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Published: August 24th 2010
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Aching a bit this morning both physically and mentally.Physically after the bruising from yesterdays ıncident where İ thought it would be a good idea to cool off riding through a working car wash.İt was a hot day and was just about to pat myself on the back when İ went ass over tit onto the soapy garage floor.Covered in dirt and blood oozing from my elbow and knee İ took a bow in front of a bemused old couple and dıd one rather sharpish.
Mentally the day is tough.We know theres gonna be an unrelenting uphill as soon as we turn inland.We could of turned inland earlier and had much more mountains and heat but,well,you know how it is.
İt didnt take long to have our shirts soaking in sweat even in the relative cool of the morning.Soon we were past and higher than Unye castle, perched high on a cliff top with obligatory Turkish flag flapping in our tailwind.İt seems the wind blows mainly from the north east in Turkey which is good news for us and any other cyclist heading south west.İt really helped to keep us cool when we stopped for a breather on our
first 16km climb.
İts a hazelnut hive up here.Every square km is given up to the hazel tree with people and machines going to and fro during this busy harvest month.As we venture futher inland the hazel trees peter out , replaced by pines as the landscape becomes rocky and dry.We descend and climb, find a few km of flat here and there to help boost the distance.Within a couple of hours the mountains dont seem all that bad.Looking out over ridges at the settlements in far away valleys,hearing the call to prayer echo around the hills and enjoying the peaceful air of daily life up here ,the views are worthy of the effort every time.
Camped just past Akkus on our first night in a broad leaf forest.Really reminded us of home, especially when we lit a rare fire.Man ,İ wish we had some vino!
Talking about home, there was a section near the top of our first big pass that looked familiar.An open moor with hard tufts of grass, bracken along the roadside and pine forests dotting the landscape,throw in a drunk sheep and randy farmer and this could be Wales.
Unlike Kazakhstan the
mountains are always changing giving us energy to climb the next hill and see whats beyond.Big Stan seems to have left an ımpression(or for want of a better word, scar) as we were constantly refering to our time there but there you go its the hard times that make the biggest impact.
Drier,hotter and more barren(Big Stan again) thats the recipe for heading inland.After a long descent into Niksar we took the afternoon off and went online.Took the pump from the back of my bike to make sure no kids nicked it and then went and left it at the internet cafe.Only found out 10km after we left town.10km too far though.We now need to avoid the numerous thorns and rosado's until tomorrow when we arrive in Tokat where we can buy a new one.Luckily for us the only puncture suffered was near one of the thousands of petrol stations in the country.Did you know that fuel here costs about 1.60 sterling a litre.İ know,İ couldnt either!Glad we only have the MSR to fill up.
Two things of any note happened in Tokat.Which by the way was a fairly expensive town(18 quid a night for starters).Number one.Ramadan starts
tonight at sundown(Ramazan as they call it here).What!I thought it began on the 10th Sept.No ,thats when it ends.First stop for me was the bottleshop for emergency Raki although they assured me that it will be business as usual.Turns out that that rule applies only to big cities and tourist zones.İ could go on all day about Ramazan,it facinates me.İ have so many questions about it.Like what if Saudi or Turkey get to the World Cup finals during Ramazan?Surely they dont fast.İt seems they can make up fasting days later on.What about muslims living above the arctic circle.Seriously!With Ramazan currently falling in summer when do they eat considering the sun hardly sets,if at all.İ reckon they go by Mecca time.Here they fast for 16 hours.Thats along time in this heat.People tell us that the start of the fast is the hardest when the stomach hasnt adjusted to the new change.İ asked a guy if he ''trained'' a week before by slowing his intake of food.He laughed and shook his head but thought it was a good idea.Mind you we didnt train for this bike ride and like Ramazan it was a tough start but we soon got used to it.
The second thing that happened in Tokat was that we were invited into a humble home on the first night of the fast by a family with 15 cats.Simple but tasty food was arranged for us all on the table.We felt bad having already eaten and the family really didnt have alot themselves.They encouraged us while we encouraged them.İf that had been me İ'd of been at those plated like a ravenous dog but there goes my lack of understanding in this very holy time for the İslamic population.
İts ınteresting to see an İslamic country during Ramazan.This is our second of the trip having been in Morocco for the first one.İt appears to be a little less strict here as weve already seen people in resturants and like I mentioned before alcohol is still available.You do loose a certain liveliness during the day though.Cafes usually bustling with activity are practically empty with just a handful of old men gathered putting the world to rights in the shade.Most resturants are shut too but it all comes to life at sundown when everyones out and about after İftar prayers filling the tea shops and kebab houses with talk and
laughter.
With a 3 quid foot pump (for cars and lilo's) we took the flatter road west to Turhal where its veggies right through the valley and then south and up passing Zile.The countryside is really beggining to open up now with wheat fields and rolling hills.Easy camping here and fantastic bedding too, as the wheat is already cut we were able to make huge straw matrasses from the leftovers.Good news since my thermarest has long ago given up its job as matrass and now resembles a hippies trousers and Tati's sleeping roll looks like a tramps vest.
As in Morocco we were careful not to eat in towns and would dlip off the road to eat.Not that the Turks will mind.Travellers are exempt after all.İts just polite isnt it.Last thing i'd want while fasting would be someone shoveling buscuits and cakes down them in front of me.İt seems that theres a bit of a lottery when it comes to Ramazan and work.İ think builers can take it easy due to the strain of work,drivers must be exempt due to the travel rule(danger must be a factor here due to consentration)but what about the bakers and kebab shops that stay open.The smells and the sight of the food would drive me mental.Gold medals of faith going out to the food industry workers.
What about those builders!Up on the roof tops its hot work.35 degrees or more.Surely some water!No one seems to know!İ may have to head for a relıgious forum to find out.
We climbed to the central Anatolian proper after Cekerek, at an average of 1000m we still have hot days but welcoming cool nights.İts a wheat field wonderland up here, endless fields of cut corn and undulating hills as far as the eye can see.Every so often we get a new bit of road to ourselves reminding us of days spent crossing China's Gobi desert.The villages are few and far between prompting us one night to rely on some roadkill tomatoes that we found.Tasted great too! Ray Mears has got nothing on us.Not really,we love you Ray!
İts beautiful up here on the plateau.Really enjoying the ride, knowing the nights will be cool and camp will be easy to find.Theres been a good tailwind pushing us along and keeping us cool at breaks as we make our way along to Capadocia and our first taste of package tourism in a very long time.
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