Trip Total: 1341.2
Day Total: 61.74
Tm: 3:56
Avg Speed: 15.6
Got up at around 9:00. At the lobby, I had tea and a gözleme and then got on Spithas and after asking around I found a bike store. Yousouf, the owner, was a very friendly guy and after looking at the front wheel concluded that everything was ın order. He just pushed the odemeter magnet a little higher and the annoying sound disappeared. I spent at least one hour chatting with him and with another three guys that insisted that I get teacup after teacup. Yousouf could speak English and German and was able to answer a lot of questions and translate into Turkish lots of words that I badly needed, like to eat, to pay, etc. All the guys wanred me about the road to Anamur being too narrow and windy and not to travel it at night (not my intention anyway.)
Went back to the hotel, packed up, loaded Spithas, and hit the road at 11:15. I was looking to a rather easy day. It was 60 kms till Anamur (Anamyrion) and if I felt like it when I arrived I could go another 25 kms to the next town. Once more, I'm very good at making plans and very bad at putting them to work. The road pavement was really bad. I would assign it a 3 in a scale of 10, and the obama charming the winds technique did not work at all. The wind was very strong and in my face as always. This deadly combination resulted in very low speeds, so that after a while I had already discounted the extra kms to the town after Anamur and was worried that I might not even be able to make it to Amapur itself. The road was no longer along the coast and was going between mountains (ravines??) Despite all the hardship I could not but admire the scenery. A couple of photos will show you what I mean.
And then it happened again!!! The rear wheel was flat again. I've gotten so used to that happening that it did not even surprise me. I started pushing the bike to a nearby stand that was at the top of the hill. I could see there was a bunch of teenagers hanging out there and having tea and as I approached the owner came up to me and even though he saw the predicament I was in, his first question was whether I wanted to buy anything. I told him I had to fix the problem first. Everybody was friendly, the kids could speak English and had lots of questions for me. I went through the usual motions, took out the wheel and then took off the tire and then the inner tube. Every time I arrived at the end of a stage, the owner would ask me if I now wanted to buy anything. My fear was that the puncture was at the same spot as yesterday which meant that there is a systematic factor undetected by me that causes the punctures. Fortunately, the puncture was at another spot. I decided to put in the tube that had been repaired this morning. I inflated the wheel as well as I could and then the owner went after me trying to make me buy stuff. He told me I could buy a couple of kilos of bananas for very little. Naturally, unless I ate a few kilos on the spot I would have to carry them on the bike going uphill, which would turn difficult into impossible. I bought three bananas which I devoured instantly and then got tea. Like I said Turkey is ridiculously cheap. All that was for the price of one Turkish Lira. When, however, I produced a 20 to pay him, he gave me three five lira bills and a coin which he said was a two Euro coin and for the rest he gave me strawberries and said that everything is OK. I did not even bother to look at the coin and did not believe that it was a Euro coin. Later in the evening when I checked it turned out to really be a Euro coin. In that case I actually made money on the transaction!!!!I biked on and road turned into coastal road again. Even though the wind had quieted down I could not move fast and there were really lots of high hills. I felt really exhausted. Cannot put my finger on the exact reason, but a fact is a fact. I was exhausted. IN the meantime the scenery was fantastic.
After I made it to the top of a very high hill, going down was so nice. The bad thing is that down, in this case, meant sea level, which in turn meant I would have to start climbing again from ground zero. I stopped to catch my breath before the big climb. I then noticed that the place, Kalenardan, I had stopped was really beautiful. I got lots of pictures.
For the first time in this year's career I pushed the bike and actually went up three quarters of the way pushing. Then I rode the bike and feeling exhausted took another break. Before I made it for the road again I checked the rear wheel and realized that it had lost air. I hoped that it was just my imagination but pumped the wheel anyhow. I kept biking not noticing the beautiful scenery as my mind was on the rear wheel. A couple of kms later a I pumped the wheel again. The problem was real, I figured. At the sign that indicated that there was another 37 kms to my destination the downhill started. What a relief and what happiness!
There were 22 kms left when I hit sea level again. At that point I passed by a pansiyon but made up my mind to continue. My resolve lasted for twenty meters of uphill. I must call it a day, I said to myself. So, I turned around and got a room at the Melleç restaurant and pansiyon. I must have been one of the first customers of the season because they looked totally unprepared. I showered and then had dinner at the restaurant looking forward to tomorrow where the first thing I will need to do will be to replace the inner tube. When I returned to my room I decided to speed things up and proceeded to replace the inner tube. This saved me the morning frustration.
View from the pansiyon
See you tomorrow
No comments:
Post a Comment