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Go East

maggio - novembre 2020
Un’avventura di 175 giorni di Herbert & Meike Leggi altro
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  • Go East

    Last beach day for a while

    15 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    This is the end of our Turkish Aegean adventure for now, the last day at the coast before heading to the center of Turkey. So we wanted to make the most of it and explore the wonderful bays around Bodrum by boat.
    As there were only expensive private boat trips from Güvercinlik, we had to cycle to Bodrum in the morning and get a boat from there. At least we got to see this nice and vibrant harbour town. We were amazed by how much money was lieing in the harbour: some of the yachts were bigger than houses.
    The boat trip was great! We went to some bays and islands to swim in the turquoise water. For lunch, we had chicken with unlimited salad and pasta. Interestingly, we were the only ones taking a second round while everyone else on the boat didn't even finish the first plate 🤔
    We got later than expected as they put us on the longer tour than we paid for. The guys were nice and we didn't complain. But in the end we had to cycle very fast back to our campground as the sun already set. Back in Güvercinlik, we enjoyed some Turkish food and a beer for dinner. Definitely a perfect last day at the coast!    Leggi altro

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  • Go East

    Finally we got one...

    16 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 34 °C

    The wind is predictable here: In the morning, it comes from the mountains, so basically Northeastern. At about 10am, it changes to West and blows from the sea. As we are going to go inland, this gave us a quiet morning with a last swim in the sea, breakfast with a view and a coffee in the harbour. We finally left at 10am and cycled with tailwinds towards Milas. Of course, we took backroads, so a lot of steep climbing was involved. The contrast between the seaside and the mountains was immense. Only 20km from Bodrum, people led their cows through the villages and horses and chickens ran around. What a difference to those million dollar yachts we saw yesterday.
    We arrived in Milas and here our really lucky day started. After about 20 attempts to buy a local SIM card in different shops and cities, we finally found a shop that seemed to skip some formal processes, sold us a SIM and it even worked after 2 hours. Wohoo, we are not dependent on restaurant wifis anymore 👍
    While waiting in front of a shop for the SIM card to work, the owner of the shop ordered tea for us - just like that. They use some walky-talky system here that is connected to a tea shop. 5 minutes later, a guy walked over with the tea on a tablet. Walking delivery service so to say 😀
    We also bought some bread in the bakery. When he saw our bikes and heard about our trip, he gave us water to fill up our bottles. Again - just like this. We then wanted to clean our chains and went to a car wash. The two young guys straight away agreed to clean our bicycles - and refused to take any money for it. The bikes haven't been this shiny in ages!
    Last but not least, we went to our host Alp. His mum cooked dinner for us and we spent the evening talking a lot about the Turkish society. He is also a bike mechanic, so he and Herbert also exchanged some technical information about the bicycles.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East

    Turkish mountains

    17 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Turkey has a lot of mountains! We knew we had to climb a lot today, so we started early. Alp got up to say goodbye. The road into the mountains was perfect! A smooth climb, relatively smooth asphalt and amazing views! Probably the nicest road we've had in Turkey so far.
    In all of the area here, we see a lot of mining, mostly marble. Unfortunately, this comes with quite some big trucks on the second part of the road. Luckily, it was quite wide, so there was enough space for us and the trucks.
    Around 3:30pm, we arrived in a small village in the mountains and were warmly welcomed by Cemil, his wife Öznur and their daughters Ekin and Bahar. They have a cute house with a big garden and many chickens. Thus, they get about 70% of their food from their little "farm". Herbert played chess with Ekin while I praticed yoga, headstands and somersaults with Bahar. We enjoyed their yummy homemade sugarfree cookies and a delicious dinner. They also make their own ketchup. As they make it without sugar, it actually tastes really good!!    Leggi altro

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  • Go East

    Long valley ride

    18 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Our day started with a Turkish breakfast Cemil prepared for us. Then, all family members got up to say goodbye to us. It was nice and cool at an elevation above 600m, a perfect temperature for cycling. We had the hardest part of the route in the morning. 2 long and steep climbs with a descent in between in the first 10km. Afterwards, we had an epic downhill ride on a small road into a huge flat. Unfortunately, it was steep, so another 10km later we were back at 50m above sea level.
    From here, we had another 120km ahead of us, all along this pretty flat valley. First on bad but quiet secondary roads, then on the highway. Luckily, we had tailwinds as soon as we reached the highway, so we could roll fast on the smooth asphalt. And the traffic wasn't as bad as expected either. At some stage, we stopped for lunch at a small shop and bought something to drink with our lunch. The owner of the shop was so nice, he brought us 2 chairs and a table to sit and make our breads and also gave us a big bottle of water and some crackers.
    The last 30km were slower again as we took small roads to Pamukkale where we were going to spend the night. We checked into a family run hotel, went for a swim in the pool and took a walk through the town. The town is built because of the white travertine terraces and the ancient ruins. Therefore, there's no real town center and most buildings are either hotels or restaurants. It doesn't even have a supermarket, so it was quite hard to find vegetables for dinner. However, we found some in the end and cooked dinner on our balcony.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East

    Pamukkale

    19 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Today, we slept in until 5:45am when the muezzin called for the first time. We turned around and woke up again around 7am, as some hot air balloons flew passed our hotel. It's almost worse as the Bavarian churches! So we got up and had breakfast...
    Then we explore the site of Pamukkale with its impressive travertine terraces and pools. You can enter the park directly from the town center and then walk up on the limestone and through the pools. At the top, there were crazy amounts of tourists, mainly Russians. It was a little fun to watch their bikini photo shootings in the pools...
    To avoid the crowds, we took a longer walk away from the pools but along these impressive white formations until we got to the ruins of Hierapolis. We really enjoyed it as we could well imagine how the ancient city looked like some 2000 years ago. We visited the old main Street with the bath buildings, the necropolis and the huge theatre and saw lots of lizards on the way.
    Then we went back to the hotel, had some lunch and packed our bikes to continue our trip. On the way to Denizli, we stopped at Laodikeia, another ancient city. They are in the process of reconstructing it, so there's still lots of lose rocks and single columns lieing or standing around. Here, they had even 2 huge theaters and what must have been very beautiful houses in those years. As Laodikeia is located on a hill, you can even see the white Pamukkale terraces far away.
    The last few kilometers into Denizli were a pain due to heavy traffic, so we were happy when we could have dinner in a small restaurant and meet our host Murat. He actually wanted to go out with us for having a trink and playing fussball, but after a day of seeing lot's of old stones we were too tired and fell asleep.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East

    Rain in the Maldives

    20 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    To leave Dinizli, we had to go on the main road to Antalya. Luckily, traffic wasn't as bad as expected. The center of Turkey lies about 1000m above sea level with higher mountains all around. So today, we had to climb to get there. For the first time since the Bulgarian mountains, it was cloudy. So when we stopped for breakfast, we had to put on our jackets. The Shell gas station was a good choice as they sold proper coffee and had a comfy swing to relax.
    We continued our route and it cleared up. However, when we reached Salda Lake - or the "Turkish Maldives" - we already saw a thunderstorm nearby. We quickly visited the colourful beach and went to a restaurant when it started raining cats and dogs. At least we stayed dry and had some savory pancakes.
    When it stopped raining, we rode to another beach where it is allowed to camp and swim. However, swimming is not really what you do. When you enter the water, you sink in in the mud, so you have to be careful and fast. Afterwards, the ground gets harder, but it's only knee-deep. So we basically just had a bath to wash of the sweat.
    We also met Dimi and Alexandra, a Russian couple who have been in Turkey since February as they can't get back to Russia with their car due to border closures. They drove us to the next supermarket, so we could get a beer to enjoy with the lake view.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East
    1

    Bday presents

    21 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    The Turkish people are just amazing! We didn't have a spectacular route for Herbert's birthday this year, but some great experiences and lots of little bday presents. First, we stopped at a bakery to buy some bread. When the owner heard us speaking German, he invited us for a tea and he gave us another piece of pastry each for free. He had lived in Germany before coming back to Turkey 9 years ago.
    We continued for some 25km kilometres and stopped at a water spring to eat our breakfast. After some minutes, 2 gentlemen arrived and picked some plums for us from their tree. They got more chairs and sat next to us a the table although we couldn't really communicate (sign language has its limitations...).
    Later along the route, we wanted to buy some green pepper and tomatoes from a roadside stall. The owner was so impressed by our itenary that he packed us a whole bag of green peppers and also added a water melon. And he didn't want any money for it.
    So the last hill was quite exhausting for me as I had to carry all the extra food in my front panniers. However, we made it up the hill and could already see Eğirdir Lake, our destination for the night. We found a campground right at the beach, went for a swim and had dinner at this beautiful spot. Good there's quite some lakes in central Turkey, so we can still swim regularly so far.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East

    Mountain club adventure

    22 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    What a wonderful day on the bikes! We headed off the campground and went around Lake Eğirdir for about 35km. The lake is a beauty the road goes directly along the water for most of the time. We also met Erol who is travelling around Turkey with his wife, daughter and granddaughter in a VW van. They invited us to their lake view breakfast although we could communicate in sign language only.
    The next part of the day was relatively flat until we had to climb up the highest pass in Turkey so far. What was not so much of a problem for us was too hard for one of the cars that broke down just before the top. On the way up, there was a nice picnic area with a view and a freshwater spring, so that's where we stopped for lunch. And at the top, we had a tea in a little tentlike building. The owners gave us some grapes with it when they heard about our tour.
    The views on the other side of the pass were spectacular! We descended down a canyon and could see the desert in front of us.
    In Akşehir, we could stay at the mountaineering club. Berkay, the warmshowers host, wasn't in town but talked to his friends who were happy to let us sleep in the building. Berkay had also organized dinner for us: his mum delivered home made food to the club 😉    Leggi altro

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  • Go East

    Different world

    23 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    For the first time here in Turkey, we had a very boring route. Everything is relatively flat and dry in this region, only some rare agriculturally used land. So our goal was to cycle as many kilometres as possible. At first, we followed a busy highway which was no fun, but fast at least. After 75km,we were looking for a place to eat when suddenly a man came running towards us. He was the owner of the gas station we had passed 200m ago and he invited us to join him for lunch (which he had just cooked) and tea (of course). This can only happen in Turkey!
    After lunch, we had enough of the highway and turned into secondary roads. Finally, the noise of the cars was gone. However, cycling got harder as the wind had picked up (against us) and roads got a little worse.
    So after 140km we called it a day. We had arrived in Altinekin which is a small village and really in the middle of nowhere. In general, it seems like a different world here. People seem to be more religious (more women are covered and people greet in the religious way), houses look more run down, people stare at us even more... We asked around where we could possibly pitch our tent for the night and got pointed to a public park. What a perfect spot! Located on a hill with a 360° view, picnic tables and a water source. We didn't want to pitch the tent before dark, so we went back to the center to buy groceries. Here, we got invited to some tea again, so we sat down with some locals at the village tea shop. Then we started cooking at our campspot. 2 guys came by and invited us to their restaurant for dinner. Too bad we had started cooking already. Next, a family came up the hill to say hi. I think, the whole village knows we are here by now, so let's see if more people are going to show up.    Leggi altro

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  • Go East
    11

    Salt Lake

    24 settembre 2020, Turchia ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    We didn't make it to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, but Turkey has a huge Salt Lake to offer instead. So that's where we went today. On the way, Hadji stopped us right at the time when we were looking for a breakfast place. He invited us to join him because he saw us on the road and generally enjoys company for his meals. As he used to live in Switzerland 20 years ago, he could speak some German, so communicating wasn't to difficult.
    We met lots of friendly greeting people and had to turn down some offers for a talk or tea as we still had a long and exhausting way to go. In order to get to Tuz Gölü (= Salt Lake), we had to cycle on a long dirt road through a lot of flat nothingness. As it hasn't rained since April, the lake was completely dry and we could walk, cycle and make funny photos on the white salt.
    After some time, we continued to Sultanhanı where we are staying on a small family run campground. Here, we visited the Kervansaray which used to be a safe accommodation for the merchants along the silk road.    Leggi altro

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