Istanbul to Cappadocia

Jul12

We knew that cycling across Turkey was going to be challenging. Two months or more in hot and mountainous conditions was never going to be easy but we started off well.

Leaving Istanbul on an overcast day, with plenty of rain, meant that the heat would not be a problem but these conditions brought there own challenges. How well could we be seen, were our lights bright enough? Could we cycle in rain kit up the hills or would we be too hot? Where flooding had occurred meant that in places we couldn’t tuck in close to the ‘curb’ because we’ve frequently seen, where the road has been resurfaced, the drains, occasionally with covers, are a good 18″ deep in a steep sided hole. Hitting one of these would wreck the bike and maybe us with it.

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The weather did improve and we ended up with our first wild camping in Turkey. It was again a picnic area but this time, it had no designated camping spot, was by a lake and was frequented by friendly people. Altogether the experience, and swim in the lake, was a much more enjoyable experience.

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From here we continued to develop our intimate experience with Turkey’s mountainous terrain. After three passes clocking in at 870m, 1180m and 1240m high, we felt we were getting to know what might be ahead. We are also aware that there are plateaus across Turkey. Having finished these passes, we collapsed into the first café in the town of Nallihan and were delighted to hear that the road ahead was indeed one such plateau and was ‘flat’. Flat, not quite. We’ve just finished the Danube and know what flat is. There were some serious undulations to say the least.

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Soda mining area before Tuz Golu

Typical central Turkey large road. Flat.

Our second day of ‘on a plateau’ was much more successful. We whizzed along at an average height of 700m admiring the beautiful views, all that is, until the last 10km when there was a sting in the tail as we climbed another 300m.

After the picnic area, we stopped at another little hotel, a sort of track stub off a mountain lay-by, where we built a screen of brushwood to hide the tent, this was a nice stop as only 300m from a spring. The next day’s cycling was rather long and arduous, and we’d found the alternating wild camp/hotel regime quite good, so we headed into Polatli hoping to find an hotel. Well we did, but Polatli is quite a big town (Pop 120,000, I think the sign said), so we actually had quite a few conversations with locals, one actually accompanying us around the hotels, sort of translating. We stuck our noses in two others, before settling on Gordium Otel. It all took ages, we really should learn the lesson of either sorting it out online beforehand, or cycling into the town centre before asking. Where we discovered via Wikipedia, that the small brown sign we’d passed 10km before, heralded a major site of antiquity – Gordium. Well, we’d pedalled for 5 days, so we declared a rest day, and went back to Gordium the next day – in a taxi (no buses we were told, and definitely no pedalling). That was a fascinating day – see another posting.

After Gordium we continued through more “plateau”, which may have involved a hill range to cross. We stopped in a garage forecourt, pitching between two used diggers for sale – foolishly choosing a garage with no restaurant. Gideon screwed up the cooking and the local dogs were not sure about the result either. We had a relatively easy, if baking, day along the side of Tuz Golu, a great salt lake. We reached Sereflikochisar and while wondering where the cheap hotels were, asked a chap out strolling with his young son. Inam proved a wonderful chap, and, as a teacher, signed us into the town’s teachers hotel – a bargain. Then he suggested meeting later for dinner. That was lovely, and he insisted on paying for the food – what hospitality!

Next day, we had a crap wild camp at what looked nice from a distance, but proved to be sloping, bumpy, sticky-grass infested, unexpectedly overlooked and possibly the local dogging spot. Then more undulations until we pitched up at – wow – a proper campsite (Panorama Camping) at Goreme.

Clare whizzing out of Yenisabanli, we both having survived the terrible gravel patch on the downhill junction in town.

Roadside view

Clare and baby tortoise

Fields, tractor

Horse and cart stopped in middle of field

Tuz Golu north end

Tuz Golu salt and water edge

Tuz Golu pretty colours in the salt crust

Fields, cows

At Goreme we stayed for four nights, exploring the wonderfully weird scenery, and blowing the budget on a balloon flight. The subject of a separate posting…

Cappadocia – Balloon Flight

Jul12

Cappadocia was added to the route plan as it seemed to be a “must see” part of central Turkey, and the map showed “real” campsites. We didn’t actually study it until we were in Polatli: As soon as Clare read about the hot air balloon flights available in Cappadocia she was set on going. “I’ll have it as my birthday present!”. Emails, texts follow, and we’re booked. We have one rest day in Goreme, Cappadocia, then the flight. The reason the flight is not, by definition, on a rest day is, it requires a 4am pickup. Groan….

Anyway, both us and taxi are at the campsite entrance at 04:20. As the activity is fairly expensive, both taxi and then breakfast are included. Soon we’re at the launch site, in a throng of balloons, minibuses, tourists, and great jets of flame.

We’re one of the last to set off, perhaps allowing our pilot to observe the wind directions better. One of the most impressive aspects of the flight is how he manages to take us around almost in a circle.

The baskets is quite big, with two or three of us tourists in each corner compartment, and the pilot in the middle. 11 souls in total.

The photos say more than words can. We expected great views. We didn’t expect the balloon to get so close to the clifftops, fairy chimneys and other things. A passenger from Saudi managed to pluck a leaf from a tree.

The objective when landing is to drop the basket onto the trailer. The pilot controls the height, rotation, and fine X position; the truck driver controls coarse X by snaking and Y. In our case it worked, with an error of perhaps 30cm in Y and 5 degrees of rotation, these corrected by heaves from the ground crew. Once clipped to the trailer, we climbed out, although Clare then fell off the trailer…

Goreme

Goreme

#VoyagerBalloons for more info (we got the “deluxe” package as a free upgrade when they consolidated flights; we booked via TurkeyTravelPlanner for an claimed discount).

Cappadocia – Caves and Ancient Civilisations

Jul12

We wrote about the cave monastery we visited in Bulgaria earlier.

We almost missed Gordium, in fact we cycled past the little brown sign for it and ended up backtracking the next day in a taxi. The Gordium citadel is roughly contemporary with Stonehenge, but rather more clear in purpose; being the hub of the Phrygian civilisation. The “Midas Mound” tomb is impressive, although now reckoned to be Midas’s father. And there’s an informative museum, too.

Gordium citadel

King Midas’ father’s tomb

After Gordium, we were cycling along a minor country road, with a mix of rough grass and fields around, when we saw a knobbly outcrop, greatly undercut with caves. But we pressed on, until a few hundred metres later, saw another knobble, this time with an obviously carved-out and decorated entrance. Clearly we had to investigate. These were abandoned cave dwellings (or possibly graves), with interconnecting tunnels, and chambers. After an hour we resumed travel. In ancient Turkey, this didn’t even merit a roadside sign.

Later that day, passing through an ancient looking village, we saw above it extensive cave holes, mostly now used for storage or abandoned. It seems this whole region is riddled with them. It’s the volcanic tufa rock, that’s so soft it’s easy to carve out. Unfortunately, there’s clear evidence the caves often have a fairly short life – collapses and eroded remains abound.

Goreme

Intentional Camera Movement in a Goreme cave church.

The same day, already late, we saw another little brown sign “Tatlarin Underground City”. Wiser now, we knew we had to follow it up … dump all our hard-won height, down to the city and up again. But stunning though. Free admission, there was a caretaker who let us in (and a school group just afterwards, aaargh!). The site had a well-preserved cave church with frescoes, and extensive tunnelled chambers, of which enough were open to give us backache. Time being the main constraint, the tunnels were both long (100m) and low (ouch).

Then we got to Cappadocia. Well, it’s a region, and the above (and us) maybe were already in it. In tourist terms, it’s often reduced to just around the tourist hub, the large village Goreme. At this place, the weird rock formations make the tufa into “fairy chimneys” which are extensively dug out for churches, houses (?) and graves. Of course there’s an underground city too, and nearby the citadel, also dug out, of Uchisar. Some of this we were fortunate to view from a balloon.

Istanbul – Getting In

Jul12

This is posted out of order as we’d overlooked this nearly-finished draft!

Research into getting into Istanbul, whilst all agreed on using the D020 and approaching from the north, was mixed – catch the ferry, use the river-side route/ cycle path – the latter lasted for a whole 200m, catch a bus. All at least agreed that cycling was to be avoided due to the heavy traffic and manic drivers. Gid spent some time looking into the ferry option. Despite finding a 2016 timetable, pinning down a departure point, time and destination that met our very flexible needs was impossible. Actually, there probably isn’t a ferry that runs along the coast in the way we wanted – the buses meet the needs of that route. Cycling it was then! Initially we took the aerial route into Sariyer.

View down into Sariyer

The top of Sariyer

Chimneys or minarets just visible on sky line – in Istanbul

Having been reduced to pushing the bikes up the hill (we no longer have bike friendly gradients) I pushed my bike down. The back wheel was skidding as I tried to keep the bike under control whilst walking down, this didn’t inspire confidence in my ability to ride. At the bottom we abandoned any hope of back tracking to find the elusive ferry ‘terminal’ and headed on down south. Istanbul old town, where our apartment was, was 30km away.

Initially there was a wide promenade and all seem good. This came and went as we progressed from one town to the next along the route. When ever it existed we sort it out as it provided a respite from the traffic.

Into Istanbul, the Garmin couldn’t locate the apartment. Frequently places have been spelt differently on road signs and the map which makes the navigation more difficult. The Garmin may recognize one spelling but not the other. So it was down to Gid who used his phone to track us in to his pin-point, but we had to keep stopping to check our route.

It’s a city, so the traffic was heavy but two local youngsters showed us how to do it by giving a demonstration on how to dart backwards and forwards across the traffic using all three lanes going in our direction. Gid again fared better than me as he boldly stuck his arm out, to fork left, and crossed all three lanes of traffic, at a major junction.

Finally, AirBnb’s habit of sending all communications to email, itself, and texts, meant we easily met up with our host and were tucked up into the comfy apartment a few km into the suburbs.

Istanbul Photo Gallery

Jun30

Views of East Istanbul

Views of European side, Istanbul

Out and about

Car being removed

Modern city, North of the GoldenHorn

Street vendor

One of many wooden houses

Deliveries and waste disposal took place manually

In some villages / small towns there are no ATMs

We tried to use the railway but it’s also been dug up.

Dodgy parking causes a bit of a problem

Shops and produce

Local street market

Topkapi Musuem and park. Topkapi palace was the official residence of the Ottoman Sultans since 1453.

Hagia Sophia museum – Originally a Christian church. Built in 532AD by Emperor Justinian. After 1000 years as a church it was changed into a mosque. Because the church had lots of mosaics, Sultan Mehmet the conqueror plastered over them to create the mosque. Now the building is a museum. The mosaics have been uncovered but the building has kept aspects from both religions.

Blue Mosque

Basilica Cistern – built in 532 AD by Emperor Justinian and was for centuries the main water supply to the city.

Grand Bazaar – over 4000 shops in the world’s largest covered bazaar.

European side Heritage tramp and second (to London’s underground)oldest underground in the world.

Setting off from Kirklareli

Jun25

With some time in hand we were keen to visit the Black Sea. A day at the beach sounded wonderful.

Setting off from Kirklareli, Garmin guided us accurately through back streets to the widely recommended D020. We had read that it was no longer a quite dirt road through villages but, none the less, it is still the best route into Istanbul missing the heavy traffic. This had 6 lanes and a hard shoulder for us. Traffic was light with on one stretch, a guy sitting on the central barrier and another walking along in the fast lane. It looked like a safe but bleak day. After some km it exited Kirklareli’s industrial estates, and reverted to 2 lanes and a gutter. But still unbusy.

As we passed other towns the adjoining traffic picked up. This, together with the strong cross wind, made the cycling uncomfortable. We’d planned a short day and were relieved when the Garmin directed us down onto a quiet route to a campsite at Safaalan.

Setting off again the Garmin was struggling to set a sensible route. The problem soon became apparent when the D020 turned into a motorway; opened in 2013 it boasted. No wonder the Garmin wouldn’t set a bicycle route along it!

As the day progressed, again we were pleased to find a campsite just a little way off our route. But it was a sleepless night as both of us were a little concerned about the ‘campsite’. It was a certain area within a picnic spot. Nothing wrong with that except we were the only people there in a rather public spot near a busyish road and felt rather exposed. The local dogs seemed friendly enough…

Off again the following morning we went back to the main road expecting another day of traffic. Gid was keen to come up with an alternative and Garmin did it’s stuff. We set off away from the main road pleased with the more rural route. It was not long before we were flagged down by 2 men. One saying turn back the other suggesting we could go on. It soon became evident why. Our road finished with a pile of dirt and giant quarry beyond it. We were forced back to the D020, at this point a 6 laner, but the next section was closed, and beyond that it was still under construction. Everyone was diverted south on the simple 2 lane road SE to Gokturk.

Panorama taken on phone – from side to side across the back there is construction work

With even more traffic forced along the diversion, as well as the construction vehicles at times bumper to bumper, it wasn’t the best of experiences but we were keen to reach the beach resort for our day of rest so set about trying again to make progress north. Garmin plotted our route, clearly, looking at the device, some of it was on tracks not evident on our 1:800000 road map.

Rather more cautiously we checked the appropriateness of our choice before cycling to far. The locals waved us on.

The track was very good but nonetheless, much slower than a road. Along it we had our first encounter with water buffalo. Having stopped to look at it we scarpered pretty quickly as it took a few steps towards us. Must look up if they are aggressive or merely shortsighted. Further along, encouraged by the nearby herdsmen I became brave enough to take some photos.

Our track deteriorated into a part of a flood plan that ended up disappearing up a rocky ravine. Garmin listed our turn off up the ravine as ‘track (bad)’ now we know what that means. It was a four-hands push. It’s not the first time one of it’s tracks hasn’t been that brilliant so we’ve now reprogrammed it to avoid tracks. Especially as Gid got two punctures from it, a big thorn in the front, and wire, probably from a burnt tyre carcass, at the back. (Punctures: 3 Gid-0 Clare. It’s progressing as usual!) Honours for puncture protection shared between Specialized and Schwalbe respectively. Our progress had slowed for quite some time to 5 km / hr. It was a mixed blessing when we reached the road again.

The ravine

Locals along the track

Later research tells us there’s a new airport and motorway and Bosphorus bridge network they are building so hopefully the rest of Turkey won’t be like this.

All is forgiven as we sit here in a good campsite in Kilyos, having been swimming in the Black Sea. Actually the campsite – Mystic – is a bit of an orchard, with plums, cherries and apricots, all ripe now. And mulberries, our first, although parking the bikes under it led to a few juicy spots.

Twenty Four Hours in Kirklareli, Turkey

Jun18

The ride into Turkey was generally more relaxed than the previous couple of days. Through Bulgaria, despite the hilly terrain, we’d covered the distance spurred on by the desire to find accommodation and a shower. The 50 km needed to get us to Kirklareli wasn’t going to be a problem, although the Turks’ fine new road was pretty bleak, bypassing the few habitations in this range of hills. We’ve discussed finding some shelter to sit out the hottest part of the day but never quite manage it. On the one occasion we did, boredom set in very quickly. Well, it was in a highway drain.

Having arrived in Kirklareli, we were focused on dodging the traffic and failed to notice the two hotels behind us as we asked, in the local police station we were passing, if they could direct us to a hotel. The language barrier has got wider the further east we have come. It’s no longer the case that a number of people will speak English. At the time we didn’t know how to use Google Translate offline, though we did later.. It was the same with the policemen. They could muster a few words of English between them, we still hadn’t got the phrase book out. They leapt into a car and set off with us trying to follow and dodge the traffic. They had certainly taken us to a great hotel but it was way beyond our budget. Garmin saved the day in its local search… pretty much opposite the police station!

Kirklareli is an energetic town throbbing with people and activity. A quick scan on Wikipedia said there were things to do, and it should be a great place to explore.

We were quickly out and about keen to find some supper, that’ll be kebabs in the street then; but we must have had tourist mug written across our foreheads because there was no menu with prices on it. We were charged an outrageous 50 lira when it should have been less then 30. We’d failed to follow the advice on line ‘ check prices first’. We’ve got a bit more savvy thereafter.

Bread available to purchase outside shop

One of the many street traders

Some serious cakes

National costume

First errand in the morning was haircuts and a shave. And this might already have made us look less weird. Gid bought a cheerful cotton shirt, and provided he avoids the combo of shorts and big boots, is probably less of a sore thumb in the streets now. Clare, however, still looks vaguely military.

Shoe cleaner

One of several wood clad or wooden houses

Not many buildings are falling down but this is quite spectacular

A second mosque

In the mix at the roundabout

View down a street

Second mosque

Gid’s phone photo lousy image quality

Since then we’ve visited Hızırbey Cami mosque. This was a stunning experience mainly because the Imam encouraged in, told us about the history of the building being linked to the early Ottoman empire, being founded by Osman 1, what the symbolism meant & donned his robes for our photo call. A fantastic welcome to our first Islamic country.

Still on a high from that we gathered our stuff and went for a Turkish bath in the towns second ancient building with an early Ottoman origin.

The last of the days events was people watching. The roads have very little in the way of lines demarking rights of way. As I sat and watched a busy roundabout with 5 exits, I marvelled at how traffic: bikes – occasionally 2 up, motorbikes – sometimes 3 up + shopping, buses, cars, trucks etc. people & dogs all interwoven. It seemed to stay fluid with everything using the same navigational routes. It really was amazing to see people in this mix taking their turn in amongst the traffic, not to mention the dog whose water was thoughtfully placed in the centre of the roundabout.

All this is punctuated by the regular reminders blaring out from mosques to go and pray. There also seemed to be a city centre tannoy system, we didn’t figure out its purpose.