The D20 after a rain storm
Day 51: Undulating my ass....this road is hilly!
Friday August 16th - Day 51 - 39miles - 2035miles
We woke up to a 6.30am alarm in Saray, Turkey to get even closer to our final destination... Istanbul! Breakfast was the same bread, white cheese, cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, watermelon, and chai. It feels repetitious here but I think we will miss it when we get home.
The hotel has adopted a cute puppy that lives in the back lot who is not allowed inside. He sat with his head propped on a paw in the door frame, waiting for lovings or breakfast scraps. But when it started showering during breakfast, the puppy came inside the door frame and propped his head on his paws looking out at the storm... at least until the hotel staff shooed him out... cute puppy scared of the rain...
But now this leaves us with a dilemma, a rainstorm in Turkey? When we have to get closer to Istanbul? This will not hinder our progress! No! Onwards! So, we headed out into the warm rain, said goodbye to the puppy and the guy from reception, and looked, hopefully, for a rainbow in through the mist and sun. The rain got a bit heavier before we got out of town, so we sheltered under some eaves until it let up a bit... then we headed out of town on a nice straight road... that still went up and down!
With the weather front moving across this region of Turkey, we had clouds all day (first time in a LONG time), which kept the temperatures down nicely in the high 70s low 80s. With the cloud cover, we didn't have the sun beating on our necks, but the humidity was high... so we were pretty sweaty all day.
Very early in the day we broke the 2000mile barrier! Very exciting! But of course that was only half way up a hill... so we still had to finish the hill to feel any satisfaction.
The road went up and down, up, up and down.....which made it very tough to get a rhythm going, especially since the surface is not great. But thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad on this part of the D20 today... The trucks were mostly considerate since the volume of traffic allowed them to use both lanes to pass us.
Just outside of Saafalan, we saw a sign for a Kampingplatz...! Who knew! Camping is back in Turkey! But this was way to early in the day to stop and pull out the tent supplies.
But maybe we should have, because just a little way down the road (and of course on an up hill) four dogs chased us from a construction yard with an open gate... Andrea yelled at them, sped up, and got away, thankfully. Bruce was cycling behind and drew their attention. But as he swerved to avoid them his bike slipped on the gravel shoulder and he went down... The dogs ran away at that point but Bruce badly cut his right knee and banged up his left knee against the steel frame of his bike... Luckily he was wearing gloves and long pants so his hands were saved and his leg fared probably better than if he hadn't had that protection.
We pedaled far enough away that we were out of view of the dogs and had a wide enough shoulder to pull over... which wasn't much. We unzipped Bruce's detachable pant leg to see the damage. He had a triangular shaped wound about an inch and a half wide by about an inch long (about exactly the same size as one of the jagged pieces of gravel lining the road). Andrea cleaned the wound and bandaged him up with gauze, non-stick adhesive bandage, Neosporin, Ora-Gel (to numb the cut) from her med-kit bag (well stocked by Joany... thank you!). We also sewed up Bruce's pant leg on the side of the road to give his knee a bit more protection until we could find somewhere to take a proper look at it.
We cycled on, since there was literally nothing around for several kilometers, until we reached a town with a gas station (at the top of a hill of course)... He kept saying it didn't hurt...
Bruce's knee was already bleeding through at this point so we sat him down on the only chair and re-bandaged him up and washed his pant leg. A group of guys were standing around smoking at the gas station when we got there. When we pulled in they gave up their seat for Bruce and Andrea set to taking care of his leg. They offered some gauze when they saw what we were doing. We politely declined since we had some already and they need to keep the supplies they have). The guys at the gas station kept talking to each other while watching this whole proceeding, repeating "Doctor...... doctor... " We think that the guys think that Andrea is a doctor. (By the way... Bruce was awesome throughout this whole ordeal and never once winced at anything!) Bruce got up and bought some soda and a candy bar to give us some energy to keep going down the road...
There were more up hills and down hills along the way... We had a very long downhill into a town that no joke was called "Insanity" ... or something very close to that... And then of course we hit a headwind climbing up into Akalon past some white stone quarries.... so everything was covered in white stone dust and truck traffic increased a bit.
At about this point, while we were taking a brief rest halfway up yet another hill, somebody asked us "Do you need help?" We turned around to see a very skinny, grimy, English chap on an old-school road bike with a sleeping bag strapped on the back. We told him we were just resting and were fine and we complained about all the hills. Turns out that he was competing in the First Annual Transcontinental Race, which is an unsupported cycling race from London to Istanbul organized by those "wonderful" Adventurists - same people that organize the Mongol Rally that we did in 2011. We chatted for a couple of minutes as he complained about his choice of route and that the D020 really, truly did suck. We asked if he was in contention, but alas not, as he was on his twelfth day and the winner had arrived in Istanbul after 7 days.....from London.....that is 300miles a day!!!! Crazy stuff......not a style of cycling that we would or could do!
We had another downhill into Subasi... which isn't much of a town but it is a road junction so there are a couple of gas stations and a hotel.
Ahhh... The Hotel Kleopatra came into view. What faded glory! We really think the place was faded the day after it opened. It is in pretty bad shape. There is no pride taken in its upkeep at all... any and all repairs and maintenance and improvements have just been slap-dashed so the place looks rundown now and it was a bit pricey for this area and for the quality of the room... In truth, it looks just like a Cape Cod motel that hasn't been renovated since 1974. It has some serious faux wood paneling on the walls of various styles, qualities, colors, and ages... There are even burn marks above the light fixtures... no light tonight! But it has air-conditioning!
We met our helper for the evening, Ali from Yugoslavia (he said it not us) who was the slightly odd token English speaking pharmacist/hotel helper!!!
After dinner of "bob soup"... or at least that is what it would have been called in Bulgaristan (large white beans in a broth with rice pilaf) and bread at the local eatery... we tucked in to bed and watched funny Turkish television cooking programs with singing commentators and another with a young lady who goes to all the old babushka ladies' houses to learn how to cook traditional meals. We fell asleep trying to translate the recipes as the scrolled across the bottom of the screen... Did you know that a table spoon in Turkish translated into "Water spoon" (Su)...
Oh the day we have had....
The World is Ours!
Friday August 16th - Day 51 - 39miles - 2035miles
We woke up to a 6.30am alarm in Saray, Turkey to get even closer to our final destination... Istanbul! Breakfast was the same bread, white cheese, cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, watermelon, and chai. It feels repetitious here but I think we will miss it when we get home.
The hotel has adopted a cute puppy that lives in the back lot who is not allowed inside. He sat with his head propped on a paw in the door frame, waiting for lovings or breakfast scraps. But when it started showering during breakfast, the puppy came inside the door frame and propped his head on his paws looking out at the storm... at least until the hotel staff shooed him out... cute puppy scared of the rain...
But now this leaves us with a dilemma, a rainstorm in Turkey? When we have to get closer to Istanbul? This will not hinder our progress! No! Onwards! So, we headed out into the warm rain, said goodbye to the puppy and the guy from reception, and looked, hopefully, for a rainbow in through the mist and sun. The rain got a bit heavier before we got out of town, so we sheltered under some eaves until it let up a bit... then we headed out of town on a nice straight road... that still went up and down!
With the weather front moving across this region of Turkey, we had clouds all day (first time in a LONG time), which kept the temperatures down nicely in the high 70s low 80s. With the cloud cover, we didn't have the sun beating on our necks, but the humidity was high... so we were pretty sweaty all day.
Very early in the day we broke the 2000mile barrier! Very exciting! But of course that was only half way up a hill... so we still had to finish the hill to feel any satisfaction.
The road went up and down, up, up and down.....which made it very tough to get a rhythm going, especially since the surface is not great. But thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad on this part of the D20 today... The trucks were mostly considerate since the volume of traffic allowed them to use both lanes to pass us.
Just outside of Saafalan, we saw a sign for a Kampingplatz...! Who knew! Camping is back in Turkey! But this was way to early in the day to stop and pull out the tent supplies.
But maybe we should have, because just a little way down the road (and of course on an up hill) four dogs chased us from a construction yard with an open gate... Andrea yelled at them, sped up, and got away, thankfully. Bruce was cycling behind and drew their attention. But as he swerved to avoid them his bike slipped on the gravel shoulder and he went down... The dogs ran away at that point but Bruce badly cut his right knee and banged up his left knee against the steel frame of his bike... Luckily he was wearing gloves and long pants so his hands were saved and his leg fared probably better than if he hadn't had that protection.
We pedaled far enough away that we were out of view of the dogs and had a wide enough shoulder to pull over... which wasn't much. We unzipped Bruce's detachable pant leg to see the damage. He had a triangular shaped wound about an inch and a half wide by about an inch long (about exactly the same size as one of the jagged pieces of gravel lining the road). Andrea cleaned the wound and bandaged him up with gauze, non-stick adhesive bandage, Neosporin, Ora-Gel (to numb the cut) from her med-kit bag (well stocked by Joany... thank you!). We also sewed up Bruce's pant leg on the side of the road to give his knee a bit more protection until we could find somewhere to take a proper look at it.
We cycled on, since there was literally nothing around for several kilometers, until we reached a town with a gas station (at the top of a hill of course)... He kept saying it didn't hurt...
Bruce's knee was already bleeding through at this point so we sat him down on the only chair and re-bandaged him up and washed his pant leg. A group of guys were standing around smoking at the gas station when we got there. When we pulled in they gave up their seat for Bruce and Andrea set to taking care of his leg. They offered some gauze when they saw what we were doing. We politely declined since we had some already and they need to keep the supplies they have). The guys at the gas station kept talking to each other while watching this whole proceeding, repeating "Doctor...... doctor... " We think that the guys think that Andrea is a doctor. (By the way... Bruce was awesome throughout this whole ordeal and never once winced at anything!) Bruce got up and bought some soda and a candy bar to give us some energy to keep going down the road...
There were more up hills and down hills along the way... We had a very long downhill into a town that no joke was called "Insanity" ... or something very close to that... And then of course we hit a headwind climbing up into Akalon past some white stone quarries.... so everything was covered in white stone dust and truck traffic increased a bit.
At about this point, while we were taking a brief rest halfway up yet another hill, somebody asked us "Do you need help?" We turned around to see a very skinny, grimy, English chap on an old-school road bike with a sleeping bag strapped on the back. We told him we were just resting and were fine and we complained about all the hills. Turns out that he was competing in the First Annual Transcontinental Race, which is an unsupported cycling race from London to Istanbul organized by those "wonderful" Adventurists - same people that organize the Mongol Rally that we did in 2011. We chatted for a couple of minutes as he complained about his choice of route and that the D020 really, truly did suck. We asked if he was in contention, but alas not, as he was on his twelfth day and the winner had arrived in Istanbul after 7 days.....from London.....that is 300miles a day!!!! Crazy stuff......not a style of cycling that we would or could do!
We had another downhill into Subasi... which isn't much of a town but it is a road junction so there are a couple of gas stations and a hotel.
Ahhh... The Hotel Kleopatra came into view. What faded glory! We really think the place was faded the day after it opened. It is in pretty bad shape. There is no pride taken in its upkeep at all... any and all repairs and maintenance and improvements have just been slap-dashed so the place looks rundown now and it was a bit pricey for this area and for the quality of the room... In truth, it looks just like a Cape Cod motel that hasn't been renovated since 1974. It has some serious faux wood paneling on the walls of various styles, qualities, colors, and ages... There are even burn marks above the light fixtures... no light tonight! But it has air-conditioning!
We met our helper for the evening, Ali from Yugoslavia (he said it not us) who was the slightly odd token English speaking pharmacist/hotel helper!!!
After dinner of "bob soup"... or at least that is what it would have been called in Bulgaristan (large white beans in a broth with rice pilaf) and bread at the local eatery... we tucked in to bed and watched funny Turkish television cooking programs with singing commentators and another with a young lady who goes to all the old babushka ladies' houses to learn how to cook traditional meals. We fell asleep trying to translate the recipes as the scrolled across the bottom of the screen... Did you know that a table spoon in Turkish translated into "Water spoon" (Su)...
Oh the day we have had....
The World is Ours!
Bruce loves his Fake IRN BRU called Uludag in Turkey!
Love me!
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