Cold and hot

The first time on this Europe trip, it was below 0°C during the night and our tent was frozen when we got up. It was hard to get out of the warm sleeping bag, but we hurried up to start cycling.
After about 20km, we reached Karliova where we bought some bread for breakfast. People greeted us in a language that didn't sound like Turkish, so we assumed it was Kurdish. At the exit of the village, we saw a gas station with a bench, so we stopped here to eat our breakfast. The guys at the gas station were so friendly. When they heard our story, they brought us tea to warm up and some cake.They even got more bread from the bakery for us. One of them used to live in Hamburg, so he could translate. He told us that the majority of the people in Karliova are Kurds and speak Kurdish. When we finally left, they gave us a bottle of water each.
The next 45km were rolling, up and down all the time, but with nice tailwinds from the North. Then, the wind changed to South unfortunately, so the rest of the day was harder. There's also much more police and military presence in this area. Unlike anywhere else in Turkey, we got stopped twice today for a passport control.
We stopped in Genc for lunch before conquering the hardest part of the day: 3 steep climbs (around 10%) of about 200m each. And by now, the afternoon sun was burning, so we sweat a lot. Shortly after the top of the last pass, we found a spring to fill up water. And as we like camping up in the mountains, we decided to pitch the tent nearby, have dinner and watch the sunset. At least, it's already a lot warmer than last night.Read more