Day 48 - Lüleburgaz - 36 miles
Last night we were joined at the Cyclopark in Lüleburgaz by three other cycle tourists, Urosh from Slovenia and a couple of ladies from Croatia, everyone was heading to Istanbul from here so we planned to set off together. The 100 mile approach to Istanbul is infamous amongst cycle tourists as the most dangerous section of the route heading east from Europe. The plan was to wildcamp as close to Istanbul as possible in a city called Silivri so that we could wake up before sunrise and attempt the last dash to the city centre before the traffic gets crazy. Before setting off we gathered to capture what looks like the cover art of our possible future album in front of the massive bike sculpture.
Within the first 10 minutes of riding out of town we all got a taste of what was to come, unlike the last few days of riding on spacious motorway hard shoulders, now the 'hardshoulder' was often no more than a foot wide stretch of road straddling the 3 and 4 lane motorway roads full of trucks and speeding drivers heading to the capital. For the next 2.5 hours we marched on into the wind and rain with traffic brushing past uncomfortably close. The conditions went from bad enough that I couldn't hear my music, to riding my bike at a constant lean as I tried to avoid the side wind pushing me off the road. After one particularly bad side swipe and the rain picking up to painful levels, Andre and I called it quits. We threw our bikes down in a layby, ran across 4 lanes of traffic and hurdled the central divide to hide out in a petrol station.
We waited half an hour for the wind to settle enough that we could just about start riding again. After another soul destroying hour we made it to Çorlu, a major city that we'd planned to stop at for lunch. In the centre of town we pulled over to check maps and I finally heard the dreaded sound of air hissing out of my tyre for the first time of the trip. I was equal parts gutted it had finally happened and relieved that I wasn't having to fix it on the side of the road with 80mph cars a few feet from me. In the process of changing my stubborn back tyre I saw the toll that this trip was taking on my body, I'd lost 50% strength in my right hand from a tent peg related injury weeks back and it felt like I'd picked up tendonitis in my left elbow - both made this a very tolling 15 minutes, I also snapped one of Andres tyre levers in the process as my touring tyres are particularly stubborn.
We found a greasy burger restaurant for lunch and attempted to recover from the hectic morning. Urosh came and met us here as he'd gone on ahead during the morning's ride, somehow he'd ridden straight to Çorlu in one unbroken effort and seemed completely unfazed by the sidewinds, rain or traffic - mad man. I was the only rider with a cycling computer for navigation so it was my job to guide Andre and Urosh out of the city mayhem and back to the D100, the highway that would take us all the way to Silivri.
5 miles into the ride we were screaming down a steep 30+mph descent into the industrial outskirts of the city with largely empty business parks either side of us, *Hisss*. I nearly lost control whilst leading the group at full speed as I looked down to see my tyre had again lost all air. This time I was just angry, when fixing the first puncture I thought that I'd checked it thoroughly to make sure there was nothing sharp still in there but obviously I'd missed something. I didn't want Andre and Urosh there waiting and watching on whilst I attempted to sort this at the side of the highway so told them to go on ahead and I'll find them further on. Once I got the tyre off again I found a splinter of metal lodged deep in my tyre but also more worryingly the general state of the tyre was dire, the tread was almost bald in spots and there were a few cuts over 2cm long. I wasn't convinced that this faithful donkey would reliably take me through the next stretch of remote highway without leaving me broken down in the middle of nowhere.
The afternoon was slipping away from me, I figured at this point I was close enough to Istanbul that I could get a taxi in to the centre where I'd be staying for the next 4 days anyway, this would be a much better place to source new bike tyres and I'd skip the worst of the roads. I asked for help in a family run used car sales business that lined the looking for anyone that understood English, at first the head honcho didn't want anything to do with me but after I explained my situation with google translate he sprung into action. Within 10 minutes I was surrounded by 3 generations of men in the family who had dropped what they were doing to come help, they brought me lunch and started calling every driver they knew. No taxis were available so one of the brothers offered to close his business early and take me instead, we threw my bike and bags in the back, got a selfie and were on the road to Istanbul 2 minutes later.
Arriving in Istanbul by car wasn't part of my plan and was definitely a bit of a blow but it felt like the right thing to do in the moment. I pictured riding into Istanbul, officially the edge of Europe and getting a triumphant photo to prove it but instead I was dumped at the side of the road to reassemble my bike on a slither of busy sidewalk before trekking to my hostel. regardless of how I got here, I knew objectively it was huge to have made it this far. Europe completed.
Days 49-51 - Istanbul
This rest in Istanbul was so needed, It was the last time I'd have anyone from home visiting me as my friend Liam flew out to join me and was also halfway through my journey. Aside from the usual cleaning of all my clobber and sourcing a new set of tyres for the bike, I was just happy to be able to take a load off with a good friend before the mayhem of central Turkey started. Istanbul was a real surprise to us both, definitely somewhere i'd want to visit again.
Liam had brought my clippers from home so I could trim my beard one last time, in a brief lapse of judgement on our last night in the city I also cut myself a mullet as my hair was starting to curl over my ears which I figured would make me feel extra hot in the sun... maybe I just wanted a mullet.
I know i've only been away for 50 days at this point, but to me it genuinely feels like at least 3 months have past. Thanks again Liam for coming out, It meant a lot.
Day 52 - Istanbul - 35 miles
After a few days rest it's always hard convincing your legs to switch back into riding mode, the 5 miles to the ferry terminal were rough. The plan was to meet Andre here to take a string of ferries as far north out of the centre as possible and officially into Asia. We'd agreed a vague plan of following the north coast through Turkey as we'd read that it was the fastest route by avoiding most of the major climbs in the centre of the country, we both had relatively tight schedules we wanted to stick to as I wanted to make it through Kazakhstan before the temperature starts to drop too far at night in the desert and Andre had a limited time frame for his Iran visa.
The first things I noticed once we reached the north coast were the litter literally everywhere, the number of wild dogs rose a few notches, and the people were far more conservative here than the Turkey we'd seen so far. Riding was fairly easy along decent paved roads that connected seaside towns in each valley with sharp hills in between each. As we approached the town of Riva we came up to a full road block and a military base with 4 guys holding assault rifles telling us that the road on our maps doesn't exist anymore. We detoured for 6 miles and 1000ft of elevation to rejoin the route only to find another sign warning not to enter, the whole area was littered with vehicles and buildings that had been used for target practice or blown up completely. At this point we were less than 2 miles from Riva and we couldn't see any other roads on the map that could take us through without backtracking 20 miles so we figured we'd try our luck and pretend we hadn't seen the sign. We made it within eyeshot of Riva and then again another military base appeared, again heavily armed. This was especially strange as google maps showed there was supposed to be a lot of small businesses in the exact location of these bases, as if these bases were intentionally being hidden from google.
We spent the next 2 hours bushwhacking on dirt trails up and over the hill next to the base trying to find another way through. In hindsight we should have bitten the bullet and taken the longer but guaranteed detour but it's really hard to swallow riding back on yourself on these trips. Out of water and food, covered in cuts from branches and bites from insects, we eventually emerged on to the side of the highway leading to Riva.
We originally planned to ride a lot further than Riva today but with the last few hours of delay we thought it best to camp at one of the beaches on the edge of town instead. In Turkey wildcamping is still technically illegal but as locals later told us, in Turkey you're completely free to do whatever you want and no one cares at all... wether that's wildcamping, using a street sign for target practice or building a house ignoring all regulations, you do you. We went for our first swim in the Black sea and set up camp in the spot least covered with litter. As the sun started to set, a couple arrived to the beach to sit at the red carpeted dinner for 2 that we'd been watching a crew set up for the past hour. I wasn't expecting pyrotechnics or a proposal tonight.
Day 53 - Riva - 60 miles
For the first time in a while I was up and moving before sunrise, I'd planned to get moving at 7:30am alone so that I could beat the heat of the day and Andre would catch me throughout the day as he always rode a little faster than me. Wildcamping is both one of the hardest and most rewarding parts of this trip, getting to wake up in spots like this every day is really special.. you just have to put up with paranoia.
The first 15km of the route was on remote gravel and dirt tracks hugging the coastline, I didn't see a single other car or human in the 2 hours it took to struggle over the loose stones, the only interactions I had were with a couple of dogs that chased me for 50 metres or so. This progress was soul destroying, you can't help but continually run the math in your head of how long each stretch is going to take at this speed.
I stopped for lunch in the town of Åžile and came up with a new, longer route that would keep me on well surfaced roads. Even if it meant more miles, I'd rather be riding at a consistently faster speed on a proper road rather than hiking my bike on steep rocky tracks. It turned out I'd actually managed to route onto a huge unfinished highway that I was able to sneak onto, perks of traveling by bike. This couldn't have been more of a polar opposite from this morning, I spent the next 20 miles riding in the middle of a 3 lane highway without a single other car on the road as i cut directly through mountains in brand new tunnels.
I met Andre at a campsite in Seyrek, they were preparing for a Decathlon sports and music festival the next day on the site and so although the spot was really scenic I was kept up by the sounds of last minute welding and groups of drunk travellers.. better than dogs.
Day 54 - Çalköy - 73 miles
The riding was much more consistent, again very hilly by the coast but I'd intentionally routed us on tarmac roads the whole way so we could count on moving at a steady speed all day. The only hazards to contend with where the livestock in the road round every corner, sometimes herds of sheep, sometimes a single defiant cow in the middle of nowhere, apart from that it was headphones in and head down. The heat was steadily around 32-34 degrees each day this week which surprisingly I was okay with at this point, the sun on the other hand was unrelenting. I needed to be smarter about reapplying sun scream more, I had some mean sunglasses burn lines coming on that I really didn't want to take home.
The scenery was pretty much the same throughout, usually riding on a highway with not a lot going on on either side broken up occasionally by a glimpse of the black sea when the highway wandered too far north. The only real highlight was me ending a bus drivers career in shame. I'd encourage you to first take a moment to watch tractor boy on youtube, a true relic that I really embodied in this next scene (apologies for the language). I was the little train that could, slowly creeping up closer to the bus ahead of me on the highway.
No, surely not, he must have stopped for something. He hasn't stopped, I reckon if I gave it 100% effort I could overtake that bus, how many people can say that. I got out of the saddle as I closed in to make it into his slip stream. I made it within a car length of his bumper and checked to see we were moving at just under 30mph on the flat, 'shall I do him?'. 'I'M GOING FOR IT!'
I pulled out and made what must have been a minute long overtake (the road was completely dead aside from me and my Goliath nemesis). I edged forward at what must have only been 1 mph quicker than the bus but eventually I made it neck and neck with the driver, i glanced right to see his admiration and disbelief.. 'Who is this idiot on a bike?'.
Just like that I'd disposed of this man cowering away from me in his mechanical horse, and for about a minute it stayed that way until I had to stop for fear of heart attack. I may have only tasted glory for a few moments, but I'll be in that bus drivers nightmares for years to come.
Our campsite for the night was about 10 metres from the edge of the fast highway, we had our own bench and sink with running water on our plot - both luxuries that you come to appreciate after sitting on a bike helmet for hours every night and relying solely on the water you bring with you to camp for drinking, cooking, cleaning and showering.
Day 55 - 49 miles - Akçakoca
I woke up early to see the sunrise over the sea and walked down to the beach to get a decent photo, just as I took my first steps onto the sand I let out a little surprised yelp as I turned to my right to see what looked like a corpse lying in a bag with a rag over their eyes. It turned out to be Andre, very much alive sleeping outside on the beach. Speaking about it later that morning Andre said that he could feel the ground shaking every time a truck went past throughout the night so in a fit of rage at 2am he dragged his sleeping bag out and slumped on the sand, somehow i slept right on through. (Sorry for the photo Andre)
The first 10 miles of the ride were flat and fast but we now had to deal with tunnels as the road cut straight through the mountains. Some of the tunnels were a couple hundred metres long, others a few km. These were definitely the most vulnerable moments riding in Turkey with no hard shoulder and often an unusable footpath meaning you just had to put on every light and reflective piece of clothing you have and hope for the best riding on the road. The craziest part about the tunnels was that maybe a third of drivers go through at full speed without turning on their headlights, even when the tunnel was so dimly lit that you couldn't see the dividing lines or the curb.
After the initial fast flats we had one major climb for the day that would take a few hours of non stop pedalling uphill to contend with, I figured that I should buy my lunch beforehand so that I could stop and eat on the way up if I needed. I got the usual of bread, meat and veg but for some reason I made the choice to buy a stick of butter as there was no cheese. Butter in an all black pannier bag rattling around on top of all of my clothes as I cycled through the midday heat of Turkey, what could go wrong.
The climb was long but a steady gradient, it was a great test of my fitness actually and I made it to the top in just under 2 hours without needing to stop to rest and not struggling to breathe. Two thirds of the way up a red truck pulled alongside me and 3 guys in the front seats leant forward Scooby Doo style so i could see all of their heads lined up in a snowman formation, they were offering to take me and my bike the rest of the way to town but as I was already most of the way I let them go, It turned out Andre had the exact same experience with them a few miles back down the road.
I pulled into a small roadside restaurant at the summit of the climb for a drink and text Andre, he was just a few minutes behind me at this point so we agreed to get lunch at the restaurant and instead let my sandwich ingredients continue to stew inside my bike bag.
We raced the descent all the way down until we were just outside of Zonguldak, this was our last chance to restock for the day before we turned slightly south into the mountains to find somewhere to camp. As I came out of the shop with my bag full of food for the next day, I remembered my buttery blunder, sure enough I opened my rear bag to find it had completely melted and had since seeped into most of my clothes.. I'd be stinking of butter for the rest of Turkey, not ideal when you're trying to avoid wild animals at night. I shamefully scooped out as much as i could and washed off a few of the worst hit items whilst Andre watched on laughing.
After my delays we were running quite late to find a camp spot so we rushed out into the valley just south of town as quickly as possible. I asked at the first petrol station we passed if we could camp on their property and by some insane luck, just behind the station was a family run cafe / petting zoo where we were allowed to camp for 100 TIL (£3). I did my best to wash out the butter from my clothes in the petrol station toilet but I can tell you now typing from the future that it did almost nothing.
Day 56 - 63 miles - Zonguldak
We'd been consistently over stretching ourselves everyday since leaving Istanbul, reaching camp hours later than expected and riding 60-70+ miles a day with a lot of elevation. This was the first morning that I woke up feeling like I was relatively well rested and not riding on fumes. The road through the valley was stunning with mountains either side as i rode towards the sunrise. After 45 minutes of riding i took a few photos and realised something was up when i changed to the front facing camera, I'd left my helmet back at camp, even caught the realisation on camera.. idiot. I'd lost so much on this trip so far but setting off without my helmet is as dumb as it gets, you can say what you want about them but personally I wouldn't ever ride on the road without one. Thankfully Andre was awake by now and he'd found it and was happy to bring it with him to deliver along the way.
For the first 2.5 hours of riding I was climbing at a steady 1 - 2% gradient, enough that I'd gained a lot of elevation but not enough to really notice the extra effort. We were treated to some rapid descents on the other side, reaching above 40mph for the first time of the trip. Another observation of Turkey so far was that it's a lot greener than I'd expected, I'd seen so many photos of essentially desert in central Turkey but so far the mountains were lush and full. One of the main roadside points of interest were the goliath logging businesses, so much of this side of the country was covered by these massive operations of cutting and storing massive amounts of wood.
Andre caught up to me just after 11am and we stopped for a classic boring supermarket lunch. We were aiming to make it to the Unesco heritage town of Safronbolu where there was a paid campsite we could stay at, we were making great time for the first time this week and would be able to enjoy being in a proper campsite and getting a meal out to recover from the back to back pasta. Within a few minutes of riding from lunch I picked up another puncture, at least this time there was no second guessing what had caused it. After getting the tyre off and running my fingers round the inside I cut myself on what must have been a 2cm rusty metal spike. Thankfully i was topped up on my tetanus jabs. My hand injury from last week was also really bad by this point, i had barely any grip strength in my normally dominant right hand which makes fitting a particularly stubborn tyre and getting the bead to seat properly a nearly impossible challenge. This took me over 30 minutes and all my energy.
As is always the story since setting off from Istanbul, we'd started on track and somewhere along the way ended up chasing the sun to make it to our final spot for camp. I'd really overdone it today, the last 7 miles took almost an hour as I stopped a few times to avoid fainting at the road side. Eventually we did make it to our camp where to top off what had already been a hard day we were massively overcharged for being tourists, something that we'd suspected for a few days now but didn't have the energy to fight in the moment. You won't find prices on any small businesses in Turkey, and although haggling is a part of the culture you will still be charged almost double compared to locals and occasionally this is even stated as a policy in writing.
Once our camps were set up and we'd regained a little strength we walked into the old town to find a restaurant that served beer by the pint and kebabs, after 20 minuted of quietly eating we both were able to bounce back and laugh at our misfortune as always. After a good few drinks we explored the historic bazaars and enjoyed being tourists by foot again, not lugging around an unwieldily 40kg bicycle everywhere.
