Training Complete

18-Jul-08: Rolling Hills
Turkey: Kirklareli to Saray
75km, 3h 30min ride time

Firstly, I have a few stories from the balance of our rest day yesterday...we ended up finding a cinema and watching the movie 'Wanted' starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. The film was a bit weird, which had nothing to do with the fact that we were watching it in Turkey, other than it stopping dead in the middle without warning for about 10 minutes...as they manually changed the film reels over!

We ventured out for dinner and thought we would brave having a sit down meal, rather than a point at the picture doner kebab style meal which has generally been a safe option. So we walked into what looked like a little restaurant in a side alley and gestured that we would like a table for the people in our party and we seemed to make ourselves understood as we were offered up a table. Not long after sitting we were each served a beer...and with perplexed looks we consulted each other and shrugged of the clear misunderstanding but were not prepared to attempt arguing it so we just accepted the beer. We then gestured that we would like a menu for food...with the pretend to hold a morsel and eat motion...to which we got an 'Ahhh I understand' of sorts and 2 minutes later received a bowl full of salt encrusted nuts! At this point we laughed and concluded we must be in a beer garden which did not serve dinner...

We moved on to another safer bet which did have pictures of their food in the front window...we walked in and pointed at what we would like and were shown to a table upstairs. There must have been some miscommunication between the staff because we were then approached by another waiter who wanted to take our order...try explaining that you have already told your order to the guy manning the kebab grill downstairs in hand signals! It was quite funny and the waiter was very confused and a bit exasperated after a few minutes of trying to order us a kebab and so hunted down someone who spoke English...who quickly picked up on the fact that we had already placed an order and why we kept pointing at the guy at the kebab grill! The food was great and very cheap and once the confusion passed the service was also very good and very friendly.

Okay, so on to today...started with a group ride for the whole 3km out of town just so that the Mayor could lead us out and show us off! It is nice to be treated as something special rather than a nuisance. The route was through some good old fashioned rolling hills through some beautiful Turkish countryside. There were so many colours with the bright blue skies, the golden wheat fields, the green trees and the yellow fields of sunflowers. It was picture perfect.

With nice riding conditions and temperatures in the low 30's we made good time and so decided to stop in the little town 10km before our final destination. We bought ice creams at the corner store and John bought lollipops for the group of boys who had gathered to see us. The locals set out some chairs for us outside the corner store and the children brought us honeydew melons in return for the lollipops. The longer we sat the more the crowd grew around us...they all tried to communicate but all we could do was point and gesture without much understanding. Once we had finished eating we walked our bikes through a street market which was taking place and were gleefully followed by a group of boys who were treated again by John to a hand-lofted shower of lollies which caused a scramble amongst the market stands. The market stalls were manned by elderly locals with gap toothed smiles sold everything from lollies, fruit, vegetables, shoes, clothing and general brick-a-brack.

A young woman who spoke a bit of English stopped us and practiced the phrases she did know...'Hello', 'How are you?', 'Where are you from?', 'This is my...mother...grandmother', 'Goodbye', 'Have a good journey'...at which point it became clear the conversation was over for lack of any further ability to converse, but was sweet all the same. We waved goodbye to all the children and continued on our way, very pleased that we had made the decision to stop.

The town of Saray is home to 20,000 people and a whole host of jewelry and general junk shops but not a lot else...so having arrived not long after lunch and already completing a wander about town, waiting about for the day to end is getting a little tedious...although we do have free Wi-Fi and the Tour de France on TV in the lobby which is keeping most people occupied.

19-Jul-08: Otel’s
Turkey: Saray to Tarakadyn
90km, 4h 30min ride time

The morning started with a cold shower as per the night before...Allen aptly and amusingly noted later in the day that he had figured out why the 'hotel' was called an 'otel'...because the 'h' indicated the presence of hot water!

Today's route was a beautiful one which took us through quite a few small towns in the Turkish countryside and although quite hilly no-one seemed to notice overly as we were in no hurry to make it in to 'bush camp' early so took it very easy and stopped on a number of occasions for drinks, ice creams, etc. Despite taking it easy we reached a corner store in a small town for our afternoon tea stop at 11.30am! We stayed here for some time as the store owner, being obviously grateful for 15 cyclists having graced his store, brought us Turkish tea on the house and generally served us very kindly and enthusiastically for about an hour. He was very surprised and appreciative of the dollar that we each left behind as a tip in thanks for the service and the tea.

The hospitality and kindness we have been shown by the Turkish people in general has been very contrary to my expectation...which was to receive an indifferent if not hostile reception, particularly from the male members of society. What we have received has been very much to the contrary. Manon noted that she had been waving in return to so many people that she would have to change arms to avoid overdeveloping the muscles in her right arm only!

After a substantial climb and for the last 20km our path weaved along a mountain ridge so that we either had valley views to our right or left and sometimes both, with distant ocean views on one side. All in all it was beautiful scenery and another one of those days that reminds us of the great things that come from being on a trip of this kind.

Our penultimate night for the Orient Express tour was spent at a ‘bush camp’…aka camp ground with no facilities to speak of…drop toilets and no showers. Randy rigged us up his and hers shower cubicles for bucket baths which due to the hot weather and relatively tepid water did the job in relative comfort.

After dinner we were all awarded with our Orient Express tour jersey’s, which to a few people’s disappointment were quite a close fit…I was glad I erred on the side of caution when ordering!

20-Jul-08: Sprint Finish
Turkey: Tarakadyn to Istanbul
50km, 2h 32min ride time

Having had a reasonably busy and equally lazy week in Istanbul I am only getting to write my account of the last day of riding almost a week after the event and so will probably miss the finer detail but can hopefully recall the salient points!

We started out a little later than usual due to instructions not to arrive at the finish line before 10.30am and with only 50km to travel we had time on our side. By comparison to the second last day, this day was pretty ordinary scenery wise as the route led us into Istanbul via industrial areas to the North of the city. The roads were lined on either side by copious amounts of garbage which thoroughly distracted from any beauty that may have existed.

We made one coffee stop en-route at a go-kart track at about the 35km point and otherwise took it easy, arriving at the finish line at about 11am after a sprint finish for the final 1-2km. To avoid any traffic dramas this year the finish line was alongside the Bosphorus Strait on the Northern side of the city, after which we all boarded a ferry boat to take us in to the heart of Istanbul in style.

For those of us continuing on to Beijing the achievement so far gave us a small taste of what it may feel like once we reach Beijing, but compared with the clear elation of those who have finished the journey they set out to make from Paris to Istanbul we have merely only completed our training period and our enjoyment tempered somewhat by the fact. All the same we joined in congratulations for those that have completed their long distance challenge and enjoyed the festivities on board the ferry for an hour’s cruise into Istanbul.

On arrival at the Ortakoy pier we unloaded the bikes from the ferry and walked them through a pedestrian area from the waterfront for about 500m up to the hotel where we locked them in the outdoor carpark and descended as an army of 50 people on the poor staff at reception who were fielding passports left right and centre in an attempt to check us in as quickly as possible!

The final dinner was held at a restaurant in the old town which involved a taxi journey to reach and was a nice evening of reflection including a nostalgic slide show of images prepared by Theresa which had us all laughing and smiling at moments of experience over the past 7 weeks.

I will come back in a week or so with my reflections on the first trip and account of my week spent in Istanbul…but right now I am battling to get to bed at a reasonable hour before having to get up at 6am tomorrow!

Photos Loaded

You will be pleased to know that I have finally been able to upload photos from the first trip from Paris through to Istanbul…please follow the link from my home page to the photo page. I am yet to fully complete labeling the images, but I am sure what is there will be enough to tell the story. Enjoy!