Thanks for reading this newsletter !!
Today's Content :
1/ Blog Latest
2/ See all my pictures with PixVillage (free)
3/ Today's (long) Newsletter
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1 - Blog Latest :
- Some new pictures to illustrate some milestones of my journey along the track showed under Google Earth (access via 'GPS Log' form')
- Some new pictures under the 'Album photo'/Turquie folder
- Some new Stats in 'Xtrem Stats'
- Some new comments on how gears behave, budget, and languages under 'Les Syntheses'
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2 - PixVillage :
You can now see all my photos using PixVillage, a photo-sharing program created by my friend Jeremie (pixvillage.com)
- Download PixVillage at : http://www.pixvillage.com/privatebeta.aspx then install it on your computer.
- Create a free account, and add me to your contact list using my email adress : bartrouer@yahoo.fr.
You now have access to all the pictures of my trip even unpublished on this blog.
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3 - Newsletter :
Hi there !
My trip through Turkey is now becoming absolutely superb !
it is may be because i am reaching a point of equilibrium in this country but i am having more fun and pleasure than ever before. Unlike the last newsletter, i take now time to describe you a given day... among others.
Yesterday was for instance marvellous and somehow typical : i woke up in a vast openfield valley, where i arrived the night before pretty late. Wheat covers it all, which is now high and greenish, turning into golden. i installed my tent right in the corner of a rather mature field, hoping for the farmer not to shoot at me if he saw me stepping onto his crops...
After a very windy night (so that i had to anchor my bike onto the ground with extra strips!) and a few showers on my tent, i got up at around 5.30 am and i just had time to pack all my gears up and then rush under a small bridge before a fast-coming and violent storm hit the valley...
To stay dry a bit longer means may be nothing to you but this is a real victory when you have been outdoors for several nights in a row ! i had a simple breakfast under the bridge, sharing the narrow and rather low space with a few mice, spiders and a colony of black ants which was fleeing the flooding outside... All received a few bits and pieces of my bread... And a few mosquitos lost their lives too.
The tricky part was then to get out those flooded paths : trucks and cars are not the only ones to stay stuck in the mud, when the driver pulls and pushes all he can to get his vehicle free ! i could may be escape from the rain but i ended completely filthy and covered with mud... for pushing and ridding my bike only over 800m! ... But at least, i had breakfast in a dry and cosy place and all my precious belonging were safely dry into my panniers, whatelse matters ?
After a quick washing of the bike, the day really started on a rather shiny road as it was still wet... A few trucks gave me the shower i needed to be cleaned in turn, and the first 30km went away pretty fast : The valley was now behind me and i was reaching some new mountains.
My maps always show me 2 ways : one direct, easy and crowded road and a twisted, harder and longer one. Guess what : i usually take the lattest, because it is usually safer and so much more rewarding ;-)
10 more km along a curvy narrow road and the way starts to bend upwards... it took me 1h30 to ride the first 40km; i shall need 3h to climb the next 10 !
Trees are becoming denser, stones are huge and massive and the slope is steep.
Do not stop, even if your legs beg you to.
10km/h... 7km/h... 6km/h... Each meter is again a small victory... Calm your heart down... Concentrate on the square meter ahead of your front wheel... Do not think... Do not listen to the voice that tells to throw your bike away...
A glimpse to the summit shows that black clouds are accumulating there... Yavas yavas... Slowly slowly... the vegetation is now scarse and the wind a lot fresher. Cattle replaces fields and crops. Villages look poorer and farmers are just amazed to see me ridding through their isolated lands. Children greets me with some shrilling "tourist, tourist!", which reminds me of the South American "Mister, mister "... No one begs for monney here, though.
The slight breakfast is far gone. No way to stop here, let's reach the top... Go at least to that peak over there, to this stone there...
Anyway, i have no more to eat but my lunch, which i keep for later. Not too much water either, since the floodings this morning polluted all the torrents : the water that now pours everywhere is muddy. Close your mouth, breathe with your nose, it saves humidity.
Thunder clashes. Flashes. The storm is just there, ahead. i shall receive only a few drops on me... just enough to feel a little refreshed and to wash the sweat away. The darkness and the gales make it soon icy. i have no idea how high i am... May be 1400-1500m ? i started at 300m above sea level. it is nothing impressive but i could not go a lot further up without a proper meal.
At least ! the slope reverses. My legs are shaking when i get off my bike and prepare my 'lunch' : some bread, one tuna can, one tomato and half a cucumber and some chocolate cream. Around me, no tree at all. some grass, many stones. And one road going somewhere. At least, the storm has gone and the sun warms up a little bit. But no way to hide completely from the cold wind...
The last piece of bread is promptly swallowed and i lay on the ground for a while. Then my brain tells to my reluctant body to stand up again : it is too cold there and i want to reach Tokat tonight, which is still 80km ahead.
The descent shows a new valley. At first, it is stony and looks rather wild. Then human housings and fields appear ; i am always amazed to see how the vegetation can vary from one side of a mountain to another. And people. Soon, it gets warm and the skin is shiny again.
Zile ! At least. My front wheel is flat. i am lucky enough to stop just in front of a bike-repair shop. The crowd starts to meet around my bike. 10, may be 20 children and adults. Not a single woman or even girl, as usual.
The crowd stays mostly silent. One guy asks. i answer. i am observed in eveything i do. distance is narrow, bodies can almost touch. After those hours alone, i feel i need air : usually i get pretty fast nervous. Not because of danger -Turkey is such a safe place- just because of a urgent and imperative need of space.
No way: people are home and i must bear their look and their laughs and kind attentions as long as i am in there village!
From then, there is nowhere (i mean: nowhere), where i can go alone. i shall drink a coke, walk in the street, go shopping or repair my bike with a group of youngsters starring at me and asking me the ten Holy Quesions (where are you from, how many km, how much is your bike worth, what is your job, etc.). it is so frustrating not to be able to communicate more with them!
After my basic Turkish, German and French are mostly -but so seldomly- helpful. Surprisingly English is not, beyond the typical "my name is" and "where are you from". Russian could help sometimes, but i need to work it harder !
After a visit of the former Roman, then Byzantin, then Ottoman castle and one more patch on my front wheel, i leave Zile for Tokhal, last milestone before Tokat. it's 15.00 pm and i still have 65km to go in total.
Tail wind. descent. my bike flies at 40-45km/h. Mountains are getting lower and spaced. Vegetation is dryer and more yellowish than fresh green.
Tokhal. As always, first come the ugly industrial suburbs. it could be anywhere on Earth. i buy some biscuits in the first shop. Again a crowd forms around my bike. This time, i can smile and offer two biscuits to 2 young girls. They obviously refuse. People mostly refuse the little i can share with them. i have also observed that they do not answer my questions as i do to theirs. Shyness? Respect for the 'poorer'... i have no clue. But sometimes i wish i could return the flow of attention, gifts, answers and kindness !
Heading to Tokat now. Straight to there. My legs start to feel like cotton. i am on the main road at a cruise speed of 20-25km/h and all my attention is to avoid holes and stones. i also concentrate on what comes from behind... Trucks are obviously the most dangerous for the wind they produce. Cars are more bothering for they drive a lot faster (and noiser) and cannot help horning at you as if to say "helloooo"... or... "get off my road!"
Wind reverses. it is now strong and clearly front. Still 20km to go. The sun is in my back, i ride over my shadow. Light gets warmer and greens are magnificient. The valley is wide and cultivated. On the two sides -quite far away- the two long walls of mountains. There are some large housings but just along the road. Mosques every 5 or so km.
Everyone greets me. That includes dogs.
My worst nightmare ? a dog jumping at me from the right when a truck overtakes me on my left!
Tokat. Noises. Traffic lights. Traffic jams. People starring at me, but no one greets me anymore : i have certainly arrived in a Province Capital city. it is 18.30 pm and there are still 3 hours before it is night and dark.
i am rather awful to look at : covered with dust and minerals my body has expelled, my skin is dirty with grease and mud, my hair is stiff like a porkpine's, etc.
Notwithstanding this, one guy helps me to find a hotel. This one invites me to take a tea.
Again the crowd around us as soon as i sit with a glass of tea in my hands. And the ten Holy Questions again...
There is no water in the hotel and in the whole block. Water shortages are already frequent when water is visible everywhere in the countryside... it must be terrible in summer! instead of a shower, i decide to go to the hamam -or Turkish baths- for a strong peeling a warm sauna and cold showers... Delicious feeling after 4 days on the roads...
However, when in the hamam, when you think you can eventually relax and wait for the heat taking you, your neighbour starts to ask you the first of the ten Holly Questions...
Night has fallen when i get out the old building. it is rather late for my biological clock an my body urges me to go to bed. i'll have a moussaka after a soup and 2 liters of water (my body claims and gets what i could not drink in the mountain a few hours before).
The streets are still busy. People everywhere. Girls and women alone and uncovered. Students as well as elders. Shops are open late. This is like a dream, some holidays within modernity before returning into the friendly austerity of deep countryside...
... Tomorrow !
B
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Photos Turquie
Carnets de voyage Turquie
Vidéos Turquie
Carte Turquie
Guide de voyage Turquie
Santé Turquie
Billets d'avion Turquie
