Leaving Greece behind was a little sad after the fantastic time we spent and the amazing hospitality extended to us by the people along the way. However, we have a long way to go and it’s time for us to leave Europe and explore new cultures and meet people whom we don’t know much more about than what the media wants us to think.
Going through Greek passport control at the Ipsala crossing (E90 road) was quite fast. Once through, we rode a couple hundred metres to a bridge where we passed between 2 military guards who were both holding some kind of menacing looking weapons! We asked them if we could take a photo of the flags that were flying just behind them, and they said “yes, but quickly”. On the other side of the bridge was another pair of guards who didn’t look too serious about their job but just smiled and said hello.
Turkish passport control was much slower and the line of cars very long, so after talking with some Turkish guys returning from working in Italy, we decided to jump the queue. Nobody seemed to mind. We got a red entry stamp on page 6 of our passports and off we went to the next queue which was for motorized vehicle checks etc. One police officer came to us, asked to see our passports and told us we could skip the queue to enter Turkey.
First thing we noticed, was a heck of a lot of road construction going on with semi trailer tip trucks by the dozen passing us and kicking up an lot of dust.
We rode into Ipsala to stop for lunch and noticed several pairs of young guys riding extremely noisy old motorbikes and flying passed us every few minutes!!
As we finished lunch, a bee stung me on the thigh and Gevelyn immediately jumped up, grabbed the keys and told me to hold the metal on the stung area as metal should help draw out toxins. Then we cut an onion and I held that on for half an hour. Luckily I don’t have any kind of strong allergy to bees and it only swole a little bit.
After lunch we cycled towards Kesan on the main road, which is quite new with a huge shoulder.
So far the traffic has been easy going and feels relatively safe despite all the terrible things we’ve heard about drivers in Turkey.(It is true they use their horns far more than necessary and without fail blast it directly next to you!)
Just before Kesan, as the sun was setting, we rode into a tiny village and decided to ride into a farmer’s yard to ask if we can camp the night. They pointed to a piece of grass and said something in Turkish which we couldn’t understand but assumed it was ok and so looked at them with a thumb up and a questioning look. They immediately gave us some thick rugs to protect the tent floor and then brought us water and dinner, (all in about 5 minutes). Dinner consisted of 2 large pieces of roast chicken, (we obviously didn’t eat it), rice, a loaf of beautiful homemade white bread, a chunk of homemade fresh cheese and a small bucket of home grown green peppers and plumb tomatoes. Such kindness!!
Afterwards they invited us for chai and we tried to communicate with them and consequently we had our first Turkish language lesson.
The second day we awoke to the sound of the mosque speakers blaring out a call to prayer/song at 5am, so we packed up and set off. Gevelyn was not feeling well, so we rode up and down the constant hills a bit slower than usual and also laid ourselves down on the footpath for a snooze for 1 hour around 10am.
Just after 12pm we were stopped to drink water in some shade near a roadside cafe/restaurant when a guy invited us for lunch at the restaurant! Lunch was a creamy vegetable soup to start, followed by warm green beans with a tomato sauce and finally a salad of tomato, cucumber, onion and parsley with börek. They gave us ayran (made of yogurt, water and usually a bit of salt) which is kind of the national drink (after chai of course!) to drink with the meal and chai afterwards with a dessert.
On our fourth day we packed our mats up and left at 6:30am.
After 4 km, we came across a small dog laying injured in the middle of the road with traffic passing over and around her. We stopped and carried her off to the side and comforted her while trying to figure out what to do. Some people happened to walk by us so we asked them to call someone to take care of her. Eventually the police arrived and called the vet who arrived 15 minutes later and picked the poor puppy up, dumped her roughly in the van and drove off. We couldn’t believe how heartless the drivers were. The day before, in the village we slept in, we passed a big dog, dead in a pool of blood in the main street near the local cafe/bar. Dogs don’t seem to be treated very well here!
We rode approximately 25km and stopped to buy some simits and tahini for breakfast.
Along the road to Istanbul there are lots of fruit stands. Very often we were offered fruits and one day one of the fruit stand guys also made us lunch and insisted we sleep near his stand and leave the following morning. It took several chais before we were able to continue on our way.
At one of these fruit stalls about 60km West of Istanbul, we left the bikes on the rail to take a photo with the friendly guys and suddenly I looked accross to see someone rummaging through Gevelyn’s handlebar bag looking for valuables! I immediately ran towards him and he ran to the waiting car, jumped in and they sped off. We were totally shocked as we started to feel extremely safe and had met only friendly and helpful people up until then. So we became very protective of our bikes and gear from that moment! Luckily he didn’t have enough time to steal anything!
Riding into Istanbul was incredible, terrifying, crazy and our first experience of sharing the road with insane minibuses who are not part of the official public transport system but somehow manage to overpower even local council etc.
From Istanbul we decided to take the ferry to Bursa to escape the insane roads out the East side. We arrived in Bursa on a very rainy day and hoped to find some accommodation through Warmshowers for the night.
It didn’t seem very likely until a couple of cheerful looking guys passed by and invited us for Turkish coffee at an outside kiosk. It turned out one of them had been talking to a friend about what it would be like to tour on bicycle long distance just before they saw us. So we were invited to stay with a wonderful couple who have traveled extensively themselves with many interesting stories to tell. We visited the city and learned lots of historical fact with our host as personal tour guide. We learned that the colour Tourquise is original from Turkey(where it gets its name from). Unfortunately they are using the red colour for their flag. We spent 3 nights in Bursa before heading out towards Gallipoli (Gelibolu), Çanakkale. Gallipoli is very important memorial site as lots of Australians, New Zealand and Turkish soldiers lost their lives during the WWI. We then took the ferry back to mainland and went along the West coast as far as Izmir and Kuşadası.
Those heroes that shed their blood
And lost their lives…
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the johnnies
And the mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours…
You, the mothers.
Who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears;
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land,
They have become our sons as well.
ATATÜRK, 1934
In Kuşadası we made a decision to leave the touristy coast and head inland to the famous mineral rich thermal pools at Pammukale.
It was very interesting to see and looks like a mountain of cotton wool. It was a shame that it is such a tourist area and we could not leave the bikes safely anywhere to go inside and visit the thermal pools together.
From Pammukale we continued through Dinar, Çay and Aksehir, then a long way down the mountain into Konya. They say Konya is the most conservative city in Turkey and it was quite noticeable. In Konya we found a few decent bike shops where we bought new chains to replace our almost worn out ones (over 5,000km). We considered buying some Schwalbe “marathon plus tour” tires for the rear wheels because we had many punctures along the roads in Turkey and were getting quite fed up with the repairs. We decided to just replace the Schwalbe Marathon Mondial with the Marathon Mondial folding version which we were carrying as a spare. It is a completely different tire, and so far we haven’t had any problems. We do believe that many problems were caused by the super hot roads during summer and the wires from the many pieces of truck tires scattered all over the roads.
Cycling out of Konya, we were pleased not to see mountains ahead and instead ended up with a couple hundred kilometers of mostly flat and actually quite boring desert areas. This extended from Konya to Aksaray where we suddenly hit some really hilly areas around Ihlara valley to Nevsehir and finally Cappadocia. Cappadocia is a truly amazing area with strange and beautiful wonders. We spent a couple of days just riding around looking at this strange area.
The first night in Uchisar, (Cappadocia) we asked in a house where we could camp and the man told us to meet him near a famous hotel because we could camp in the house of some French friends.
When we got there, to our surprise he opened the gate to a big villa and let us sleep on the roof top terrace as the french owners where not there! In the morning we woke up very early because of a strange sound and to our surprise, saw lots of hot air balloons taking off and the senery was stunning!
We spent the next 2 days riding to Göreme and Ürgüp and Avanos and it was one of the highlights of Turkey for us. Such a beautiful natural wonder!
From Göreme we went to Kaysery and then enjoyed the flat road to Sivas before climbing to Gümüshane to reach Trabzon on the Black sea. We climbed 2 mountain ranges and reached 2200m altitude. The scenery is very nice but we didn’t really enjoy the tunnels as there is not much shoulder and the traffic of both directions (usually 2 lanes each way) was deviated in to one tunnel with 2 lanes, (one for each direction) so it was a bit scary. Also we had a sudden change of weather, lots of people told us it would be rainy and cold in the north and in fact before reaching Trabzon the weather turned in to like Scottish weather( wet and cold). So we soon discovered that our waterproof jackets were not fully waterproof anymore… So we went to a shopping center and bought decent Waterproof and thermal jackets in preparation for winter.
While in a petrol station in Trabzon a guy started chatting to Anton. He is a motorcyclist and invited us to stay with him and his girlfriend back at their home, which was 10 km East of Trabzon on a high hill. So we had to push uphill a lot but it was worth it to have a nice shower and comfy bed! We also had a chance to apply for our Iranian visa using Key2Persia agency.
We discovered that people are generally not as open and friendly in the north of Turkey, which was a bit of a shame for us to not have the usual Turkish welcome we had been accustomed to throughout the country. Anyway we enjoyed seeing the vast tea plantations and hazelnut trees in the north.
We followed the road along the sea to get to Georgia, passing through a few tunnels and feeling a bit miserable because of the continuous rain. But after all we made it and entered Georgia!
While in Turkey, to have peace of mind, instead of wild camping we almost always asked in a house to camp in their garden or otherwise we slept in many servo stations (petrol/gas stations) where there has never been any shortage of çay and people always went out of their way to make us feel at home.
After having drunk nearly 300 cups of çay between us, we were a bit sad to leave Turkey as we felt very welcome in their country! People are so hospitable and helpful even though we didn’t speak the language. Shame the media is so harsh on Turkey, because the people are so genuinely friendly, helpful and welcoming. It is truly the most hospitable and friendly country we have cycled through so far!
Love,
cyclinghobOz
cyclinghobOz 