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.
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