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Published: September 18th 2023
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As we walked back to the hotel from dinner last night the thing we all noticed was that the temperature had dropped and the wind had picked up. When we looked out the window this morning, if anything, the wind had gotten stronger.
We got away from the hotel at 8:30am after a good breakfast. I think The Plaza might just have been the best hotel we have had on the trip. Getting out of Edirne was hectic. The road we left on was extremely busy and in very bad condition with no shoulder at all. We had to be on our guard the whole time until we exited the city. We were then on a smaller road with no shoulder for a while, but much less traffic, until we turned onto the D20. This was the route I had originally planned. MAPS.ME (M.M) of course was trying to take us a different way but I convinced the boys that the route I had was more direct and would have less hills - sold. What I didn't know about the D20 was that it was getting a major overhaul from a two lane road to a divided road with two
lanes in each direction and a very wide emergency (or bike) lane. This would have made our days ride a piece of cake except for the wind.
The wind was predominantly blowing from the North East and we were travelling East, so effectively a head wind. It made the going slow but we did get into a rhythm. We were making steady progress at about 15km/h most of the day, a bit slower up the hills and a bit faster down the hills. Our morning stop was at a petrol station. No need to find shade today as it was overcast with threatening clouds off to the North. This was another factor in our favour. Having to push into a head wind into the heat would have made the ride significantly harder. For most of the second half of the ride we could see rain falling off to our left, it was just a matter of whether we would beat the rain or not, or so we thought. We got a few drops of rain at one stage but luckily the wind pushed the rain behinds so we stayed dry.
The landscape today once we got out of Edirne
was flat with a just a few undulations. The fields were quite dry and only the remnants of sunflower crops could still be seen. The mountains were way off in the distance on both sides of us. Traffic in general was quite low on the road, which we like, so the day became one of just pushing into the wind at a controlled and measured pace. We all took turns sharing the load and we actually made pretty good time getting to Kirklireli by 1:00pm.
We went out for a walk before dinner and I managed to find a barber and got my mane shaved off. There hasn't been that much of my hair on the barber's floor for a VERY long time. We found a restaurant to have dinner at and somehow my order got truncated and so I left feeling not quite satisfied. I decided to console myself with a couple of baklava which are all too prevalent and cheap to buy.
With only 4 riding days left (can you believe it?), tomorrow we ride to Saray. It's about a 77km ride with a few lumps in it but nothing overly steep or long - at
this stage of our journey, a piece of cake (or Baclava).
Distance travelled today: 62kms
Distance travelled so far: 4,316kms
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