Week 7 :: TandemWOW

Week 7

11 Aug 2019
Mark

Day 43.

Saturday 10th August 2019

Duzce to Bolu. Slow start to the day as we waited for the bike shops to open so we could repair Alice! Lovely Turkish man fiddled with the gears - but only a partial fix. Had a nice breakfast then headed off. Still problems so stopped again - more faffing with Alice and we finally headed off just after lunch! Stopped at Raz Cafe - which I think translates to Crazy Cafe - so we thought this was a suitable stop for lunch.

The Turkish people are so friendly and will go out of their way to help. They also will chat to you out of their cars and although we do get horn blasts they are all friendly. We headed into the mountains. The countryside is forested and there are few ride able roads so inevitably we ended up on the busy D100. We did a massive climb out of Duzce. It averaged 10% - which cyclists will know is pretty steep. We climbed so high it was actually quite cold at the top. We stopped for Turkish tea and headed off again. Decided to stop early today to check over the bike. I have numb hands from the vibration on handle bars so we got extra padding. We also did a bit of work on the gears. Ate an enormous pita bread - then early night to try to make up some miles tomorrow.

Day 44

Sunday 11th August 2019

Bolu to Cerkes.

Early start to make up for the loss of mileage yesterday. Had completed maintenance on Alice yesterday including taping 2 stress balls shaped as melons onto the handle bars to absorb vibration from road and adjusting the chain (again). Anyway... it was a cold start. It’s been a long time since we were cold and it was nice for a while - then the jackets went on. Today was a climbing day. The scenery was lovely - alpine with lots of trees, lakes and valleys and also wide open plains which were spectacular. We climbed stopping for tea (Cay) which was often given to us for free at local service stations along the route. We had one fast decent with amazing views across a vast plain. The road was uneven so I used the brakes for a change.

It’s a Turkish holiday at the moment Kurban Bayrami (Sacrifice holiday) which is secular so everyone is on holiday with their families. It’s a lovely atmosphere. We are on route to Samsun on the coast so the plan is to push the mileage for the next 2 days to get over the mountains. Finally fixed Alice’s chain today. She is now happy and running smoothly which makes a massive difference. Staying in Cerkes tonight. Arrived as the red light was fading over the mountains and the moon was out. Very beautiful.