no hiking

On the 9th of July Taco brings me to the Köln-Bonn Airport for my flight to Antalya. I arrive at 2:15 local time. Although loads of transfers are present to take all the tourists to their resorts none is willing to take me. I decide to walk. I had forgotten to take socks with me (I have no clue how that could happen) and I get blisters on my heels. So I am glad when a truck driver who just finished repairing his truck wants to bring me to the city center at 4:00. I am a little worried when he is not following the sign “sehir merkezi”, city center, but after a while I see a new one and that turn he is taking. When I get out I am still in the outskirts and a guy with a really old car stops to give me a lift. At first the car even does not start, but after a while we get going. Soon he is offering me porn books. I tell him I am not interested, he really urges me to read them but I decline the generous offer. Then apparently we have reached the final destination because I have to go out, I do not mind. After a little walking I reach a park at the coast in the center and decide to wait there until the sun comes up.

My bus back to Ordu leaves at 14:30 and arrives the following day at 9:00. I manage to do some sleeping but my length still prevents me from lying comfortable. I decided to take of my walking boots, so I have more foot space. The busboy tells me to put them back on and this time my feet do not even smell. I put my feet out of his sight behind a bag and leave my boots of. In Ordu I buy socks and put them on, this helps my aching heels. My bike and bag I find where I left them. Unfortunately it had rained in my absence and apparently rain had entered my bag. The damage was not bad, although one sweater had something growing out of it and the touristy book of Holland I got from Daan and Marieke was soaking wet. I decided to throw it away and to remove the fungus from my clothes.

The next day I went on my way to Trabzon. Rain is apparently not rare in this region, as I started the day with a light rain. I had wind in the back though, so I was making good progress. When I was sitting at a bus stop sheltering for the rain I was having my lunch when two old women came by. At first I thought they were inviting me to come with them to eat at their place. So I started packing. Then I realized that was not what they wanted. They wanted a piece of my cheese. Glad to give something to the people instead of receiving I gave them the larger part of my cheese. I had to finish my lunch in the outside though. In Trabzon I did not do much I even skipped visiting the famous monastery (shame on me).
To Rize the weather was better, no rain, no sun, no wind, excellent cycling circumstances. Sometimes you hear of people who take a lot of pens with them on their holiday to give to the kids they meet. I was given one when stopping for tea, by one of the guys also paying for the tea. He bought it from a lady selling it at the tables. I must admit it writes great. In Rize I found at the tourist information two maps with tracks to hike in the region. I had read in a book there was supposed to be a great hiking trail close to Rize and found some of the trail on the maps.
The next day I had to decide if I wanted to hike for a while or not. When I came across a shop who sold plastic sails for trucks I decided to buy some to create a tent from. The consequence was that now I had to hike as well (in my logic). So at Ardesen I turned away from the coast to Ayder. As soon as I went in to the mountains it started to rain again. Near Ayder I was invited to warm my self at a camp fire while drinking some tea. I could have stayed for dinner, but during my short stay family arrived and I felt I was invading their privacy to much. In the evening I had my first meaningful conversation with a Turkish women/girl. She was joining with the family of her boss on a short holiday. Unfortunately she had to go to bed when her boss went to bed.

The 15th I started my hiking by climbing the hill above Ayder. Soon I lost the track and went on without it. I even went climbing up through a little stream. Because visibility dropped to below 25m and it started raining, I decided to set up camp. I found a big boulder which I could use as tent pole. Smaller stones to secure the tent were harder to find but after some searching I managed to find them. For the rest of the day I lay in my liar. It was not very comfortable, the ground was tilted so I constantly was sliding down. The roof was a bit to short so I had to be careful no rain was coming in. My main concern was though that I might not have enough food if I was going so slow. They had told me I could not get bread on many places and I did not bring too many. I did bring a lot of cheese, sausage and chokocreme, so every piece of bread had a huge topping. At five the air cleared and I finally had a great view.

It was misty, although here the view was not at its worst.
The next morning weather was ok so I headed for Avuser, which I managed to reach rather simple, although I needed the help of a cow herder to find my initial direction. In Avuser I had some tea and was even to speak English with a kid from Istanbul visiting his family, I also bought some bread so I was starting to feel comfortable with the whole operation again. It was not long after I left the little village that my map lead me in the wrong direction, fortunately I was corrected by some locals. About an hour later I was at the place they had described to me and I even could find back on my map. It was a tiny lake surrounded by steep mountains. My map indicated there should be a path somewhere, but I could not find anything closely resembling one. I searched for half an hour and then just climbed up on hand and feet in the direction my map and compass directed me. Without too much problems I reached some kind of saddle, but by this time the clouds had came again and my hope to be able to see a landmark to orient on had vanished. I waited for one and a half hour, meanwhile putting on trousers and a coat, for the clouds to evaporate. It did not happen and I gambled that going down on the other side would bring me forward. When I with a lot of slip and sliding I descended the steep rocks I found I basically had returned to the valley of Avuser again. Since I did not know how to proceed I returned to Avuser, where I found a truck who took me back to Ayder. Disillusioned I went back to the place I had my stay a day earlier.

back home

June 26th I cycle to Ordu along the coast. Halfway I take a refreshing dive in the water. When I try to dry in the sun I get an allergic reaction of my white skin to the sun so I quickly move to the shade. In Ordu I find a hotel that is willing (and understands) to store my bike and backpack on the balcony until I return from Holland in the evening I search the internet to find cheap flights back to Holland to bring a surprise visit to the wedding of Sandra and Marco and visit friends and family along the way. I find a flight from Istanbul to Eindhoven on the day of the wedding and decide to book this one. Cheap flights back are harder to find and I decide to worry about that when I am in Holland. The next day I stuff all the things I want to take with me in a linen sack and the rest I place on the balcony of the hotel. The overnight bus leaves only 18:00 so I kill time by walking around and sitting at the shore. I still have cheese to put on bread but have left my knife at the hotel. I find out that cutting cheese and sausage with your bankcard is almost as easy. Unfortunately I was rather clumsy and drop the bankcard between the big boulders at the see while cutting. After half an hour trying to fetch it with a little twig I finally have my card back. The bus ride goes rather smooth, but relative long body is not easy to put in a comfortable sleeping position in the bus so rather tired I arrive the next morning in an outskirt of Istanbul. The chauffeur of my transfer to the centre manages to get into a fight on the short route. The first time he tries to pull another chauffeur out of his car and the second time another angry road user steps in our mini bus to molest our driver. All ends well, but it certainly keeps you awake.
I decide to walk to the hostel I slept in before and this time I am granted a bed right a way. I take a warm shower and have to dry my self with one of my dirty shirts because I did not bring a towel. I walk into town to find presents, but of course I do not find anything. I figure they just have to be happy with me bringing them a visit. Afterwards I sit on the roof terrace and drink beer with Chrissie (Australian) and Gilles (French) with whom I also go to have dinner. At one o’clock the long day ends. Together with Chrissie, Gilles, Damien (Australian) and a Singapore girl of which I did not get the name we go to the Asian side where my airport is as well. After 2 hours we get bored with that side and take a ferry back to the European side. We spend some time in Taksim drinking beer and eating after which I take the ferry again to Asia. I walk to the train station and catch a tram to Pendik. According to a description in a travel guide I should only have to walk 4 km to the Sabiha Gokcen Airport. I ask for directions and they put me on a minibus who is supposed to pass the airport real close. When I am told to get off the bus I cannot see the airport anywhere. After walking 15 minutes in exactly the wrong direction I find some one who accompanies me so far I can no longer go wrong. Now I have to wait eight hours until departure at 4:45. Sleeping opportunities were not great but manage to sleep a few separate quarters of hours.

I have got 3 places for my self and manage to sleep almost the whole flight. I guess that is no excessive luxury as it might get late this night. I try to hitch hike to either Utrecht or Rotterdam. Although 5 people stop they all go in the wrong direction. Finally a German guy stops and takes me with him in his big Mercedes. Soon it becomes clear he is interested in more than I want him to offer. He finds me very attractive and would not mind to have sex with me. I thank him for the interest, but tell him I belong to another camp. He drops me off at the station of Den Bosch and I decide to proceed with the rest of trip via rail. I do not want to miss the wedding. I first go to Taco to have a shower or else people might not be happy to see me after all. Sander the only other person next to Taco who knows I am in Holland calls me to tell me his new girl friend, Sandra (not the one who marries on this day:-), is willing to pick me up from The Hague Central Station. We agree that we will meet at 3 o’clock. At the latest moment Sandra becomes aware that the wedding is a half an hour earlier than we thought, so we have to meet half an hour earlier as well. It would have been ironic if I had missed it just by half an hour, but now we make it in time.

A familyphoto, so you can see from what kind of nest I come from.

To the coast

Leaving Goreme the (tourist) centre of Cappadocia was no picnic. I had to climb a short very steep road paved with large irregular stones. But with my gear in the lightest position and bending over my steer as much as possible to not fall backward it went in retrospect quite smoothly. Although my bike had behaved properly since my last operation of tightening the “pedal axle” it started to get loose again and now even my spoon did not offer a proper and tight solution. I tried in Ugrup at a bicycle shop, but they did not have the proper tools to solve it. I had a go at the bolt anyway with an adjustable wrench, but just outside the city I had to work on it again. Now every 10 minutes I had to stop, tighten it and cycle again. In Avanos I finally found a proper bicycle repairman and he solved the problem (it now is 25 of July and still no problems). Now my bicycle was behaving it self again after being set straight by a professional I could cycle to Kayseri. In here I got the idea to just have quick flight back to Holland to make a surprise visit at the wedding of good friends.
In Gemerek they did not have a proper hotel but had some accommodation above the local bank I could sleep. In this town obviously they were not accustomed to tourists, as I was treated as a celebrity. Everybody wanted to shake my hand or say hello to me. One moment I was given a telephone to talk to someone, I had no clue who or what they wanted so I just babbled for a while before returning it. The next day I had a food problem again. I had expected to be able to buy bread in a little village that showed on my map. Upon arrival it became clear there was no shop. Fortunately by now I knew the word for bread, “ekmek”, so when I repeatedly said the word to a local guy indicating that I wanted to buy it he ran to his house and gave me two unyeasted breads (like huge folded pancakes but then very thin). A bit more comfortable I cycled on, with the plan to cycle to the next village, Direkli, 25km further down the road to try another time to get bread and than try to find a suitable sleeping place. When cycling into the village I passed 3 locals, greeting them they responded in Dutch are you from Holland? Quickly I turned and I was claimed by the three. They claimed they had been responsible for laying all cables underground in Amsterdam. Now they had returned to the homeland because they had worked illegally. They invited me to drink tea and when I indicated I was still searching for bread, they made sure the only shop was opened. No bread was available so a little kid was sent in to the village to find one for me. Next to the bread I also got two fantas and cookies. I already got the impression they would not allow me to pay so I was careful I did not want too many goods. My suspicion came out and with my gifts I cycled a few km to set up camp near a stream. This time only a few magpies were present, so no fear of a new covering of my sleeping bag.

On my way to Tokat I had to go over a pass, which went rather smooth, the way down was great. On the wide flat road I could increase my personal speed record. Unfortunately I do not have a speedometer. In the shade of a tree I had lunch and made some repairs on my shirt with one of the few last remains of my old underpants. I also adjusted the position and angle of the switches of my gears, so I could lay my hands in the middle of the handlebars.

The road to Akkus proved heavier than expected. A lot going down, but also a lot up as well. After Niksar I twice hang on to slow truck passing me going up. You get tired of hanging on to a truck as well only not in your legs but your arm and hand. When I let go I thought I nearly was at the top but still the road went up for a longtime afterwards. I had dinner in a restaurant just after the top thinking I was done with climbing for the day. Unfortunately to get to Akkus I had to pass a pass. Without any energy I battled against the mountain. The good thing of cycling is that if you work long enough you eventually make it. At the top, in the clouds I was invited for some tea what I gladly accepted. My sweaty shirt and the cold clouds cooled me down fast so I had to put on a coat to not start shivering. Akkus was only 3km down and the only hotel had a blistering hot shower which I used until my whole room was filled with steam.

Only 55km downhill cycling separated me from the coast. The new cycle day should be an easy one. It was apart from the fact that in my enthusiasm in going down fast I missed a corner and after creating a long skid mark in the gravel next to the road, I fell from my bike. Fortunately nothing was broken, nor on me nor on the bike. I only had some scratches on arms legs and hips and sore fingers. A bit more careful and much slower I carried on with the way down to Unye, a small city at the black Sea.