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Go East

mei - november 2020
Een 175-daags avontuur van Herbert & Meike Meer informatie
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Nieuwste eerst
  • Go East
    1

    More Canyon riding

    25 augustus 2020, Bulgarije ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Before we left our campsite, we took a last look at one of the Wonder Bridges which was lit up by the rising sun. Then we headed down the small road again to continue our tour through the Rhodope mountains.
    We cycled on more canyon roads, passed a ski resort and enjoyed the views.
    In Smolyan, we thought about calling it a day, but it was still early. So we continued further and cooked a meal at one of the picnic places next to a fresh water spring. We thought, we had waited out a thunderstorm passing North of us, but unfortunately, we got caught in heavy rain a little later. The road we were on by now was in construction, so I learned about the use of a front fender very quickly. Too bad mine broke yesterday!
    As we were wet and there was no campground anywhere close, we decided to stay in a hotel where we were dry and could do some laundry.    Meer informatie

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  • Go East

    Social project

    26 augustus 2020, Bulgarije ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Travel stories... Last night, I chatted with a French cyclist regarding the border crossing into Turkey. When he heard where we were, he recommended to meet two Bulgarian sisters who are running a social project in Madan. So that's what we did. We met Sisi, the volunteers and the rest of the crew at a café for breakfast. They do art projects with people with special needs, so some of them are deaf or blind or have down syndrom or whatever. This Friday, there's an exhibition where they are going to sell the work. So we created some art-like work with minerals which they mine in this region.
    Sisi and her sister Suzanne also organized a visit to the mineral gallery where we got a short tour. Afterwards, we had lunch with everyone again. A morning full of fun and laughter altogether!
    However, we still wanted to cycle at least a little bit further. So at about 4pm, we said goodbye to everyone and started with a climb. The last time we were above 1000m for a while I guess. The climb was followed by a great descend. When we saw a river bed, we pulled over to camp. A couple of Bulgarians came to pick some berries. When they left, they gave us some cookies. Then, a cowherd passed by with his herd. One of the young ones was really interested in our tent, but walked on eventually. All in all, we expect a quiet night here.    Meer informatie

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  • Go East
    1

    More miles on the iron curtain trail

    27 augustus 2020, Bulgarije ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    The landscape has changed significantly. It's still hilly, but it's very dry. There's still springs along the road, but most of them are only dripping or totally dry. We enjoyed the ride today, as we could go on remote backroads with almost no traffic. Part of it was again on the Iron Curtain Trail.
    The border to Greece is close as well. We were going to go there, but they require a negative Corona test and logistics for this are kind of difficult here. So like some other contries, we'll skip it on this trip.
    At some stage, we crossed a dam. It was interesting to see the two sides: one with lots of water, the other one pretty dry - see picture number 4 below.
    We decided to go to a rabbit farm to camp there. The owners were away, but arranged for us to stay over the phone. So we spent the evening with their two friendly and playful dogs Mimi and Sherry, and their cats. The older man who came by to feed the rabbits tried to talk to us. He had an old fashioned pocketbook with some German vocabulary, so we had a very basic conversation with him.    Meer informatie

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  • Go East

    Finally in Turkey

    28 augustus 2020, Turkije ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    As soon as they heard the zipper of the tent, the dogs were all over us to get some cuddles. They had slept right next to the tent. What a happy welcoming in the morning!
    We cycled to Svilengrad where we had our last breakfast in Bulgaria. Then it was time to cross the border to Turkey. We weren't sure how strict they are in Corona times, but had heard from other cyclists that border crossing is rather smooth. And indeed, it was. On the Bulgarian side, they checked our passport twice. Then, there was a car desinfection site which we as cyclists just ignored. The guy took my temperature instead - and indicated Herbert to just go through when I didn't have a fever or anything. Because if I'm ok, he would be ok as well. The passport control on the Turkish side was smooth as well. They let us pass all the cars and gave us our stamp. There was a Corona test centre right next to the road, but it seemed to be more relevant for people leaving the country, so we ignored it.
    And here we are in Turkey! We cycled to Edirne, the first city after the border. We quite liked it with its impressive mosques and a cosy city centre. First, we sat down at the mosque, watched people and listenend to the muezzin during Friday prayers. Afterwards, we went to the main street. Straight away, we felt the difference in culture. People were super friendly, two of us came over and invited us for food, offered a place to stay and any other help we need. We accepted an invitation for a coffee and chatted a bit with Sadegh before continuing to our warmshowers host for the night. We expected to stay with Özgür who had accepted my request. But as he was on holidays, his flatmates Esin and Şashenem welcomed us warmly instead. They cooked dinner, we talked a lot with the help of Google Translate and watched a movie at night. What a great start into our Turkish adventure!    Meer informatie

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  • Go East

    Turkish hospitality

    29 augustus 2020, Turkije ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Turkish wake up times seem to be a bit different than our. Esin and Şashenem slept til 9:30am, so we could have a relaxed morning. Once they woke up, they prepared Menemen for breakfast, a Turkish dish with eggs and vegetables.
    After breakfast, we started cycling. It was already so hot that we sweat without even moving. We headed South on backroads and were going to meet Şeref about half way to Uzunköprü where he had organized a place to camp for us. On the way, we wanted to message him about our progress, so we stopped at a gas station for wifi. The family who owned the gas station was very friendly and their daughter was happy to use her basic school English to communicate. And what does a family do with total strangers coming for free wifi here in Turkey? They offer them some watermelon which we were happy to accept. It's pretty much the only food you can eat in the heat.
    Then we continued cycling on the backroads. 10km later, a farmer, Mr. Ali, indicated us to stop. It looked like he wanted us to fill up our water bottles in his house, so we followed him up the hill. At his little house, he served us tea, coke, cheese, bread and biscuits. And then, we could also fill up water... He also invited us to stay for the night, but we told him that we already had a place. He could speak only very basic English, so Google Translate was our best friend. Mr. Ali showed us a photo of him shaking hands with the president which he seemed to be very proud of.
    We couldn't stay too long because we were still going to meet Şeref on the road - which we did another 10km later. He had brought coffee and homemade sourdough bread for us, so first thing we did was a picnic in the shade. Some more cycling, another break at a gas station for cold drinks, then a tourist stop at the long stone bridge, that gave the city its name (Uzunköprü means "long bridge"). Finally, we arrived at another gas station near the city center where he had organized for us to camp. It wasn't the cleanest place, but we had water, toilets and a great sunset view. Şeref also ordered a Köfte (= meatballs) sandwich for us and got some beers from a nearby shop. We spent a memorable night with him discussing all kinds of things. Even though we tried, he insisted on paying everything for us. Today, we are absolutely overwhelmed by the Turkish hospitality!
    The final impressive gesture came from the guy working at the gas station. He saw cars/customers parking in front of our tent with their headlights on. As soon as they were gone, he parked his car sideways in front of us, so other cars wouldn't bother us. Just incredible that he noticed this!    Meer informatie

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  • Go East

    Arriving at the Aegean Sea

    30 augustus 2020, Turkije ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Before leaving the gas station, our personal "gas station guard" brought us coffee. Then we cycled about 20km on a main road, turned off the highway and stopped at a small gas station to have more of Şeref's homemade sourdough bread for breakfast. An older man invited us for tea to his house, but we understood what he wanted to say too late. So we missed out on this.
    Instead, we continued a hilly ride on some quiet secondary roads. It was extremely hot, so even those 50-100m climbs were really exhausting. After another 35km, we had to go back on the main road as there was no other option in our direction. The highway here has a wide shoulder and smooth asphalt, so it's safe. But it's no fun sharing the road with all the fastmoving cars and the noise they make!
    We stopped for a second breakfast at a restaurant that Şeref had recommended. It was one of the best breakfasts EVER! And even with our need of calories, we were completely full afterwards.
    From here, it was one more climb in the heat and then we could see the sea - FINALLY! We had to fight against the strong headwinds, even on a downhill, but eventually reached our campground and jumped into the clear turquoise water. What a luxury after a sweaty day!!    Meer informatie

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  • Go East

    Next stop: Asia

    31 augustus 2020, Turkije ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Our night was pretty short as the next tent kid seemed to be sick and cried all night. At 5:45am, we decided to get up as we couldn't sleep anyways. We cycled to Gelibolu to have breakfast before continuing along the coast to Eceabat. We had strong tailwinds, so it felt like flying on the main road. On the peninsula, there was a huge battle in World War I between the Ottoman soldiers and the Allies, so it's a site of historical importance with some war memorials to visit.
    At Eceabat, we took the ferry across the Dardanelles strait, the geographical border between Europe and Asia. We saw the fortress of Kilitbahir on the European side and enjoyed some views on Çanakkale on the Asia side when we were on the boat.
    From Çanakkale, we had to cycle another 15km along the coast until we reached Güzelyali, our destination for the night. The village is nice. It has a decent beach where we went for a swim, of course, nice seafront houses and a few shops and restaurants. Here, we were welcomed by Firat who cooked a delicious dinner for us. Unfortunately, Herbert had to miss out on the food because he wasn't feeling to well. Hope he'll get better after some sleep, so we can go on tomorrow.    Meer informatie

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  • Go East

    The turkish yogurt knock out

    1 september 2020, Turkije ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Herbert had a very bad night, so in the morning there was no way we could continue. It must have been the yoghurt we had bought before going on the ferry. It totally knocked him out. Luckily, Firat had no problem to host us another day.
    By noon, Herbert felt a little bit better and was able to leave the bed. Firat and his neighbors had thought about a cure for him and decided to try potatos. So Herbert ate some potatoes which were ok. I also bought a huge watermelon for us to eat.
    In the afternoon, we helped Firat hanging up new curtains on his window. Without any proper tools, this actually took a while. However, Herbert felt way better and could eat a proper dinner afterwards. Firat invited us to some ice cream and we finished the night with Turkish Raki, music, cheese, melon, and a homemade limoncello.    Meer informatie

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  • Go East
    2

    Troy

    3 september 2020, Turkije ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Yesterday, Herbert still didn't feel 100% and for some reason, I was knocked out, so we spent another day at Firat's. We were very happy that he didn't mind at all - he was only sad we couldn't eat all of the yummy food he cooked but were happy with dry potato.
    Today, we were good enough to continue riding. The road led along the coast at the beginning before turning inland. It was all nice quiet roads with almost no traffic.
    We arrived at the ancient site of Troy, UNESCO World Heritage. Of course, we climbed up the famous horse before visiting the site where you could still see remnants of those 9 cities built on top of each other. The good thing about travelling in Corona times is that you can visit the tourist places almost by yourselve. Except for some 10 other visitors, we had the whole site to ourselves.
    We continued cycling on secondary roads until we reached the coast again. When we saw a beachfront campground, we decided to call it a day and rest in the afternoon. So we went swimming, relaxed at the beach, visited the nearby ruins of Alexandria Troas and enjoyed our dinner with a view.    Meer informatie

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  • Go East
    2

    Coastline cycling

    4 september 2020, Turkije ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    As it's really hot every day, we left early and only had breakfast after some 20km. We found a nice spot with picnic tables on the beach.
    The day felt pretty tough as we are still a little weak. So again, we decided to have a short day. After visiting "land's end" Babakale with its well maintained fort, we went to Akliman Beach to camp. And as we are on the Western side of Turkey, we could enjoy one of those cheesy sunsets over the ocean :)Meer informatie

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