisuyu I and Kapisuyu II). Kurucasile was a tantilising 4km away, but was separated by a 300m high point. I tried to climb up over the point, but half way up my legs quite firmly refused. ‘Ah, no. No Robert, we are going no further’ they said.
I rolled back down to Kapisuyu in search for food. It was raining lightly.
I stopped at the only store in town and bought some bread and milk. The owner of the store, Mr. Behzat Guler, suggested that I eat next door at his small cafe. ‘In summer it is very busy here’ he said. Tonight it was dead. Him and his wife watching TV.
I ate my bread and a delicious sweet desert thing I didn’t think to ask the name of. I motioned to pay for the delicious sweet desert thing I didn’t think to ask the name of, and Behzat firmly refused to accept anything.
I said that I had a tent, and asked where I could pitch it in the small town. Behzat would have nothing of it, and that’s how I ended up sleeping in his warm little cafe for the night. Thank you Behzat!
After a day the weather finally got better for us, and we reached Istanbul on friday.
Are now in Odessa, and hope to be back in
Norway in a couple of weeks.
Nice blog you got here, looks like you manage
to update far more often than we do.
Anyway, good luck with the rest of your journey – Scooters are bad enough in that weather so we hope you don't get too cold.
Btw, got a nice pic of you 
http://www.scootertur.com/gallery/v/tyrk/ovva+349…
You can't complain about the generosity of the Turks. Must have been good to have a warm, dry place to lay down your weary head, legs, arms etc. You haven't mentioned your knee so I presume it's OK now.
Yey for the hospitality of the Turks. The scene down into Cide would have looked fantastic on a sunny day.
Hey, what a great pic from Per, Oyvind and Nikolai! That's a smile we haven't seen yet in your own pics… must be the smile of company.
you need a Poncho to keep the rain of, it wont unstick in the rain (the umbrella you don't have to hold). you might have to belt it on to keep it out of the way.
you could even use it as a sail if the wind was right.
What's worse, Rob – heavy snow or rain?
Per, oyvind and Nikolai, thanks for the link to the pic of me! Stoked.
Aunty Les, give me heavy snow any day rather than cold rain.
Cousin Tim, you might just be onto something with the poncho sail idea.
Lee, it is the smile of seeing the coolest thing ever for the last seven months. Man, it still makes me smile – around the world on scooters, Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest! Har har! And I guess it was good to speak English again even for just a bit.
