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04 Aug 2003 - Trabzon, Turkey. Day 127, 5680km |
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| We left Çaycuma on the 19th and spent our rest day in Amasra, thereafter arriving here in Trabzon on the 2nd of Aug after stopping at the Black Sea towns of Cide, Ilyasbey, Çatalzeytin, Sinop, Yakakent, Dereköy, Terme, Persembe and Tirebolu. Trabzon is an amazing little town sitting on the mountainside and caught in a time warp of an old harbour in new technology. It has amazing history dating back to 800B.C. and we decided to stay here a few days, resting up for the tough few days to come cycling up the mountains to the middle of Turkey. | |
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We awoke in Çaycuma to the first rains of the trip, but undaunted we put on our waterproofs and cycled in the rain. It was an experience to see the steam rise up from the asphalt as a mixture of the rain, sun and high altitude combined produced some stunning effects of swirling clouds as the cars raced by. |
| In the hills just after Amasra, Jo crashed into the side of a downhill bend. Some locals stopped their car to help but the downhill champion (only among us) just lost some skin and broke the cradle of his handlebar bag. On the way to Ilyasbey we ran into some Turkish cyclists who were touring the Karadeniz (Black Sea) coast and the Dutch guy that was following them enroute to India. They were seemed much faster than us with their little equipment, better knowledge of the area and lack of people treating them like Martians, so we left them at lunch thinking they’d catch up, but we only saw them 2 days later. | |
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We met a group of Turk Telecom workers laying lines in the hills near Catalzeytin and were invited for çay (local tea) by the road. They brewed the best çay we had ever had, especially since it came at the end of more than a kilometre of uphills. We took out our biscuits and donated them to the hospitable locals. |
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The cliffs along the shore between Amasra and Sinop made for the most concentrated section of hills ever experienced by the three of us. At the top of each hill a breathtaking view would appear, along with the painful sight of the neverending hills in front of us. For the first 2 days after Amasra we figured we climbed around 4km in total. |
| On certain days, the roads were so hot that the cheap tar melted and caked our tires with a sticky mess. Because of that we would very often procrastinate against that around mid afternoon for long breaks over çay and many games of backgammon, a popular game amongst the local men to while away the time at the çay bahcesi (teahouse). Dan is constantly wondering if the people here work at all... but then we’d cycle into towns to find their shops still open at midnight, so. | |
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In the town of Yakakent on 27 July, we had a bit of a situation trying to look for a place to stay. The only part of the beach suitable to camp on (that a local cycled with us to, through unlighted rocky paths over 3km) was owned by a beach bar that would not allow us to camp there (although it had to be the emptiest bar in the whole of Turkey). So we cycled back the 3km and some more to the other side of town where we found the hotel too expensive for our pockets, so the local police came to the rescue by letting us stay in the lock-up cell of their police station. We had never felt so safe before. We locked ourselves up at 1am and bailed ourselves out at 7am the same morning. |
| On 1 Aug we met Nick and Anne who were driving a Land Rover from Scotland to Azerbaijan. We stopped at the side of the road and Nick took out a stove from the trailer attached to the Land Rover and brewed coffee for us. Me and Jo had our kopi-O, Singapore style. It was so good as it was our first kopi-Os for so long. Anne then served us bread with honey, jam and butter. It was our best tea break for so long. | |
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Alex changed his rear brake pads for the first time
after 5500km. He felt proud that they had lasted so much abuse.
Jo’s should be able to last longer as he does not brake at
all. |
| We have been on the Black Sea coast for almost 3 weeks.
From here we will head inland towards the Iran border. Alex says that the best feeling in the world is waking up and knowing that you don’t have to cycle because it’s a rest day. We have decided to give ourselves a break wherever we may be on 9 Aug; it is an important day to us. |
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