The clouds and grey skies were back this morning. Nevertheless we set off along the still flat roads, with the intention to try and make up some distance.
We covered the first 10 miles very quickly, so stopped for a self congratulatory çay at a petrol station restaurant. The people in the restaurant seemed very interested in what we were up to, but thought we were mad to be cycling and camping in the winter. It is probably fair to say that at least one or two thought we were mad full stop!
Still making very good progress, the weather attempted to intervene by starting to snow. We still cant really believe how quickly the weather has changed. Hopefully as we continue south it will get warmer. Even with the light snow we had a favourable tail wind and managed to keep putting the miles behind us.
Looking for a post office we stopped off in the town of Gömeç and had another encounter with a touring cyclist. Interestingly he told us he had been turned away from the Syrian border because he didn't have a visa, which was why he was doing a loop of Turkey. It is starting to look like we will have to come up with a plan, as our trip hinges on getting into Syria. While chatting to the cyclist we were mobbed by some local children, who were mainly just curious about us. Some of the younger ones seemed to think that we should give them money though, which is always nice!
Waving goodbye we set off back to the main road to continue our journey. Our plan now was to pick up some water and then look for a suitable free camp, probably in an olive grove. What we didn't expect was to pass through mile after mile of estate owned olive groves that were all fenced.
With the afternoon waning and the temperature falling, not to mention the miles passing we started to get a bit desperate. We asked at a garage if we could camp round the back as we had been told that this is sometimes an option. Suspecting that he didn't really understand us, the answer was still no, so we had a bit of a dilemma on our hands. The next town and the possibility of a hotel was still 20kms away. In desperation I headed down a side road and found an olive grove where the gate had been left open. Hopefully it wont be locked during the night, although there is an escape route over a ploughed field.
We got camped none too soon as it has been raining ever since.
Tonight will be a very early one, lets hope it dries up by morning!
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