Despite the heavy rainfall last night and the strong winds, Debs slept well. I on the other hand had a lousy night. I could claim that I don't sleep well in tents, but I haven't been sleeping that well in the hotels either. No idea what is wrong but I am sure it will sort itself out eventually.
The rain had stopped by morning, but it didn't dry up enough to stop us having to put a wet tent away, once again. At least we should be camping again tonight, so it should get a chance to dry out (assuming it doesn't rain again!)
Setting off this morning we managed to get almost 1km before Debs got another puncture in her front tyre!
Once again a shard from an Efes bottle was to blame; why people feel the need to throw them from a moving vehicle is beyond me. This is the problem with riding on the hard shoulder, but it is still a better option than the road. On a plus point the puncture count is once again even; all of Debs' have been in Turkey.
Back on the road the sun started to shine brightly and the temperature got quite warm. Whether it is because there has been a change in the weather or the fact that we are getting closer to the Mediterranean coast is yet to be seen. Just to balance the good weather out, our old friend the headwind returned. It was just as well that the first part of today's journey was relatively flat.
After the town of Eskiçine the road started to climb dramatically, so being called over for a çay while passing a store, came as a welcome diversion. Once again the owner wouldn't let us pay and using a lot of sign language he wished us well. Watching a couple of the customers try to find out how heavy my bike was by lifting it, caused a little amusement. Neither of them succeeded in getting it off the ground, so we were waved off with a mixture of amazement and relief that it wasn't them having to ride it.
For the next 20kms we pretty much climbed continuously, only descending occasionally and this was always followed by a steeper ascent. It came as a bit of luck when we found a restaurant to have lunch in, as there had been very few options on the road. The owner ended up taking us into the kitchen to show us what he had as they had no menu. The meal may have involved lots of pointing but when it arrived it was excellent, plus it was cheap.
Rejoining the hills, we felt a lot better for the food. Eating properly is definitely more of an issue now that we are having to work harder. Finally we reached what appeared to be the highest point and stopped to take in the view, suddenly all the effort seemed extremely worthwhile.
While we had been riding along I had been looking at a symbol on the map and wondering what it was. The best I could make out was that it was a bridge. A slightly scary lesson was learnt about checking the map key when you are uncertain, when we hurtled unprepared towards a tunnel! It didn't look that long when we were travelling towards it, but with no lights and in my case still wearing my sunglasses it seemed a lot longer and darker when we were in it. Fortunately we made it through safely, but we will be more prepared next time.
By now we were both tired from the constant climbing. All we needed was some water and a decent spot to camp, both however proved more difficult than we had thought. The road that we are taking has very little in the way of shops or garages along it and the terrain was rocky with little flat ground. It was starting to look like we would have to carry on to the next town that was 10km away and then find a hotel. The problem was that 10km up a hill with a constant headwind was going to take a while, and we didn't have too much energy or light left.
Our water problem was soon solved, when thankfully a store came into view. Finding a camping spot looked even bleaker though, when we approached a massive quarry on both sides of the road. Pressing on we were lucky enough to spot a small area of flat ground just off the road and out of sight. It isn't going to be the quietest place we have ever stayed, but hopefully we are both so tired that it wont matter.
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