Tuesday, July 7, 2009. Day 19

Stats
Trıp Total: 1423.5

Day Total: 77

The night before I took the bike to my room where I took the wheel off and changed the inner tube. While doing all that I did a thorough check of the inner part of the tire and there was nothing there that could create a systematic puncturing of the tube.

I was up at 9:00, had breakfast and hit the road at 10:50.

Below is a picture of the traditional tea cup I've mentioned.

I had to start the day at the uphill that had made me give the effort up last night. A fresh start, morale, and well inflated tires make all the difference. I was moving fast. The scenery was really beautiful and some pictures below will show you what I mean.

I arrived at Anamur at around 12:30 and as I was entering the town I noticed two guys on a motorbike that were taking pictures of me. I made the victory sign to them and biked on, but the guys followed me and nodded to me to stop. They were journalists working for a local newspaper, Anamur Gündem. So I gave them an interview, one of them could speak some English, and we took more photos. The site of the paper is http://www.anamurgundem.com/. I guess this is my claim to fame. In the pictures below you'll see the two journalists.

I biked on to the town center and on the way stopped at a motorcycle store to have the two inner tubes repaired. Kemal, the owner was a very energetic guy. Using sign language I explained him what the problem was. We went through the usual where are you from where are you traveling to, etc. He was very adept at his work. He fixed the tubes while working on two motorcycles. When the tubes were fixed I asked him how much it all cost and after handing me a glue tube and six patches he said that it does not cost anything. I really would not accept that but it was more difficult convincing him than convincing biking John. So I tried to counter by offering to buy tea and sandwiches. Through sign language I thought he said OK but when the teas arrived, once more I was not allowed to pay. Finally, when I told him goodbye he did not let me go and took me to the far side of the store where the food was waiting. What can I say.

Here is a picture of Kemal, myself, and the store.

I biked to the center. Anamur is nothing special, just a provincial town with nice people. I had to make some photocopies and the store owner also gave me a postcard as a gift. I biked on going by the castle (Mamar Calesi) of which you see a couple of photos

Riding to the nex town, Aydinçik is a very pleasant ride, scenerywise. Its beauty is reminiscent of US 101 the coastal road that goes from Oregon to California. At some point the D400 turned into a dirt road for a couple of miles. This was the first test of the kind for Spithas. He did very well. As I was biking I kept noticing the people. Their physique and looks are a little different from what I have been accustomed so far and I had a hard time recognizing the language they speak as Turkish, I also saw several men under the age of 50 wearing salvaris.

Surrounded by beauty or not, hardship is hardship. There were a couple of tremendous hills on the way, but knowing that I was almost at my destination I did not mind it at all. Here are the photos of a couple.

Finally I made it to Aydinçik and found a pansiyon, Aktan Pansiyon, to spend the night. I had dinner there and made the acquiantance of a Turkish couple, Leila and Aydin, who made a point to tell me that they were Kurds. We played tavli (backgamon.) To my surprise they could only play one game on the board, so I taught them the other two and managed to consistently lose to myself, as I was teaching them every move. Incidentally, they had a corrupting influence on me. I smoked three cigarettes and drunk whiskey.