Tunnels and a close encounter with Turkish police

Our plan for the day was to make an early start and ride until it got too hot, then take a long break to eat, write and relax before continuing during the afternoon when the temparature has cooled down. The alarm in our phone woke us up at 5.45 and once outside the tent we could work at ease since the mosquitoes had gone elsewhere.

The plan was also to not have breakfast where we camped but cycle the remaning 6-7 km into the town of Karasu to eat at some cafe. We immediately found a bakery and stopped to buy bread. The bakery had a big firewood oven and the two bakers were busy putting new bread into it. In Sweden bread made in firewood ovens are considered as having a nice taste but a not so nice price tag. The bread we bought cost 1 Turkish Lira which equals about 3.8 SEK or 0.6 €.

The baker and his firewood oven

We now had bread but nothing more so we continued cycling for another 2-300 meters where we found a tiny little grocery store where we bought some cheese, fruit juice and yoghurt that we intended to eat at the table outside the store. The shopkeeper shook his head to our question if he had coffee but but then shouted to his father across the street to make two cups of coffee for us. It was a wonderful breakfast in the sunshine with fresh bread and coffee. And the coffee was for free….. the Turkish hospitality again….

Breakfast

If the road yesterday was a neverending rollercoaster, than today’s cycling was almost the opposite. We soon got out on the road that follows the shore of the Black Sea. It was straight and almost without hills. It went through villages and some small towns, mostly close to the beach but sometimes 2-300 meters from the waterline.

I have only been to the Black Sea once before and that was in southern Russia in 1993. That time it was February and far too cold to think of trying to put the feet in the sea. This time the conditions were better and we had to try the Black Sea water. Unless you are not a Swede it was far too cold to swim in, but in terms of water temperature I am no longer a Swede but 100% Thai so we did not swim. Putting our feet in the water was cold enough.

With our feet in the Black Sea

Those of you who have followed this blog from start have seen photos of us and our bikes on the beach of the Baltic Sea and the Marmara Sea. In order to follow this tradition we proudly present a photo of us and our bikes from the Black Sea beach. Next beach photo will probably be from the Caspian Sea.

We and our bikes on the Black Sea beach

We are in Turkey so when we say that the cycling was flat means that there were at least some nasty hills. If you study the altitude graph below you will understand what we mean with meaningless hills. A couple of short steep hills that never bring us up to any high altitude. A lot of work to only one hour get back to the same altitude as we started from.

Altitude profile of today

Our intention was to have a long break during the early afternoon to avoid the heat. We stopped in the sea side town of Akcapoca to have lunch, but a fresh breeze from the sea made it pleasant and we could have continued to cycle. We found a restaurant beside the road that overlooked the Black Sea and we decided to sit down there to eat, do a bit of writing (yesterday’s blog post) before we continued towards the town of Eregli.

The plans for the night were to camp somewhere before that city but soon it appeared impossible. There is only a narrow section of flat area between the tall steep mountains and the Black Sea and that is where the road is. In fact there is not even room for the entire road so the lanes leading to the north east goes through tunnels while the lanes that go south west goes between the mountain and the sea.
We don’t like to ride in tunnels but what to do when the only option is to swim in the cold Black Sea with your bike. Wej would cycle behind and for increased visability we put all our back lights on the back of her shirt and then speeded through the 10 tunnels (!) at as high speed as possible. Fortunately there was very little traffic and we could ride through the first 5-6 tunnels alone without cars. It was great fun to shout loudly and listen to the echo inside the tunnels.

Besides that there was nowhere to camp, Wej also had a got her sore throat back and we decided to find a hotel or guesthouse. We went around in the center of Apali but couldn’t find anywhere to stay. When we saw a police station with a group of police officers talking outside we went there to ask for directions. Not being able to communicate in the same language the officers used sign language to tell us to wait. We thought that they were maybe going to find someone who spoke English or German, but not so. Two of the officers came back in a police car and showed us to bike behind them.

They drove slowly in front of us as an VIP escort with their blue lights on and when approaching a roundabout they sounded the sirens to make way for us. They parked their police car outside the only hotel in town and we tried to talk a little. Then they wanted to see our passports – probably not to make a proper check but more to see what a Swedish passport looks like.

The police escort checking our passports

Taking good care of strangers seem to be a national sport in Turkey. I am quite sure that if a lost tourist in Sweden ever would find any police officer it is highly unlikely they would get a police escort with sirens and blue lights to the nearest hotel…

The hotel was a bit expensive but since we got very good contact with the front office staff we tried to negotiate the price. We couldn’t get a discount, but they could offer us to include the dinner in the price of the room. When we got up to our room we could enjoy a beautiful sunset over the Black Sea before we went to have the dinner we negotiated into the price of the room.

Black Sea sunset seen from the window in our hotel room