Early this morning I heard rustling coming from near our food bag. I crawled out of the tent to investigate but there was no sign of any cats trying to eat our food, so I went back to bed. Later while we were packing up to leave, Debs gave a particularly girlie squeal and the source of the rustling was revealed. A small mouse had clearly decided to set up home in our tent, taking a liking to Debs cycle helmet. It took a few attempts to remove it from the tent, as for some reason it didn't want to leave. We have had dogs wanting to accompany us on our journey, so I suppose there is no reason why a mouse wouldn't feel the same way. We really wish that it hadn't decided to help itself to our bread though. There was a very obvious mouse shaped hole in it, which rather depleted our toast supply.
Drama over, we said goodbye to some of our fellow campers and set off up the road. We have seemingly said farewell to the sun for the time being, as the weather today was grey and windy with a very likely chance of rain. Nevertheless the temperature was still reasonable so it made for not bad cycling conditions.
Clearly the rest day and getting a good nights sleep has done wonders for us both. Debs is feeling much better and I was in a considerably better mood than I have been. The last few cycling days have been tough for me, because I have really felt like I have fallen out of love with the cycling. Today was different though, we breezed up the first few hills and when the rain started it was quite light and pleasantly cooling.
Call me masochistic (Debs did) but I am really starting to enjoy the hill climbing. The effort seems to concentrate your mind and the reward is normally a terrific view. Occasionally it's the sight of another hill!
Even with my new found love of hills, the one we encountered outside of Tekmen still looked daunting. You know it is steep when two lorries have to reverse and take another go at it. The second one stalled on a steep section and couldn't get going again. The rain had probably exacerbated the problem as the road was extremely slippery. My bike with its grippier tyres was easier to manage than Debs, she found herself struggling to stop the wheels from spinning as she climbed.
Shortly after the lorry stalled, the police arrived to assist in getting it moving again. I had already started to go past so they waved me on. For some reason they then decided that Debs would have to pass as well. Instead of getting a breather she was ordered to carry on past the lorry and up the hill, with one of the policeman shouting at her in Turkish as she passed. When she got to me she was shattered and quite upset. The way one of the policeman had carried on, you would think it was our fault that the lorry stalled. Fortunately the other policeman had seemed quite pleasant waving and saying hello as I went by.
From then on the road became a mixture of steep-ish descents followed by steady climbs, all the while we were beeped and at one point clapped on by passing motorists. While taking a breather some guys from the army even stopped to say hello. We may have been offered a lift, but we didn't really understand what they were saying.
Unfortunately now the rain started to fall quite heavily and the wind became icy. With lunchtime having approached and passed, our earlier good humour was in danger of deserting us. We were stuck up on a mountain road with nothing in sight, even though we had some food with us there was nowhere to stop to eat it.
The next town came not a moment too soon, spotting a locantaşi (a canteen style restaurant) we stopped and ordered some food from the unfortunately limited selection. To be fair to the restaurant, most of their customers arrive before 2pm, but at least they had something left to eat!
Feeling a little better and a bit drier we continued into Aydincik to try and find a hotel for the night. The idea of camping had been washed away by the rain and now very cold temperatures. The first hotel we found really did look awful and it was fortunate that it also appeared to be devoid of staff. Pressing on, we found a camping and motel site which also looked closed. Asking at the shop next door, we were told that it was definitely open and he even telephoned someone from reception to come and see us. Our luck is once again in, as we are settled into a very warm chalet with a kitchen. A good rest should have us back on the road tomorrow raring to go.
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