Şarköy

May 16, 2008

Started out Thursday on some of the best roads that you can imagine, two lanes, no lines, rolling hills, relatively smooth and not a car for miles and miles. Ran into some busier four lane roads mid-day. The further that we’ve been getting from Istanbul, the less touristy the places, which is making the experience that much more enjoyable. Had lunch in a cafeteria in a little town. The lentil soup was great, and it’s amazing how much energy it gives you to keep the pedals turning. The bikes leaning on the wall outside were quite the novelty for the locals.

It really has been amazing the way that people react to us riding along. People in cars honk and wave and give us plenty of room. The only locals that don’t seem to be too excited to see us are some of the dogs. They give good chase and make a lot of noise but no real issues.

Our 80km for the day ended with a screaming decent towards the Sea of Marmara, whice put us in the town of Tekirdağ for the night. Got a bit lost coming into town, so we had to stop for ice cream to regain our sense of direction. Once that was accomplished we had no trouble getting to the waterfront and finding places to stay and eat.

Today was epic. The road was marked as secondary and scenic. Sounds perfect, right? It was. A few kilometers out of town the pavement ended. The road wound up above the sea, through forests, grape fields and olive tree groves. A lot of the climbing was steep, and the descents were sketchy, to say the least, but this is the stretch of road that I’ve been looking for. Mıd-afternoon the road dropped out of the hills to a fishing village. From there, we rode just above the water to the town of Şarköy where we’ve stopped for tonight. It’s a great little town. Wandered along the waterfront for a while, then through the open air market. Just had another great meal. That seems to be the theme of the trip!

70km of dirt and gravel will wear a person out. I’m done for the night. Until next time,
James