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Published: September 19th 2023
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In Turkey there is a "Call to Prayer" a number of times per day. The "Call" is broadcast from the towers of the mosques but also from loud speakers around the bigger cities, one of which was directly outide our hotel window. I can tell you the first call today was at 5:48am!!!!
Breakfast wasn't available until 8am today so it made for a late start. We didn't get riding until 8:45am and as normal it's always slow going out of a big town and all the one way streets didn't help.
We were on the same road as yesterday, the D020. This road is being upgraded. In part it is a separated two lane each way highway with a big emergency lane to ride in, and in part, a dual carriage way with barely any shoulder at all and a surface that could use a lot of work. Today we had about equal parts of both.
This morning there was quite a bit of cloud which helped keep the temperature down and the forecast was for 10km/h winds from the North East. Well, the wind was from the North East but it was more like 20km/h and
seemed to get stronger as the day wore on. Add to that a number of climbs today (about 600m of climbing) and it made for a very tough day in the saddle.
The landscape isn't changing very much at the moment. Lots of crops that have been harvested leaving browning fields mostly. And despite the hills we had to climb today the land is predominantly flat. We can't even see mountains on the horizon anymore.
Our morning break was by the side of the road under the shade of a rare tree. The wind had really picked up by this stage so we were glad for the break. For lunch we stopped where a farmer was selling his produce from the side of the road. He was selling watermelons so we bought one and he gave us a knife to cut it up and we polished off the lot. We did have help from a young French couple we met who have been riding for about 2 months. They have already ridden to Constanta (end of the Danube) and are now on their way to Istanbul with no end time or schedule to burden them.
With the
late leave this morning, the strong head wind and the extended lunch break it was getting later into the afternoon than we would have liked and we w ere still riding. For the last 20 odd kilometers into Saray the D020 was down to a lane each way and there was quite a bit of traffic including lots of trucks. It was probably the worst road conditions we've had on the trip so far. To make matters worse about 8kms from Saray a bolt came out of one of my panniers (for the third time). A quick temporary patch job didn't hold and Tom ended up carrying my pannier into Saray on his front rack.
I said The Plaza in Edirne might be the best hotel we've had so far. Well, I think the Elit Hotel in Saray might be the worst. I'm very glad we're only here for one night before we head off on our way.
Tomorrow we have about 80kms to ride and will be staying at Durusu Park which is quite close to Istanbul Airport. There are a number of significant climbs so it will be a tough day, but it should be the last
of the tough days. Both Thursday and Friday should be relatively easy 55km days to end up on.
Distance travelled today: 77kms
Distance travelled so far: 4,393kms
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