The experience from yesterday was that we should start early and move as far as possible and not do any detours before the heat strikes. We hit the road at 7.15 from the gas station we had “checked in” at. While riding the remaining 3 km into the center we passed seven gas stations and a couple of them looked like potential camping sites 🙂

Just before the city center we spotted a an old fortress on top of a giant hill. Had it not been for the height of the hill we might have considered to pay it a visit. Without any breakfast in our bellies, we stopped to buy bread and youghurt and continued cycling until we found a park with running water where we could enjoy our morning meal.

After a quick breakfast we headed towards Duragan which is a town some 30 km further south. The road to Duragan was pleasant to ride. Mainly downhill, a slight tailwind and nice asphalt to ride on and very beautiful surroundings.

If you remember my post from yesterday (Day 49) I mentioned that we rode on a huge dusty road without traffic but with brick factories and rice paddies at its both sides. The section we rode on todad had no brick factories and a little more traffic but much more rice paddies. Since the valley was not completely flat terraces had been made to maintain the water in each paddy. It looked a bit like northern Thailand.

We were speeding down a long slope when I heard Wej shout ”stop”. When at standstill she told me she had spotted a tiny turtle in the middle of the road. Turtles need to be rescued so we went back. It was not bigger than a tennisball and she carefully lifted it from the middle of the road and released it in the grass beside.

About 10 minutes later we were once again speeding down a slope when we spotted yet another turtle in the middle of a curve. This once was a lot bigger and it was about 1 meter from the the centerline on our side. We stopped to rescue it and while Wej parked her bike I rolled across the road to film her rescue. Then we heard the sound of an approaching truck from behind the bend and had to wait. It was not only one truck, but two. The first driver saw the turtle and passed over it. As the second truck got closer I could immediately see from where I was standing that this wasn’t going to end well. When the truck’s left front wheel a few seconds later hit the turtle we could hear a loud cracking sound when the poor turtle was sprayed all over the road.

If we had arrived only 30 seconds earlier we would have been able to rescue that turtle too. Turtles has a special meaning to Thai people and Wej was sad for it for a long time.

When we passed the town of Duragan the nature shifted once again. The valley got narrower and the little river flowing in its middle had been dammed. We left the many rice paddies behind and now continued on the road that now had the lake (dam) on the left hand side and the steep mountains on our right hand side. It was truly beautiful and the road was pleasant to ride on since there were not much traffic.

Our aim was to reach Vezirköprü which would be some 60 km from Duragan. We thought that it as usual would be the occassional village and gas station, but there was nothing. This section was almost completely empty and it was like riding in Sweden….

The water in our bottles get hot in the strong afternoon sunshine and everytime we passed a well we stopped to refill with cold and fresh water.

Maybe it is not true to say that there was nothing between Duragan and Vezirköprü. We passed 2-3 small villages, but only one of them had a place where we could stop and get our afternoon tea and coke. From the forest we also heard bells from cows so there was some kind of activity after all.

Turkey is very mountainous and we have only had one or two days without hills. We have only managed to cycle 70-80 kilometers a day due to hills and heat and it has been a little frustrating. Today we made good progress and it seemed that we would be able to ride longer than 100 km in a day for the first time since entering Istanbul.

We exited the narrow valley some 30 km from Vezirköprü and when not riding in a valley anymore it got more hilly. We cycled up and down long hills and we felt a bit exhausted after having been on the road constantly for six days. Knowing that we would have to climb another 1500 meters between Vezirköpru and Samsun on the Black Sea coast we decided to change our schedule and take a day off in Vezirköpru to regain strength to do the final climbs before reaching the sea again. We called off our plans for finding a good spot for our tent and headed straight into town to find a hotel.

We quickly found one that was the cheapest so far in Turkey. 50 TL (190 SEK, 20 €) including breakfast and wifi on the room. Deal!!! We checked in for two nights.