Archive for the ‘Cycling’ Category

Day 96. 95km. Rize – Hopa

Posted: May 12, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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The road to Batumi in Georgia was bathed in sun, but Georgia was not our destiny today. The headwind and flat tyre saw to that. And our little side trips off the freeway to listen to the birds (rather than the trucks) meant that we were still able to experience the Turkey-wide power failure this evening.

Mosque

Mosque

We saw mosques, fish restaurants

Fish restaurant

Fish restaurant

boulevards with snowy peaks in the distance

Snowy mountains

Snowy mountains

and women phoning.

Woman phoning

Woman phoning

I had flat tyre number 2

Flat tyre number 2

Flat tyre number 2

before we pushed on into the headwind with the setting sun at our back to our final destination of Hopa.

Day 95. 91km. Akçaabat – Rize

Posted: May 9, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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Today the skies were grey and the rain was penetrating. The çorba women were laughing ‘çok guzel, I love you’, and the dog was friendly. The truck drivers were giving knowing winks – going to Batumi? The Georgian seaport has quite a reputation – all along the Black Sea coast. We are going there tomorrow.

Me on the way to Rize

Me on the way to Rize

Our breakfast was wonderful with our two super-friendly cooks. We were all laughing at each other’s foreign language skills. They were imitating our ‘çok guzel’, and giving us cause for amusement with repetitions of ‘I love you!’.

Çok guzel, I love you

Çok guzel, I love you

‘You are going to Batumi?’ Grin (after the photo was taken).

One of our 'warm up with tea' stops

One of our ‘warm up with tea’ stops

The mind remains blank cycling through the cold rain. The kilometres pass like the trucks. I was woken out of my cocoon of thoughts by my new best friend – Fido the dog.

The bones thaw and the mind returns. Black Sea fish, and a warm sub-table heater.

Legs thawing

Legs thawing

Day 94. 125km. Giresun – Akçaabat

Posted: May 6, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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We’ve done it again, but more extreme today. Its 15:00, 80km to go, and a 30km/h dash isn’t happening with a fierce headwind. I stop on the side of the road, trucks whizzing by. I feel weak, hot and frustrated. ‘We can make it,’ says James. I look at him with big sorry dog eyes. Down with a chocolate bar, pump up the music (for the first time on this trip), and the world changes. On, into the evening and night on another adrenaline rush. We’re not doing this tomorrow.

A hidden beach

A hidden beach

Today was a good day. We woke in our hazelnut orchard farmhouse looking down over Giresun in the bright sunlight.

Giresun from our hazelnut orchard farm

Giresun from our hazelnut orchard farm

A lovely breakfast with our host’s family, and then a royal escort by the Giresun cycle gang, being showed all the secret insider cycling tips along the road to Trabzon.

The hidden beach

The hidden beach

The mountains are getting bigger

The mountains are getting bigger

James passed 8000km on this trip, and I passed 7000km – both just a few hundred metres from our lunch stop – the last insider tip of the day.

7000km

7000km

7000km

7000km

An tea factory tour, followed by a buffet lunch. It was an amazing spread, and James and I (and the whole crew) were ravenous.

Tea before the mains

Tea before the mains

Plates 1 and 2 for James and me

Plates 1 and 2 for James and me

Plates 3 for James and me

Plates 3 for James and me

Plate 4 - James and me shared

Plate 4 – James and me shared

Thanks to the whole Giresun team for a great day cycling in the warm sun!!

The Giresun team

The Giresun team

And, arriving in the dark in Akçaabat, we were swept up by another great, warm welcoming committee. Yeşim we had met in Karabük when we stayed with Kaan – her boyfriend. This time she had a whole crew, lead by the english speaking Ahmet, to take us to eat famous Akçaabat köfte. Thanks!!!!!

The Akçaabat welcoming committee

The Akçaabat welcoming committee

Day 93. 107km. Fatsa – Giresun

Posted: May 3, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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Slow in the hills. Sprint on the flats. Off the freeway into tranquil, peaceful and hilly Black Sea Turkey. But time marches on. We make the distance sprinting towards Giresun on the freeway with the spectacular mosque and orange-pink panoramic sunset at our back.

The sunset near Giresun

The sunset near Giresun

Yesterday the freeway was noisy, plied by fast travelling and impatient trucks, hurtling along the Silk Road towards the east. The new tunnel (not on the map) yesterday was dangerous. I felt vulnerable on the bike, just waiting to be swept up by a truck being passed by two others with no roadside to escape to. James and I decided to avoid the long tunnel between Fatsa and Ordu and take the coast road that circuits around the mountainous peninsula.

It was like someone had turned on the colour switch. I was taken from the speed trance of the freeway, and started experiencing again. The birds were tweeting, the people were working on the side of the road, and the villages were alive with people.

Jason's church

Jason’s church

Black Sea coast

Black Sea coast

But it was hilly, more strenuous than on the freeway, and very slow going. I had a bike maintenance date at the bike shop in Ordu (great guys!) to replace the handlebar stem on my bike. And then another 50km to our warm showers host in Giresun.

Ordu bike shop

Ordu bike shop

So, we ate, took the freeway, and then went like the clappers.

Ayran and salad

Ayran and salad

We were met 30km out of Giresun by Kadir – our wonderful warm showers host who cycled back with us back to his home. At our backs a sky of fire was unfolding. It was a special time, cycling along the straight, flat freeway in the warm evening, constantly turning to see the spectacle behind us.

Mosque

Mosque

Sunset near Giresun

Sunset near Giresun

Kadir has a hazelnut farm perched high on a hill overlooking Giresun. We sat on the balcony before bed looking at the Giresun lights twinkling below us, with the Black Sea extending out on the horizon.

Me, Kadir and James

Me, Kadir and James

Day 92. 107km. Samsun – Fatsa

Posted: April 30, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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The road is straight. The road is wide. There are lots of trucks. The surface is good. The noise is great. Distance is the goal, and we fly like the wind.

Bike on the Black Sea

Bike on the Black Sea

We left our friends in Samsun with new matching cycling shirts, and arrived 6 hours later at our new friends in Fatsa. A lovely dinner and hospitality. The language barrier meant that we couldn’t share much more than smiles.

Our host Ahmet

Our host Ahmet

Today there was no beating about the bush. We can cycle like this for a few days to make some distance. A small road would be nice from time to time.

Day 91. 130km. Gerze – Samsun

Posted: April 27, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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Cycle 10km like the wind. Reboot a server using the iPhone. Cycle 10km like the wind. Write a new website script and deploy. Making a buck on the road James Lambie style.

Black Sea road

Black Sea road

The road was flat, the sun was shining, and James Lambie was earning his living with his home office job. We had some kilometres to cover today, and our strategy was to divide it into 10km speed chunks. James is faster than me, so, he would power away into the distance, to be seen again at the next 10km stop.

I arrive bedraggled, having slogged through the sizable headwind.
‘Sugar level OK,’ (James is a diabetic), ‘Client website deployed.’ (James is a software engineer working from home office.) ‘Ice-cream eaten.’ (We usually stopped at service stations.)

Black Sea coast road

Black Sea coast road

I actually arrived before James at one 10km stop. I left before him.
‘There was a major emergency. The client’s server was down. I had to write a new script to process the online form, write some new tests, and deploy. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.’
I had been waiting for 2 minutes.

The last 20km into Samsun was turbo-powered. The wind died down, and we scooted along the main, flat, straight road into the 600,000 strong metropolis.

The Turkish cycling community is amazing, and so welcoming. We hadn’t planned anywhere to stay in Samsun, and our warm showers host from Iznik, Soner, wrote.
‘Where are you now? I have a friend in Samsun that would love to host you.’
We were honoured to meet some more amazing people. The president of the Samsun cycling organization – Yacin and his wife. They got married on a bicycle – it looked like an awesome wedding ceremony. His landlord and friend is an Australian Turk who lives in both Australia and Turkey. They all welcomed us with open arms. It was great to meet them!

Our lovely hosts in Samsun

Our lovely hosts in Samsun

Day 90. 0km. Gerze

Posted: April 24, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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Make hay while the sun shines. Correction, rest day while the sun shines. Watching the waves lap on the shore on the Black Sea, unfortunate haircut in Sinop, and nice drink with a warm shower friend.

Resting on the Black Sea

Resting on the Black Sea

James was writing cute Chinese characters in the sun on our day off – part of a lovely birthday surprise tomorrow. 🙂

Chinese

Chinese

The highlight of the day was walking down the main street of Sinop with hair like this. I kept on reminding myself that I don’t know anyone here (except for James, and he won’t tell anyone).

Tomorrow back on the bike again – hopefully to Samsun.

Day 89. 74km. Boyabat – Gerze

Posted: April 21, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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Sitting in front of the class aided by the English teacher, James and I talked to the kids of the Boyabat school – and then had lots of selfies taken. A monster climb over the pass into the fog and snow before descending to the – BLACK SEA. Yay! No more mountains for a while! ☺

Selfie

Selfie

‘What do you need to get into University in Australia or New Zealand?’
‘What is the best way to learn English?’
James and I answered the teachers’ questions in front of the students before the big rush to take selfies and like James on Instagram (I should set up an Instagram account, I think..) ☺
On a more serious note, the teacher said the students have little chance to hear and speak to English native speakers. I hope our visit motivated them to explore the world out there, and to learn the language I am lucky enough to have as my mother tongue.

In front of the class

In front of the class

Then the monster climb from 300m to 1300m and over the other side to the Black Sea. The big headwind made it a slow affair. We stopped every 3km to eat, and had a lovely Çanakkale tea stop (Wow! An Australian and a New Zealanders – ANZAC – Çanakkale – very good – like – I have an ANZAC jumper) at the top of the pass.

Anzac jumper

Anzac jumper

They were lovely people working for the road network just before the new tunnel at the top of the pass. We were given copious quantities of tea and Turkish delight.

We popped out of the tunnel on the Black Sea side of the mountain and into dense fog, which remained with us almost until we hit the Black Sea many kilometres below.

Tunnel exit

Tunnel exit

Black Sea

Black Sea

Day 88. 116km. Kastamonu – Boyabat

Posted: April 18, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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This valley in Turkey is famous for turkey and garlic. After an interview with the local rag, we may become famous as the ANZACs in this valley 100 years after the Çanakkale victory. After meeting the local English teacher, James may become famous as the New Zealander of Boyabat.

Selling garlic

Selling garlic

Sitting in front of a small shop in Hanōnü, we were being asked the usual questions – where are you from? Where are you going? What is you name? The answers were being written down, and it soon became apparent that this was for a newspaper. From Australia and New Zealand? Great!! That’s the story – 100 years since the Çanakkale victory, two ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) return on bike. Then the camera was whipped out, and before we knew it, we were posing with the bikes in front of the local iconic buildings.

Me getting interviewed

Me getting interviewed

Our lovely warm showers host Yalçin – a philosophy teacher at the school – invited the school’s English teacher over for tea. The excitement mounted when we heard that they were studying New Zealand in the English class, and they invited James to talk to the students at the school.

Thank you, Yalçin for your great hospitality and for an enjoyable evening of food, photos, tea and stories!

Yalçin - our host

Yalçin – our host

Day 87. 46km. Araç – Kastamonu

Posted: April 15, 2015 in Cycling, Turkey
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A kerfuffle at 3am as a strange man stumbled around the hotel corridor in Araç. He was shooed away by the man responsible for the corridor wood stove. Other than that the usual – climbing over a pass and down the other side – this time to Kastamonu. A shave at the local barber, a talk with some couch surfing students, and a nice warm comfortable hotel. 🙂

An oily snow field

An oily snow field

The day was cloudy and cold – especially at over 1000m. James and I both agree we have had enough of mountains for the time being, and are looking forward to reaching the flat Black Sea coast.

The pass before Kastamonu

The pass before Kastamonu

One has to look one’s best at the beach, so, time for a shave.

A shave in Kastamonu

A shave in Kastamonu

I think there was some language barrier confusion with our Couch Surfing host, and James and I are now staying in a nice hotel in Kastamonu. The weather forecast is for much warmer weather, and we are looking forward to the next chapter in the trip. Swimming, camping on the beach, cruising along the coastal road. But tomorrow Boyabat and then one last pass to the coast.

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