The previous night's food mystery may have been solved. During the night Debs found a cat in the tent trying to get at our food bag. There were several cats about the previous night, so maybe one of them helped itself to our dinner. We will have to start to secure our food a little better!
Our day began well, the sun came out and started shining brightly and the roads were comparatively flat. We made a brief stop at the ruins of Alexandria (we wouldn't advise anyone to go out of their way to see them, entry is free though) where I had a quick look round while Debs rested.
From that moment on, things got quite a bit trickier. The sun headed behind the clouds and a very strong wind got up. We then seemed to have to ride up one hill followed by another. The hills were steep enough as it was, without the headwind. Even when there was a downhill section, the wind was so strong that it counteracted the descent.
Our planned 60km to Assos, that had sounded relatively modest the night before, now looked extremely unlikely.
At every town we passed we took the opportunity to stock up on food and snacks. For the first time during the trip, we are really having to keep eating to maintain our energy levels. Fortunately bread and simits are relatively plentiful, as are chocolate bars and satsuma oranges.
Passing through the town of Tuzla my rendition of '24seconds from Tuzla' was rather wasted on Debs. It would probably have helped if she knew the original '24hrs from Tulsa'. Still it kept me amused and my mind off the ever climbing hill and strong wind.
Getting to the town of Güpinar involved the steepest climb of the trip so far. It wasn't helped by the very uneven brick weave road that continued well into the town.
It is amazing how when you are starting to get a little fed up, something often happens to make things seem worthwhile. As we were nearing the end of the town we passed a school. It was lunchtime so the children were on a break and one of the teachers who was sitting outside came over to say hello. Offering us a drink he called one of the children over to take us into the school grounds. Unfortunately it wasn't for the tea that we were hoping for, instead we were taken to the drinking fountains. To say that we caused a bit of interest was an understatement. The kids were soon crowded around us and the bikes, all asking questions and shaking our hands. Debs got her camera out and the crowd got larger. Eventually we were rescued by a teacher and we bid a sad farewell to all the smiling children.
On a high, we set off up the next hill with renewed vigour. This was followed by the next hill with a bit less vigour and with considerably less on the next. The views were terrific, but it was difficult to see how we could still be going up, when there didn't seem to be any higher ground around us.
By now we had given up on making it to our destination as we still had 20km to cover. Instead we just needed to find some water and then locate a good place to pitch our tent. A mountain spring came to our rescue and a promising piece of land presented itself nearby. We are a little closer to the road than we would have liked and we now seem to have several cows for company. Assuming the aforementioned cows don't eat us during the night, we should have a comparatively short day tomorrow. If we can find somewhere reasonable to stay it may even be a rest day.
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