Day 109 Turkey 5/1/2011, Demre–Finike–Kumluca. 33.53miles/55.07km, 3hr26minutes, Av 10mph.

First a great evening and then a good night's sleep, we couldn't ask for any more after the physical effort of yesterday. It may have been the sea air, but we set off this morning with a little more bounce to our bungees. The sun coming out and the road starting off flat, didn't do us any harm either.

Heading out of Demre, we picked up the beautiful coast road and made more progress in 30 minutes than we did in 2 hours yesterday. It goes to show how much difference the terrain can make.

We were always aware however that it couldn't last, as a steep section was marked on our map. For nearly 30kms we rounded every corner thinking that a big hill was going to appear in front of us. Just like the promised tunnels though, the steep section failed to materialise. We are beginning to wonder if the symbols on our map are for the correct country. Roads that climb for 30km are marked as flat, so far only one of the marked tunnels existed, and now steep sections are marked along flat pieces of road. All of this from the well respected German ADAC.

A few kilometres from the coastal town of Finike I felt a twinge in my right calf muscle, so we slowed down and headed to the nearest snack bar for lunch. We now appear to be in the oranges capital of Turkey as they were for sale everywhere. We were even given a couple by the snack bar owner after lunch.

Back on the bikes and with my calf still giving me a bit of pain, we decided to get to the next town of Kumluca (approx 15km away) and look for a guest-house/camp-site for the night. In typical fashion after we had passed loads of hotels and guest-houses in Finike, Kumluca, although larger, only had one expensive looking hotel.

With no choice but to carry on, we stocked up on water and went to look for a free camp. The only problem we had, was that we knew the road was due to climb quite dramatically for the next 11km and we really didn't fancy having to get up the hill today. Fortunately a decent spot presented itself just before the hill, although we did have a large amount of mushroom pickers for company (at least while it was light!). Hopefully a good night's rest will leave my calf muscle feeling better and we will be able to power up the hill towards Antalya.