After packing up this morning, we set off with a plan to stay as close to the coast as possible. Our thinking being 'it must be flatter if you are at sea level'. The plan started well, we avoided the main road that seemed to be climbing steeply over the hills and continued along our much flatter route. Even when the tarmac ended and the road turned into a track we didn't think much of it. The surface was still good and there were some visible tyre tracks. Plus our compass said we were heading south and the sea was still to our right, how far wrong could we go?
It was when we started to encounter some very muddy sections (one of which I could very easily have lost my shoe in) that I thought maybe we had made a mistake. Rounding a corner and spotting some sheer fronted coastline, with clearly no path visible or indeed possible, didn't ease my worries. Debs meanwhile didn't share my concern and she was proven to be correct. The track continued, just quite steeply upwards.
The farmer standing near his tractor must have been quite surprised when two foreigners on bicycles came cycling over the brow of the hill. A quick direction check later and we continued on, now much higher than before. The track may have been a bit challenging but the view was fantastic.
Getting directions from several farmers along the way, we eventually found our way on to some tarmac. The question was, where are we? Our map scale of 1:800,000 doesn't allow for much detail and it is quite hard to judge how far along we are. Passing through two unnamed villages and getting yet more directions, we eventually came out opposite the entrance gates to Troy. This was somewhat amazing as I thought we had gone past Troy ages ago. Having visited last time we were here we saw no reason to go in. Nevertheless to celebrate finding out where we were, we had a cup of çay in the gift shop and our bikes became a source of much interest for a coach load of visiting school children.
Instead of attempting yet another cross country route, we followed the directions given to us by the very helpful gift shop owner and headed to the main road. Fortunately we didn't have to stay on the main road for long as we were turning off to follow the coast once again. This time along a marked route!
The road took us through several small villages and towns where we were greeted by cheerful and probably quite cheeky school children. Between the towns the predominant land use is olive groves, where it appears mainly the women do the harvesting.
Stocking up with water, we set about finding either a free camp or an open camp-site. The area we were cycling through didn't look ideal for a free camp spot, so a camp-site sign came as some relief. The facilities are extremely basic (a cold open-air shower this time) but it was open and we were both quite tired.
Our day drew to a close with a mystery. We set off this morning with some chicken and some hotdog sausages for dinner. When we arrived at the camp-site they had vanished! Dinner consequently was rather cobbled together and nowhere near as exciting as it was going to be!
Shopping is definitely in order for tomorrow.
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