Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 46.17km
Average speed / 平均速度: 11.9km/h
Time on bike / 走行時間: 3h 51mm
Total distance to date / 今日までの積算距離: 3344.8km (plus 4200km)
Ascent / 上り: +575m
Descent / 下り: -550m

I am under the weather.

I have the usual. Nasal headache and sore throat.

Great roads today though. I took some small side roads to what I thought was going to be Kefken Village. On the way I found a new water pipeline under construction. I was allowed to take photos.

In the bottom photo, they are temporarily installing an automated welding jig that does the required four welds to join the pipe pieces. The four welds take one hour to complete. Fully auto. Cool man.

I got lost. I was tired, sick, and just wanted to curl up in my tent. I was well and truely in the sticks.

I did the only thing that made sense. I headed for The Sea. And I found the most fabulously restful and relaxing spot on Earth. Chamkonak.

It fulfilled all my requirements. No people. A view of the sea from my tent. Grass to pitch the tent on. Fresh water nearby. Beautiful sunny day.

The sea was a far cry from the hammering waves of a week ago in Inebolu.

I did just what I wanted to do. I curled up in my tent, with the gentle lapping of the waves in my ears, and a gentle warm breeze wafting through the tent. I recalled this song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMJX2CGrGcA

Just perfect.

Oh, and today is day 200 of the journey. According to my original plan, I was going to be in England today. Oh well. I would much rather be right here.

Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 93.27km
Average speed / 平均速度: 13.6km/h
Time on bike / 走行時間: 6h 49m
Total distance to date / 今日までの積算距離: 3298.0km (plus 4200km)
Ascent / 上り: +680m
Descent / 下り: -675m

Ugh. Sore throat this morning. Someone is dragging barbed wire down my throaaaaaat…

Generally feeling under the weather all day today. I almost forgot all about my throat and general non well being when a police car pulled up in front of me, the cops jump out, shake my hand heartily, and thrust me a newspaper, with an article about me in it.

Awaiting translation from someone who is in the know.

The day was mostly flat, following the coast.

Excitement at lunchtime however. I had myself in a nice little titch. The cafe I pulled up to looked closed. I asked a person nearby who looked like he was in the know, and he said the cafe was closed. Not so good. The next town was about 15kms away, and it was already 2pm.

I was just about to pull away, when a short bald guy with eyes really close together trotted out of the cafe. ‘Cafe’s open! Welcome!’ They had beef patties or chicken on the menu. I chose the beef patties.

They were over cooked, served with a few slices of cucumber, and some old bread.

I ate the patties, and cucumber, but left the bread. All washed down with 500ml of bottled water.

I stood and asked the short bald guy with eyes really close together how much I owed.

‘9YTL (NZ$9, US$7)’ he indicated with nine stubby fingers. For the readers’ reference, I paid 5YTL for fresh beef patties on a bed of soft rice, a large fresh salad, and fresh bread, the day before.

‘Ah, no. I don’t think so, mate. Try again. how much do I owe?’ I said calmly.

‘9YTL. Seven for the patties, two for the water’ the short bald guy with eyes really close together said.

I almost laughed. Now I knew he was trying to rip me off.

‘2YTL for 500ml of water?!’ I asked incredulously.

I raised my voice.

‘I am a tourist! I have lots of money, do I?!’ I shouted, still smiling at the madness of it all. I couldn’t believe this guy was ripping me off.

‘OK, OK, 5YTL’ he said.

I showed him a 20YTL note. The short bald guy with eyes really close together halted, as if to say, ‘we don’t have change’.

The owner looking guy, hearing the raucous, walked over and asked how much change I had. I showed him the 1.90YTL in coins I had, and said that that would do. I handed him the change, and headed out of the door, shaking my head.

So I ended up only paying 1.90YTL for lunch.

I fumed for 20 minutes or so as I pedalled. I considered biking back and giving the short bald guy with eyes really close together a bit more of my mind. The cheek of it all.

After lunch highlights were the extra safe (not) powerline technicians with no harnesses:

Bees with red bulbous legs:

And something I have seen often here on the side of the road in Turkey. Bottles full of what I assume is urine. I can only assume that long haul truckers pee into the bottles while they drive and then throw them out? At least that’s what I’ve convinced myself of.

Towards the end of the day, I came upon Guntur Holiday Village. Deserted. Only the security guys. They waved me through the gates, and I headed straight for the deserted beach. Massive, open, calm, windswept. Perfect.

Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 86.36km
Average speed / 平均速度: 11.8km/h
Time on bike / 走行時間: 7h 16m
Total distance to date / 今日までの積算距離: 3204.6km (plus 4200km)
Ascent / 上り: +1160m
Descent / 下り: -1380m

I played with the ‘ferocious’ guard dog for 30 minutes before heading off.

It was a cold start to the day. A chilly -9 degrees celcius. Karaman is a hill range over from the coast, and it is amazing how different the climate is here even though it is not very far from the coast. The cold froze the moisture in my brake and gear cables, resulting in only one gear (the climbing one), and front braking only. This was fine for climbing up the hill in the morning, but going down was tough work. Had to take it really easy. Braking with only your front brake at high speeds is not recommended.

Zonguldak is a big, dirty city. Zoomed through. A long, long, long uphill followed. I was hoping to be up and over it by lunchtime, but I got to the top at 2pm. I had a late lunch at the only cafe at the top of the pass (700m).

The day ended with a 2 hour dash along the flat coast on a narrow road with a lot of traffic. Ugh. Eregli had some impressive ship building yards tho.

Camped on a newly built marina, and watched the sun drop into the Black Sea.

Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 92.82km
Average speed / 平均速度: 12.8km/h
Time on bike / 走行時間: 7h 13m
Total distance to date / 今日までの積算距離: 3119.0km (plus 4200km)
Ascent / 上り: +780m
Descent / 下り: -670m

A generally overall blase day, really. Some cool ancient Roman rock carvings in the side of a cliff were fairly jolly awesome though.

BIRD ROCK ROAD MONUMENT - The Bird Rock Road Monument was created between 41-54 AD by order of Gaius Julius Aguilla. At the time when Tiberius Germanicus Claudius was Rome’s Emperor, Aguilla was the commander of the building army in the east provinces. After his commandership, he was appointed as governor of Bithnyia - Pontius for the rest of his life. The Bird’s Rock is a resting place and a road monument. It was created in arched niche by using the carving method. The monument shows a human form wearing a toga and on the pillar to the right of the niche, there is a motif of an eagle. The eagle represents the boundless power of the legionnaires. The Road Monument which has two inscriptions is the only one created in Antolia.
- from the info sign
The most exciting things happened towards the end of the day.

I was minding my own business, pedaling along, when a white station wagon came screaming to a halt in front of me. Three guys jump out wielding cameras.

I gather that they are from a press agency in Zonguldak, and somehow they found out about me cycling through the area. I give them the usual low down on what I am doing, they get some footage and photos, and I am on my way again. No doubt I will be getting some more tooting than usual in the days to come…

I ended the day by pitching my tent in a closed council picnic area. The gate said ‘Warning, Guard Dog’. I don’t think so. The nice old pooch would rather lick you to death than bite. Great dog.

Some local kids head the racket of the dog whining at me to come and play, so the kids came over to investigate. After it was ascertained that I was a foreigner on a bicycle, they rushed off and came back with soup and bread for me. Cheers guys!

My bike safely stored inside my tent which sat on the marina all day, I wandered aimlessly the streets of Amasra.

First stop was the local Museum. What a treasure trove. I shuffled around in a daze, trying to take in the reality that the things I was looking at were over 1,000 years old. Roman statues, other stone work, coins…

For all the dirt on Amasra, read about it on Wikipedia (article here). It has a fascinating history, one that I was not expecting here in Turkey.

I later wandered up the hill on an island connected to Amasra by an ancient stone bridge that makes up part of the Amasra castle/fortress.

The views from the top of the island were good enough for the cloudy conditions.

Amasra nowadays is a haven for tourists. There is a large city nearby (Bartin), so Amasra kind of reminded me of Akaroa in New Zealand. A popular place for city dwellers to come on a weekend. The town was fairly deserted however, and according to the locals it is understandably more lively during the summer months.

Tomorrow I face the hills once again and head in the general direction of Zonguldak City.

Today’s distance / 今日の走行距離: 44.88km
Average speed / 平均速度: 10.2km/h
Time on bike / 走行時間: 4h 23m
Total distance to date / 今日までの積算距離: 3025.3km (plus 4200km)
Ascent / 上り: +1620m
Descent / 下り: -1575m

Inhumane, I tell you, inhumane! The Black Sea coast of Turkey has the most unrelentingly steep and numerous short uphills of any road I have cycled ever. Over a distance of only 45kms, I had a cumulative total of 1620m vertical metres climbed. I tried in vain to capture the steepness on my camera.

I was tempted to carry on to make it 2,000m, but Amasra was too inviting to miss…

I don’t really have much more to say other than today was tough work.

Pitched the tent on the marina.

日本語要約:今日の上り坂がきつかった。本当にすごい、このトルコの上り坂は。そして 雨が１日降っていました。つらかった。しかし、1日の終にいいことがありました。カピスユ村でテントを張るところがありますかと現地の人に聞いたら、その人のカフェの中で寝ることになりました。

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!

日本語要約:今日の天気予報は晴れでした。今日は当たりました。しかしこの2日間の荒しの跡はよく見れました。道路がダメージを受けたり、道路に雪とアイスバーン。

Ascent: +1270m
Descent: -1270m
The weather forecast for today promised a one day break in the tough weather that has been lashing the middle section of the Black Sea coast of Turkey for the last few days. The forecast made good on its promises, and I managed to cycle about 75kms along the coast’s inhumane inclines before settling down in one of the many deserted campspots.

Only a few kms from Inebolu however, I had my first hold up for the day. The storm yesterday had caused a section of road to collapse, requiring some emergency maintenance work.

Cars were lined up on both sides of the slump in the road, but I was waves through after a few moments wait. I cycled gingerly over the slumped road, making sure to dodge the wide cracks in the road.

From here to Doganyurt, the road climbed up, high enough for the snow to remain half unmelted. It was tough going, and I took a few falls. Some a little closer to the edge of the road than I would have liked…

The hardest thing about today’s snow was that in places it had been compacted by cars, which left an uneven slippery surface. In some places the snow had turned to slush, in others it was still hard. Potholed ice, I call it.

The inclines were steep. In places I had to push the bike uphill. I was beginning to wish I had some spiked tyres as Satoshi, a regular visitor to my site, suggested.

The snow only lasted until Doganyurt however, and from there I was able to savour the inhumanely steep Turkish Black Sea coast hills in all their glory.

The views in places were stunning.

It wasn’t until it was growing dark that I spied a potential spot to sleep. I was up at the top of a point, and down below was a beach in a small cove. There were a few buildings in the cove, well away from the small town further up the valley. I bombed down the road to the cove. There were some people in one of the small houses - a family from Istanbul, on holiday. I asked where I could pitch my tent, and they suggested I sleep in the porch of one of the buildings nearby.

Dry and relatively warm, I had just finished cooking up some soup and pasta when the father of the family from Istanbul appeared with a massive plate of fried fish and another massive plate of salad. I ate my fill that night.

(The next day)