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Published: August 19th 2010
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İts a very tropical region around the border giving us alot of flashbacks to our Brazilian ride which seems a lifetime ago now.Glad were not there though,loved Brazil but were reminded now of how tough it was to cycle there in such oppressive heat.
Tati breezed through passport control as a friend of Turkey where as İ had to pay 20 dollars for my 90 day entry.Didnt David Cameron just pledge to fight the other EU members single handedly to allow Turkey to enter the European Union.Now thats real mates!Turks are natural travellers.There are so many 1st,2nd and 3rd generation Turks living already in countries like Germany and Denmark wouldnt this open the door for millions of them to go and join them.İm all up for a bit of 'do what you want' but this could be like a flash flood of humanity.We'll find out one day when Europe ceases to be a continent and becomes one big country.
Theyre a likeable lot though,keen to try out their language skills be it German,French or Dutch.Not intrusive like the Kazaks,they are happy to tell us a bit about where we are and where theyve been which is a refreshing
change to the usual name ,number and rank you get elsewhere.As moderate muslims its good for beer swillers like us to see bar signs showing the Efes brand and also a healthy mix of moderation with bikini clad women mixing it up with the hijab wearers all splashing about in the sea.İn İndia(inernational jetsetter) some years ago İ remember being stared at whenever İ took a swim in the sea.Back then İ thought 'its you lot dressed in your clothes bathing in the sea'.Older and wiser now,İ dont bat an eyelid.Lets all go swimming in armour and sink to the bottom in a big drowning love in.That would be nice.
Anyhow.Theres a duel carridge way now,running right along the coast to Samsun.İts flat and by passes all the towns.Such a nice ride compared to the dangerous narrow lane it used to be.İt looks like the Turks like to beep their horns at us too.Fantastic!We dont need encouragement, weve had 28000km of encouragement now,infact i'd like to encourage them not to encourage us.That would be encouraging.This is what five days of no booze does to me.
You wanna know something about the coast! Well the water is clear and
blue but the beaches are full of rubbish,it seems the Turks enjoy a good sunset and littering session.Well who doesnt.This is a tea region.The green mountains here are shrouded in clouds and have tea plantations as far as the eye can see.Last time we were here we went in for a tea and got a bloody lipton.Not this time though.Chai is a way of life here,small glasses,black and two sugars,alot of the time for free,its their small way of saying welcome to Turkey.
Slouched our way along to Trabzon in two and a half days still unable to find any meaningful rhythm.Campings been a bit tough ,with places hard to come by and the nights being hot and humid.So it was good to return to Hotel Benli where the friendly patron remembered us from our previous visit five years ago.Up top we had a great room with a huge communal balcony where we ate and watched the sunset behind the local mosque with a grand view of the Black sea in the background.
This is where we planned on getting a roadmap,so far we have got by with a small fold out of Turkey which has been ok
Hazelnuts
the local economy in a nutshell but we need finer detail for Anatolia's mountains.Tried one shop then another and another with no luck.Same story with the petrol stations.All weve managed to get is a map of the Trabzon region from the tourist office.Turks must have a built in sat nav.With a good map we can try to find an easier route through the mountains ,all 1500km of them,right now its down to pot luck.
As we wandered Trabzon buying our food we were reminded of one of the bad sides to Turkish travel.The rip off! Always in a new country you'll be subject to a bit of commercial greenery where over charging, business minded shopkeepers lie in wait at every turn.I reckon we were stung about four times in a day until we decided to knuckle down and fight back.
Fruit is about two to three lira a kilo.So it was a guy tried to charge us seven for a kilo of fruit on his priced stall.Really enjoyed watching his face as we asked him to re weigh the goods and explain how it came to so much.He got angry with us but that anger was shame being caught out infront of others.He told
us to leave and didnt sell us anything.Why do they do it?Ýs it racism!Greed!A piss take out of foreiners!I have my theories but its not for here.İts definetely a regional thing though,Egypt,Tunisia and Morocco all have the same fault.Its boring having to ask the price of everything you buy but sometimes its neccessary.
Of course for every bad guy theres ten good ones.Throughout our stay in Trabzon we were invited for tea and got free bread,cheese and nuts from various shopkeepers.This ying yang of travel is better than the westernised and sterile fixed pricing of everything.İts like a game,keeps us on our toes and also gets us learning Turkish quickly for some defensive ammunition.One minute your'e being fleeced the next minute its free tea all round. ''I hate you Mustafa.........naa I love you Mustafa!''
Take Hassan a young fellow I met while wasting more time fishing for seaweed .We conversed in French and went for chai later on in the evening.We talked of everything between arranged marrage to the French handling of dog shit.,he insisted on paying for the evening.How much does this guy earn? İt didnt matter,we were his guests.And there you have it,in Turkey you will
find the bad guys but the good guys will find you.
Riding the coast here is a breeze.İts flat, theres a shoulder on the exellent road surface to follow and for us at least there was a tailwind.İf it got too hot we would dive into the sea to cool down from one of the many pebble or black sand beaches.We did stay at a campsite one night,lets just say that our wild camp nights offered more facilities and far less litter.We did see better campsites along the way but this particular one was rubbish,literally.
Hazelnuts have replaced the tea plantations as the cashcrop with huge orchards stretching off over the mountains and the area is a hive of activity with the harvest in full flow.Sellers line the roadside,pickers shout out from the orchards,strange machines spit hazelnut husks into the air and gypsy camps dot the mountain slopes as these hardy folk follow the different harvests.This is big industry as the towns and villages in the region come to life to harvest this monocrop.
We camped one evening in amoung the hazel trees which offer a handy terrace for the tent.İt felt very nice to fall off the wagon and drink some good cheap Turkish white wine while watching the lights of the Cam Br peninsula come on in the evening.
We'll weve managed to dodge another huge mountain chain with this 450km stretch of Black sea coast but at Unye we turn inland to climb the mountains of Central Anatolia.40 degrees and 1500m passes.Piece of cake!
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