Saturday, July 11, 2009. Day 23

Trip Distance: 1775.5

Day Total: 111.3

Avg: 22.5

Tm: 4:56

Hit the road at 10:10. I had 150 kms ahead of me and it was already late. However, there were pluses no wind, good pavement, flat road, low traffic. All that helped I moved fast w/o any stops. Twenty four kms later I said goodbye to D400 which had been such a good friend all this time. It was painful but as you all know, a man has to do what a man has to do and that is all he has to do. So I did it and switched to O52/E90. Pretty uninteresting country side, flat (which is very very very good) and boring. Forty eight kms later I stopped at a gas station to fill up with water and the three attendants treated me like a lost brother. They rushed to find cold water from me asked me to enter an office with airconditioning and offered çay (tea.) I also got valuable info regarding my entrance to Syria. Being a Greek makes a difference in Turkey!! I stayed for half an hour and then I hit the road.

After I switched to O53/E91 the country side became more interesting

Twenty miles later, even though I was fully provisioned with water, but since most gas stations in Turkey have cold water faucets for the public I thought I might get cold water. There was a couple and a family at the small the station mart. I asked one lady if she had seen any faucets and as she could not speak English, her husband stepped in and in broken English told me that the water was not potable and went inside to inquire and then told me that the only water available was at the market. As I was fully provisioned already, I thanked and biked away.

About seven kms down the road a car passed me by and stopped at the emergency lane in front of me and the driver waved to me. When I approached I recognized the husband from the gas station. He produced a bottle of water and gave it to me. It was somehow embarassing but as we could not stay parked on the highway, I took the bottle and thanked him. Then he left.

After a few more miles, I decided to stop at one of the highway stations to take a rest and fill up. As I entered I realized that it was abandoned. Still I saw a motorcycle and then heard a voice. There was one man there who appeared to be living there. I concluded that because he was in the process of hanging his clothes to dry. When I approached more, I realized there was a small rudimentary canteen. I decided to stay, have tea and some cookies. We chatted a little with Mustafa who went thtough the same routine questions to get the same routine answers. However, when I told him that I was going to go to Israel and he asked me if I were Christian. I told him I was and then he said that this is an opportunity for me to become a Hatzi (pilgrim.) I told him that this was a good idea and he should consider it for himself too. He said that for that he would have to go to Mecca to Kaaba. I nodded yes.

It was rather pleasant there. A couple of private cars passed through saw it abandoned and drove on. But then two trucks came and their drivers got off talked to Mustafa calling him with his first name and then a third truck came and the same thing happened. It all made sense now. This was a teemsters stop/hangout and the truck drivers seemed to know each other. Naturally I was the center of attention and they were all trying to decipher me. They had visited Syria several times and were happy to advise me on what to do. From them I found out why Eli had recommended to enter from the Halab/Aleppo side. There were too many "dags"(mountains) from the other. When I attempted to leave they told me that I had to drink a cup of tea first and then go. So, I stayed a bit longer and finally thanked them got up and left. I was already a little worried whether I could complete my 150 kms goal.

I biked on and then YES YOU DO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!! I had flat. That put an end to my dream of breaking my record. The rear wheel was flat. I liberally cursed in a very loud voice and pushed the bike for about 100 meters to the only bush/tree that provided some shade. I lifted the bike to the other side of the highway shoulder and went through the routine. Even though I looked very carefully, I could not find a pin, a shard, or anything that could have caused the flat. Worried about not finding anything suspicious within the tire I replaced the tube and put the wheel back. For some reason I had a difficult time centering the wheel. The breaks were touching the wheel (no explanation for that.) It took special effort to balance the wheel so as the break pads wouldn't touch rim.

I biked on for another 10 kms. According to the signs there were another 25 kms till Iskenderun and I knew that today I would hit 140 kms breaking my own record. And then, well you all know, the rear wheel was flat!!! I dismounted the bike really upset and really at a loss as to what to do. Right next to the highway and from the other side of the fence that was running all along the highway there was a number of people in what seemed to be a gathering. I would say twenty of them. They witnessed the whole thing and all of them got up went up to the fence and talked to me in Turkish. I could only use sign language. They nodded to come over and I kept showing them the fence. Then one young man broke off the crowd and walked for about twenty meters along the fence then disappeared behind the bushes that and then reappeared on my side of the fence. A kid was following him. They both helped me unload Spithas and showed me the way to the other side of the fence. There was a deep ditch under the fence, deep enough for the bike to fit.

Once on the other side they all came to me and welcomed me. Using sign language I explained the problem and asked them if there were a bike shop. The young man who in the meantime had asked me where I come from said yes, he turned towards the rest and told them something in Turkish where I recognized the word Yunan(Greek.) Everybody said hi Komshu (neighbor.) I never knew that being Greek was an asset. The young man, whose name was something that sounded like "bestman" brought a van where we loaded Spithas and my stuff and drove me into town to a motorcycle store that turned us down and then to a bike store. The person that worked there was very welcoming. Naturally, almost instantly there were six or seven people at the store to see the curiosity. They were all very nice and polite. The mechanic took the rear wheel off, searched inside it, and found a long thin pin that was probably the cause of both incidents and that had gone undetected by me. He fixed the two inner tubes and then placed the rear wheel back on the bike. There were problems with balancing it and the breaks would touch the wheel. He tinkered with it and then realized that the inner inner axis (not the one that rests on the bike but the one that is used to tighten the wheel on the bike) was bent. He tried to fix it and as he was tightening it, it just broke in two pieces.

What a bad day and what tough luck. Things can be really favorable this minute and totally turn against you the next. For a moment I had thought that this was the glorious end of my trip. The glimmer of good luck in this case, however, was that this guy turned out to be a good machinist. He actually took the two pieces and managed to weld them while making the axis long enough to be able to put the nut on it. I did take several failed attempts before he succeeded, though. Finally it worked. Fortunately I could continue.

When I asked him how much I owed him, he showed me four fingers of his palm. I thought he meant forty, so I gave him a 50 TL banknote. While I was doing that the change in my wallet make a clinging noise which the mechanic could hear. So, he nodded to me to give him the change instead. Then I realized that he had mean all along, was not forty TLs, but rather four TLs. I told him that this is impossible and asked him to keep 20. He did not want to but I was biking John style forceful so at the end he had to relent.

By that time it was too late to even think of biking on. Fortunately this town, Payas, is a small time vacation place and there are hotels here. In a very short while I was walking to my room. After I settled in I showered and then went out foraging.