Last nights' camp-site certainly wasn't the quietest, although there was a period around 3am when everything was silent. Nevertheless we remained undisturbed which was all we could ask for.
Leaving the site proved a little tricky, the slope we had come down from the road looked a lot steeper and a lot rougher in the morning. Attempting to push my bike up without help proved foolhardy and ended with me laying sideways under my bike in the dirt! Attempt two went better and with Debs steering and me pushing we got both bikes back onto the road.
The weather today was probably the best we have had for the last few days, with beautiful sunshine, clear skies and no wind. It was just a shame that our legs felt so heavy as yesterdays' climbing had obviously caught up with us. It really felt like I was riding my bike through treacle and I had to keep checking to make sure the brakes weren't on. The bigger tyres I am using definitely cause more drag. Despite struggling with our legs, we covered the first 10km quite quickly and were rewarded with yet more free çay, this time with a bit of home-made cake. The hospitality we have received from petrol stations is quite astonishing, especially as we usually stop just to use the bathroom.
In two days of cycling we have gone from Çine (90m) to Yatağan (400m) and after a brief downhill section climbed once again to Muğla (625m).
Thinking that we had reached the top we stopped for a quick snack at another petrol station and then set off once again, only to be greeted by a 10% gradient hill. Assuming that it wouldn't be very long as nothing was mentioned on our map we continued on our way. We certainly didn't expect it to go on for 3km and climb to nearly 1000m. Obviously the beautiful weather and snack must have helped us on our way, as at the top I was soon joined by Debs, who even managed a smile and a thumbs up.
What goes up must come down and we were soon hurtling down the other side at break neck speed. The view was terrific, all the effort was once again totally worthwhile.
We had made such good progress over the last few days that we were reasonably close to our Christmas destination. It looked like tomorrow would be a short day. With that in mind we had a nice lunch in a restaurant and then set off once again, with the plan to camp shortly after a forthcoming tunnel. Although marked we never found the tunnel, but we certainly did find yet another steep hill. Which was followed by an incredible 8km descent, complete with safety barriers and hairpin bends. At one point we found ourselves going faster than a lorry and had to slow down as an overtake seemed a little risky!
By the time we made it to bottom we were only about 40kms from Köyceğiz, so started to look round for a suitable camp spot. Even after we struggled up another long hill nothing really presented itself as suitable. The ground was either water logged, being farmed or inaccessible from the road. By now we were about 30km away from Köyceğiz and the promise of a guest-house. The only concern was that it was about 3:15pm and it gets dark by 5pm, plus we were both very tired.
When we started to descend again, we decided that we would have to try and make a dash for it. Fortunately the road continued to gently go down all the way to Köyceğiz and two very tired cyclists rolled into the town at about 4:30pm. Tango guest-house is quite nice and the shower was hot (this is a bit of a bonus in Turkey). We may move on to somewhere swankier for Christmas, but right now this is fine. We have managed to get here in 3 days instead of 4 so we have plenty of options, at the very least we won't be spending Christmas in a tent!
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