Since most of you are very busy and need to get straight to the essential, let this newsletter be a few bulletpoints only :
- The main road along the Black Sea is very busy with long trucks and fast cars... The inland mounts are luckily more authentic and so beautifully green ! Drawback : some mounts are real walls reaching above 1500m of altitude... Yavas Yvas, it takes time and efforts, but i always get there !
- My wheels are getting deadly thin, which makes one or two punctures happen every 10 km (or less)... As a consequence, i have recently become and expert in puncture-spotting and in cold-patch glueing; i have also found a way to make tyres live a bit longer : Split and insert an old tube between the tyre and the actual inflated tube. This is not perfect, but i have gone 60km today without a flat wheel !
- Bad news : I have killed my second digital Canon of this trip in the sands of the Black Sea... R.I.P. But thanks to Mrs. Visacard, i could replace it in Kastamonu... I have sworn i would keep this one alive at least up to Georgia ! Please note that if anyone of you knows how i could get a sponsorship from Canon or Nikon, please send me an email !
- Fuel consumption : currently 4-5L water, 0.5L tea and 1L Coke per day. Food : 3 meals a day with 2-3 snacks in between. i find water along the road at the many sources or fountains available.
- Sleep : outdoors, from 22h to 5h. Indoors, from midnight to 7h30. 3-4 nights outdoors for 1-2 nights indoors.
- Health : Nothing to declare except excellent functionning and a few bruises and scratches. Regrettably, my skin is unevenly tanned... Arms, face and legs are 'black' (at least, as black as a Bart can be) where the rest is rather as pale as usual... Rather ridiculous on the beach. No more detail.
- Bike : all okay, except the 2 tyres, which need to be replaced asap. Marginally, the fork starts to show slight evidence of fatigue.
- Turkish : not fluent but in progress !
- What i love best : 1/ to ride silently and swiftly in a beautiful forest or hilly landscape. 2/ to sleep under the moon and the stars after a good meal in my silk-sheet. 3/ to feel the appetite to ride further again after a few hours of rest somewhere.
- What i hate : 1/the salty drop of sweat, which unevitably falls in the eye when it needs to be clear and open. 2/ a handful of cuious smokers in a tea-room as big as a closet ; i have not found a way to biaise or escape yet. 3/ the unfriendly dogs who hide in the crops before they jump at your wheels.
That's all Folks for today ! Get back to work now ! (I'll be back on my bike in a minute)
Thanks to all of you for reading and for your recent emails : I love to read them, despite it takes time before I answer them !
All the best,
Barth
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Blog Update :
GPS position
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New pictures in the Turkey/Autre regions folder.
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