July 27th 2010
Well, this update will be the final one from the road if things go according to plan. We had two great rest days in Komotini in the sweltering heat (topped out at 43 degrees one day according to a pharmacy´s thermometer), chilled out for a day on the beach and swam for hours in the Aegean sea. As we left Komotini early in the morning on day 67 ready for a long and hot day cycling into Turkey, mother nature and bad luck decided to give us a little hardship. A lightning storm in the morning luckily cleared and allowed us to leave when we had planned. However within the first 4km of the day, a pack of 6 stray dogs attacked us as we were coming up to a traffic light. We saw them off in the distance and as they started running towards us barking agressively, we both turned around and started cycling slowly backwards, waiting hopefully for a car or two to come and distract them (bear in mind that it was a sunday morning so the streets were pretty deserted). Colin took out his dog-beating stick in case they attacked us aggressively but luckily a car with a good samaritan stopped at the traffic lights, the owner got out and chased the dogs away while we cycled safely through. A word of warning to other cyclists going through Greece: the dogs here have been VERY aggressive towards cyclists and it seems as though the best way to ward off an attack is to either cycle slowly by them or to get off your bike and walk. If they do decide to attack you, make throwing motions, throw a rock or two at them or have a sturdy stick ready.
The road through northern Greece is paved with lightning strikes and aggressive dogs
About 10km before Alexandroupoli another annoyance occured. Colin´s front pannier rack decided to snap off. Luckily Caroline had some zip-ties and duct tape so we have made a patched-fix and hope that it will hold until Istanbul. The road to Alexandroupoli was nearly deserted but we had a massive headwind which was very tiring and dehydrating. We decided to risk getting a fine and took the motorway to the border, which cut 6km off of our distance. It was a great decision as the road to the Ipsala border crossing was completely deserted. The Greek checkpoint at the border was a breeze as we were ushered to the front of the line, had our passports stamped and proceded to cycle to the Turkish side. As we crossed the river that divides the two countries, the military presence was very noticable. Soldiers with automatic weopons lined the road and bridges (one soldier gave us a friendly wave and a smile but the rest were very serious). On the Turkish side we had to go through 5 different checkpoints but had absolutely no questions asked and no problems at all getting through. Once again we were told to go to the front of the line! Passports stamped with the expensive 45 euro visa, we cycled into our final country and were met immediately by a massive headwind. The D-110 which turns into the D-100 which goes to Istanbul is a wide, two lane highway which cuts a straight line across the landscape. This means hills. Big, long hills with a headwind. We finally made it to Kesan after 146km and met our host from warmshowers for the night. His name was Alaattin and he was a perfect example of the Turkish hospitality. Although he was not a cyclist and spoke quite basic english, he made sure we were comfortable and insisted on making dinner for us. We often had to communicate with him via google translator but he was a wonderfully kind man. After the long, hot day however, we were completely exhausted and collapsed immediately when he showed us our beds.
New friends on the road! Emmanuel and Pierre were WALKING from Paris to Jerusalem!!
We woke the next morning to the sound of the haunting but beautiful call to prayer from the nearby mosque. We both agree that mosques are some of the most elegant buildings we have ever seen and they dot the the Turkish countryside and cityscapes. After Alaattin made us breakfast, we bought some food from the supermarket (turkish delights are the most AMAZING candy you will ever taste!!!) and cycled out of Kesan, thinking it would be an easy 85km to our next host in Tekirdag.
The Turkish sunset
We were right about the distance but wrong about the difficulty. A huge headwind until 4pm made it extremely tough going all day. This along with the extremely long uphills, rough shoulder sections and a road which made distances look much shorter than they really were caused us to have really slow progress and we only covered 40km in the first 4 hours. The riding people we encountered were amazing though. Lots of friendly waves, honks and a watermelon farmer at a roadside fruitstand waved us over for some free melon. He and his wife talked with us (using sign language and a bit of german) for a bit before we went on our way. They were both lovely people.
Nature decided to throw one more obstacle in our way 12km from Tekirdag. A series of thunderstorms swept quickly past us and we had to take shelter under a gas station for two hours while we waited for the rain, wind and lightning to die down. When we finally saw a break in the storms we made a break for Tekirdag cycling as fast as we could, and, assisted by a headwind we reached speeds of 66km/hr. When we looked back we saw the source of our tailwind. One of the blackest clouds we have ever seen was racing towards us, it´s front end looking like a tsunami. It looked terrifying but for some reason it passed quickly over us with no lightning or rain. Finally in Tekirdag after about 6-7 hours of riding, we found our host named Asim (pronounced ´awesome´ as he truly is). He took us out for dinner, insisted on paying for our meal and then showed us a great seaside bar where we drank Turkish tea. He is our last couchsurfing host until Istanbul and once again, we were amazed by the Turkish hospitality.
With only a few hundred kilometers to go, there were still a few storms that would be thrown our way
Today is our final rest day before we enter Istanbul. Although the city is only 125km away, we plan on cycling until we are about 30km outside the city, sleeping somewhere and riding the rest of the way very early the next morning (or during gridlocked rush hour). The reason for this is because the road we will be taking gets extremely busy about 30km away from the city center. Our next and final update will hopefully be in two days…. from one of the world´s most coveted and historic cities, where Europe meets Asia, and the end of our journey….
Seeking the Steeps 