Been a while…… November 26, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in christianity, Travel.5 comments
Due to a combination of deserts, state sponsored paranoia and general idleness, its been a pretty long time since this journal was updated.
But the journey hasnt stopped, though at times it seemed that it could only do so, and im now quite a bit farther east than Gori……so much so that the turkish language has now become almot useless….almost 😉
Might be able to start working on writing up the last couple months, but then again might not be able to do so for another 2500 miles….
But either way, know that the Lord has been as gracious and caring as ever, which only goes to show how forgiving a Father we have.
Yours in Christ (by His will and nothing more or less)
J
Strong, Macho, Stalinist September 20, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in Photos, Travel.add a comment
Later I’ll give you a bit of a look inside the museum and the armored railroad car, but untill the photos can be put online a google image search of “Stalin museum gori” will show you quite a lot already.
Saqartvelos Gaumarjos! September 20, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in christianity, Travel.Tags: bicycle, georgia
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Writing this from my itouch as haven’t really had chance to use a full size ‘puter.
That means a short post to cover a lot and a long time and no photos too.
Hopefully update this update somewhere later.
So anyway, after a blessed last night in Turkey, bike and I rolled on towards Georgia along the continuing high quality highway.
Only near the border does it change to a more narrow road, but even then it’s no problem and I’m sure this part will also be improved soon.
The border crossing is hassle free and is better than back in 2007 on the Georgian side, as that time I had take all the bike bags off and carefully manouver everything through one of those rotating turnstills for pedestrians.
This time we just rolled through the passenger terminal without any such wierdness.
It’s a short ride along to Batumi, though near the border the road was a little rough in places. Looked like it had been washed out or something.
The driving is noticably…..different. More on that later, as here it’s a mere rumble of the approaching storm.
In Batumi I wasn’t sure what was going to happen – would my friend here know I was coming or not, as our email communication had seemed to be getting lost in transit.
It’s pretty interesting how the Lord brought me to know my friend and his family here actually.
In 2006, on the way home from Jerusalem, I was in a Greek ferry port waiting on a boat to Italy.
Just wandering around looking at the many working vessels there, a pair of sailors came over, interested to see a loaded bicycle.
One of these kind guys said he was from Georgia and gave me his address saying to come and stay with him should I ever pass that way.
Having aborted carrying on in that direction just a few weeks before, I took this as good encouragement for the future, thanked him, and we went our ways.
Come 2007, bike and I were in Georgia and we found a wonderfully warm welcome at his families home, though he himself was away at sea again.
Thankfully his brother is super cool, speaks good English, and we had a good time of it.
So, 4 years later here we were again.
Asking around for my friend another kind sailor knew him and called up to the flat for him to come down.
Instead I was greeted by my friends mother who, as I remembered, was as Kind generous and just plain awesome as before. I smile to think of her ways even now….
Long story short, even though my friend now had a full time job, will still managed to see Batumi and find the best khachapuri 🙂
It was a really great week with them all, and the kind of start to my time in. Georgia I’d hoped and prayed for.
A week that passed too quickly.
With a teary goodbye it was that I took off for the next friends I’d made the last trip this way.
Meeting this family back in 2007 was no less interesting, but more spontaneous: while riding along through some small villages I was called to a stop by a friendly group sat on benches under a sun shade.
After a little while talking and such I was invited to the English speakers home where I meet his wife and sons.
Back then I wad a little less inclined to take my time while travelling and always wanted to push on as quickly as possible, which caused me to only stay one night at their house before riding off again.
I’d always looked back on that as a mistake, and hoped for a chance to correct it.
Which the man of the house didn’t fail to offer me within 5 minutes of our meeting again!
Truly this is a great lesson to us all in how to treat the guests the Lord sends us!
Again it’s impossible to cover how good it was to stay at their place: all the good meals we shared, the car rides and the places we went. The potato harvesting we did together in the morning sun under a clear blue sky.
As good as the days were with my friends there, so as hard were the two days on the road to my next port of call in Gori.
The reason? A crazy strong Headwind blowing directly from where we were going. All the time.
The first day it started before dawn and by midday was blowing so hard that, combined with the non existant space for me at the roads edge and the near suicidal driving of some folk, it was almost too dangerous to carry on.
At every moment the wind was about to push to bike off to one side or another : left into passing cars. Right, off a 4 or 5 inch ledge and onto the large rounded stones that make up the ground of all western georgia.
That we made 62 miles in about 11 hours on a good road with no hills tells it’s story well enough.
A kind restaurant owner allowed me to sleep the night under the cover of one of his garages and, being in Georgia, after a day like that, it was necessary to order a large plate of khingali.
One of the dogs that lived around the place spent the night a couple of sleeping bag lengths away, which was nice for some company.
Thankfully, and unexpectedly, I did not have the company of flies or Mosquitos.
There were lots of little frogs though, but they were no problem at all.
Next day we were up and away just as it was safe enough to be on the road, and it was time for a bit of climbing.
From Zestaphoni it’s around thirty miles to the top of a valley that then lets out into the other side of Georgia.
The road follows a river back up
To it’s source, winding up and up past villages and over old soviet bridges.
Near the top there are a few tunnels, with a longer one right at the top which marks the end of the climb.
Or it should do – this time around it was closed for repairs meaning it didn’t.
It did mean that the way down was a bit more interesting, because you get to see more of the mountain route.
It’s a pretty good road though, so you can roll along without too much worry.
The wind wasn’t so bad this morning because the mountains were keeping it off most of the time, but once over and past Khasuri the land flattens out and you are wide open to it again.
It blew so much the rest of the way to Gori that, after getting all stressed out and complaining, my mind eventually went blank and nothing much managed to upset it anymore.
It was very good then that I had a friend to call on in that town, and, after begging the phone of a shop owner, he came and met me at a pre arranged location.
Very uncharacteristically I managed to visit a museum during those great couple of days stay in Gori, probably because my dad has an interest in the subject it covers, a man called Stalin.
The next post will eventually be a mini tour of the museum, but for now won’t be much at all as I can’t upload the photos.
On a road by the sea September 9, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in christianity, Photos, Travel.Tags: bicycle, Christianity, rize, touring, turkey
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Reaching the sea on the same day was about as far as it was wise to try and go.
But there was a reason for pushing on further than usual…….in reaching this coast road i was back in familiar territory, something a traveller out on his own can sometimes do with.
Back (waay back it seems now) in 2007 i picked up this road a little bit more to the west, and this time i was going to do the comfortable thing and ride more or less the same way for a while.
Indeed, for the route im hoping to follow east, there isnt really another road to follow….
But anyway, for this day i had a place to aim for, having stayed the night with a kind shop owner after a truly wet and soggy day all that time ago in 2007.
Working the last few miles along the coast road was both a delight and a trial; it was the first bit of really high quality road we’d been on for about 3 days (or about a year according to the internal clock), but it was also mid afternoon and felt like being smothered by a hot towel.
Soon enough i saw my previous hosts shop……closed down and out of business.
Hmmm, that changes things i thought.
After asking around a bit with no leads, i headed a couple hundred meters back up the road to a petrol station, where the owner not only spoke good english but, to my surprise, invited me to ask what i would of him.
Being again at the stage of almost complete inhibition when it comes to this kind of thing, i did ask….and ended up with a room, a bed, a hot shower and a safe place for the bike to stay too.
Actually i didn’t ask for all that of course, but the generous owner and his brother (and the owners son) offered and offered and who was i to refuse such kindness, especially since i’d not long since asked the Lord if He might allow me a good place to rest and cool off after the heavy days getting here.
And it didn’t end there….after we talked about various things, and having told him that i’d been here those years before, the owner went off for a while and, somehow, found the owner of the shop who i’d stayed with before!
An hour later, the shop owner came along on his bicycle and we had a reunion of sorts….i think we both had a good memory of the last time, and it was good to see a face from the deeper past and a journey long since ended.
Not usually one to leave my bike alone, it was with some hesitation that i accepted an offer to eat at my shop owner friends house, but as is often the case i need not have worried.
We had a good dinner in his house a few minutes walk away in the small village where he is now living and working as a baker.
A glass of tea in the local teahouse, where i met pretty much everyone, and we were back at the Petrol; i was in bed, well fed and well tired, within minutes.
What a day! Thankyou Lord, and thankyou kind people of the village and the Petrol Station 🙂
Started off early, back in the old habit of trying to avoid the high temperatures of early afternoon, and made good time along the wonderfully surfaced highway, drinking far more water than seems safe, but needing every drop.
To be honest i looked into staying at a hotel 20 miles on as i felt really quite tired after the last days, but it was not to be; there was no one around at all.
Still, i used their bathroom and sat on their stairs to eat breakfast, so it wasn’t without purpose 😉
Praying for the strength to make it to the next big city, and the next place i knew to stay at, on we went…and it turned out to be a pretty good day after all: was in Trabzon for just before 12 noon.
Last time i ended up at one of the fishing harbours where i was given a little cabin to sleep in for the night, and it seemed a good idea to try and connect with the same people again….they had even invited me to work on their boat for a while should i ever come back this way.
However, all the road has been changed in the years past, and i really couldn’t find a way to even get to the harbour; before, you just turned left but now there were more lanes of traffic and an impassable divide separating the opposing traffic.
By this time the sun was starting to confuse me, so i reluctantly gave up on finding my previous hosts and headed along looking for a hotel or something.
About to stop in at a group of port side hotels i saw, first time in aaages, a couple of other loaded bicycles about to join the road i was on.
Waving at them, i pulled into a spot of well placed shade and waited for them to arrive.
We had a good old bikers chat, and swapped information; seems we are going in vaguely the same direction and might meet again later. They also told me the name of a good hotel, from which they had just come.
Ill never understand how people can ride in the afternoon heat 😀
Anyway, it did turn out to be a good hotel (Hotel Benli if you are ever there), and the bike was even allowed to join me in the room at no extra cost…..couldn’t be better!
Food and a beer bought, wifi connected (just) and me washed and cooling, i settled in for an afternoons rest.
I wondered what tomorrow would be like….both of the days already done had been quite different to how id expected – it hadn’t been easy to find people from the last trip at all.
Leaving again at just before sunrise, we were back on the smooth black stuff and away without issue.
At one point the clouds rolled in thickly, which changes everything – all the pressure of the sun and building heat is removed and you can breathe easy: no need to rush or worry about finding a cool shady place…riding becomes nice again.
At one point just before Rize i saw heavy rain just ahead on the road….and it really was just ahead – here there was no rain, while 50 meters ahead there was rain….at lot of rain.
Thankfully, as it started to come down heavily, the bike and i were passing one of the many new under road walkways that have been built during the last few years, and we were able to get some shelter for the next two hours while the rain did its thing.
We started off at the top of the stairs that lead down to the tunnel, the bike stood across the next to top stair and me stood in front. After an hour the intensity of the rain had pushed us down to the tunnel itself in order to avoid being soaked.
Planning for the possibility of being stuck there all day i noticed that the tunnel led to a small fishing port, and that if needed there would be sheltered place to sleep that night. This coast is great for that kind of thing.
But it wasnt necessary after all, the rain trailing off after not too long at all.
There are two big crops grown in the hills along this coastline; Hazelnuts and Tea.
I guess its pretty much Hazelnuts untill Trabzon, and then you pass through a kind of mixing zone where the two plants grow along side each other; after maybe half the way to Rize, its all Tea, the low well manicured bushes covering every bit of the land there.
A great thing about this is that there are tea factories at regular distances, and you have a chance to ride, for a few brief moments, in the thick aroma of freshly roasting tea leaves…..and its great…..for a few seconds as you pass through the cloud all the traffic smells, all the humid
One of the things that people who have cycled this road before know about is the amount of tunnels there are, particularly after you go past the city of Rize.
Back in 2007 they were not really not nice things to ride through because most were not lit and there were some that had nasty holes in the road, which were waiting unseen in the darkness.
I remember riding through them being quite stressful that time around, especially the ones that were a mile or so long, with another one the same length separated from it by a 25m outdoor section…..even with a flashing rear light you never felt exactly safe, and not having a front light at all made picking a line less than straight forward.
Cars were both a curse and blessing – their lights would allow you to see ahead for a moment, but they were also dangerous and unimaginably noisy in the long echoing blackness.
But this time, thanks to a determined highway upgrade scheme, everything was different – not only has the road itself been resurfaced and widened, but the tunnels themselves have been completely refitted with all the modern bits and
bobs such as full strip lighting and electronic signaling.
In short, don’t worry too much about riding this way; if anything the tunnels are a nice break from the sun.
Eventually we managed to find the port where i slept last time through this way, and, yet again, everything was different: all the small wooden cabins that used to surround the port were gone, replaced by a brand new concrete quayside, and no cabins….but one.
Looking around the place, the first person i said hello to turned out to be the guy who let me sleep in his little cabin last time around…and he remembered it too!
And, strangely enough, that one remaining cabin was his….and he was happy to have me sleep in it again 😀
What funny things the Lord arranges sometimes!
So there we sat for the few hours before sunset, watching folk mend their boats, and dodging the occasional thundery shower….one of the fishermen there even took me to a nearby shop to buy some dinner….thankyou Sir!
In fact, later on, after dark and as i was just on the edge of sleep, he came back with his family and gave me a big bag of freshly cooked food! Have to admit i ate most of it right then, but the bag of hazelnuts i saved and still have with me now.
And that was my last night in Turkey…..
Tomorrow see us finally leave, with mixed feelings, and make it into Georgia.
That will be the next post 🙂
In some ways it was downright Erigbel September 8, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in christianity, Photos, Travel.Tags: bicycle, Christianity, dogs, erigbel, touring, turkey
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Continuing on along this good road for only a couple of miles it was already time to turn off again.
Looking at the map in the weeks before actually arriving there, this road looked to be no different from any other thick red line indicating the presence of an asphalt strip, and after the mornings wallowings that was the idea i was holding tightly onto.
The territory however is not the map, and that was certainly true of this territory: what started off as merely the usual kind of rough surfaced asphalt quickly became one of the worst examples of cheap road laying you’re likely to see anywhere….at least untill the next days ride.
You see, some bright chap probably in a ministry in Ankara somewhere has decided that, to save time and money, the best way to extend the service life of deteriorating (but still superior) roads is to carry out the following simple procedure :
- Take one tanker truck full of hot tar and fix a lane-wide spraying rig on the back
- Drive this truck slowly along the now smooth but cracking road and spray a nice layer of cheap sticky tar all over it.
- A little ways behind your tar sprayer, follow along with a heavy tipper full of coarse chippings (about an inch or so square is perfect) and have it slowly dump the stones onto the still hot tar.
- Have some blokes sort of roughly spread them around a bit, trying to make it nice and even but don’t worry about it too much.
- Allow passing traffic to double up as a roller, using their tyres and suspension to compact the newly laid surface….it should only take a couple years, and won’t destroy nearly as many privately owned vehicles as you think.
And then the clouds cleared away at around 1pm.
And this road had more steep climbs and descents that anywhere else i’ve ever been, including the Alps and everything in between.
Of course, you couldnt happily roll down such steep and roughly surfaced roads, so they had to be walked down to avoid damaging the bike. Dropping tyre pressure didn’t even help.
Ahh, what a day….endlessly up and down, up and down, so slow and hot, no water stops or nothing…wow.
After many hours like this, and only one small mental breakdown, a small shop finally appeared and, being a little bit….cooked….i went straight for an ice cream and cold can of coke.
Bad idea.
It started slowly but kept on coming with determination and lasted for perhaps a thousand years….
Sounds silly, but i swear that icecream headaches when you are close to heat stroke in perhaps 40c heat are some of the most painful things you can stupidly inflict on yourself with out very much effort at all……though if you want to make your time seem to pass less quickly they are useful.
So after those thousand years passed, brain thankfully not cracked like a steam cleaned glass thrust under the cold tap, the locals satisfied that i wasn’t in fact about to start foaming at the mouth and begin biting people, i somehow managed to get back on the bike and carried on…uphill.
Thankfully, the road went back to the surface that had untill then been hidden under large stones, and we were able to go quietly the remaining few miles to the only town out there.
The police were nice but not able to host a camper that night and, the day drawing to a close and me in the kind of state where you no longer have any reservations whatsoever about asking if you can sleep anywhere at all, i pulled over to a group of guys at a table and laid out the situation in broken Turkish.
I draw the line at sleeping in Mosques, as im just not comfortable with that, but sleeping under one in a newly tiled storage room is ok in a pinch, and that’s where the Imam put me….thankyou kind and patient Imam!
Couldn’t eat much so just drank some vitamin drink, ate half a mug of museli and went to sleep. whew.
The next days ride was going to be a pretty tough one without a road as terrible as it had been so far, and the prospect of such a road fo another 70 miles was weighing on me heavily.
Starting out early at first safe light, it turned out that the road didnt carry on as it had been…..it was worse.
Rather than coarse chippings on asphalt, it was sharp stony off road…downhill.
This didn’t encourage a good mood, which i guess was handy actually as it surely gave my anti-dog shouting voice a good deal more stopping power than usual which came in handy this dawn.
But, and thankyou Lord for having restrained the hand of men from covering this road in yet more coarse chippings, at the bottom of the un-signposted mountain pass, there began a really very passable strip of asphalt……so, with an unwillingness to dare believe that it cold possibly be like this for very long, we started the climb.
And it really is a good climb, good in the sense that, after having fought your way through to the start of it on that horrible road, not only is it invitingly remote and desolate looking with its single lane and tall surrounding cliffs, but it will ask quite a bit of you to get to the top.
Now its not a very high pass as these things go, but it does feel like you are climbing a long way indeed.
Plus, it keeps you very much in the present moment, and constant adrenalin high if you will, because there are quite a lot of fearsome mountains and dogs around. Big dogs. Sivas dogs. Sivas dogs that are basically wild beasts because they are used here to guard goats and sheep from bears and wolves. And cyclists.
One was very interested in this particular cyclist, while the owner some distance off was quite the opposite way, my cries for ‘Yardim!’ echoing all round including seemingly into one of his ears and out the other.
He did eventually call the thing off, my poor bike surely a little unnerved from its time spent being used as a shield, and on we went.
One time a great big one appeared from the steep cliff like hill on the left, ran with a purpose straight across the road maybe 25 meters ahead of me, and dove off on to the the equally cliff like hill on the right.
I moved on from there with renewed energies.
Close to a small village there were a couple more, but the owner was walking with them and he warned them off; another one rushed madly towards me from a lone house by the way but after a
Regretfully there are no photos of the many dogs met along the way, for reasons i hope are obvious 😉
Up and up it goes this road, from the greener valleys you see here to increasingly barren and clean swept upland and mountain tops proper….you can clearly see the dividing line at around 1800 to 2000 meters. Over that height they all have a similar appearance and feel, as if every mountain pass you do is somehow part of the same country.
Finally the top comes, as it must, and it does feel high. And cold. Just time for a quick meal and away we must go, though if you ever come this way there are good places to sleep up on top if you want…undercover places next to unused highway maintainance buildings, right next to the altitude sign.
Its that red building there in the second photo. Id have slept there if id not set my sights on being by the sea that day.
But to the sea i would go, down long…long descents on sometimes ok sometimes rough roads.
Dropped the tyre pressures very low that day to allow the speed to be kept up….though it was downhill, we still had far to go.
Of course, as you go down the tyre pressure keeps getting lower, so by the end of it, riding the bike was a strange bouncy affair with the chance of pinch flats and odd scrunching noises on the few slight climbs along the way, but it was all ok.
After rolling through some places that im sure were the inspiration for parts of Switzerland, and once there was more valley above us than below, the heat once again began to build, the humidity not far behind.
After the cool dryness of a week in Sivas and the days spent getting this far, to be back by the sea and all its soupy air was hard to face.
But the Lord made a way. In the next post we will travel along the north coast of Turkey on a beautiful new asphalt road; the bike will like it; so will i; and we will both sleep in a fishermans hut by the sea.
Thankyou Lord for sustaining a silly bike rider through tough days, and giving him safe and cool places to stay; thankyou for the challenge and the beauty of mountains, and kindness of those who live there.
Thankyou for your great Mercy.
Amen.
It was all in hand September 8, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in christianity, Photos, Travel.Tags: bicycle, Christianity, dogs, touring
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The day after arriving was a proper day of rest and, unusually, i wasn’t even fretting about the bike….thankyou Lord for peace of mind!
My Friend I and I bought in some good food and a beer each, and passed the evening watching a couple of movies on his projector screen….and yes, it looks great 😀
Next day began our search around the town for either and fix or replacement for the bike rack.
One bike shop had something that might have done the job for a short time, but it didn’t exactly inspire confidence for the long term.
In the workshop area of town we found a couple of welders that were willing to try and join the broken parts again, and one of them did a reasonable job of fusing my poor old rack back together again….but again, it still struck me as being the kind of fix that you would be glad of to get you to the next city, but not something to be relied on for months on less than perfect roads.
And so we turned to a shop mentioned in the post on bike shops in Istanbul.
Having discussed this kind of possibility with the owner in person, he remembered me and we got down to business.
‘So my rear rack broke…do you have anything decent in stock?’
‘I’ll just check……’
‘Ok, so all we have in is a Tubus Cargo…will that do?’
To understand the full import of this statement, you must understand that Tubus are at the very top level of bicycle touring equipment manufacturers, that the Cargo is about their best model, and to have found one in stock, ready to post out that day from a small shop in Istanbul is all just simply amazing.
I mean, this is not what you usually expect of even well stocked bike shops in Europe!
It was even in the right colour 😀
Not cheap by any measure, but bike parts are one area its good not to choose the lowest priced parts in……
So, after a bit of messing around getting my credit card to work, there was one brand new top of the line luggage rack heading my way, expected to arrive in 3 days time…..wonderful!
But then that old friend worry came round for a visit: would it fit my bike which has non standard braze ons, would my bags attach ok, would it get lost in the post, stolen perhaps, how would i be able to test if it fitted and send it back if it didnt…and what would i do instead?
This continued untill reaching its peak when the delivery man arrived, when i hurriedly tore open the box and offered it up to my bike…..it looked like it should fit, but would the racks legs foul against the bike frame?
Couldn’t tell…not enough time…delivery man waiting…what to do…….keep it, work something out..ok…ok..relax.
So, after signing the forms and paying the tiny shipping cost (about $5!) i set about what had been built up in my mind to be a fearful and hopeless task.
Only it wasnt any of those things of course, although, without the small spacers that have only this year become included in the box as standard, it would have been just those things.
As it was, the thing went on perfectly, and within half an hour there we were, all fixed up and ready to roll.
Well, almost; i had to visit the welders again to have the mud guard support arms extended a few inches, because the attachment points for them was a little lower down on the rack than on the last one, but that went without a problem, the kind welder not even charging me for his efforts!
everything back as it should be, my friend and I passed the next days eating great food, watching more movies and even flying kites for a bit….thanks I and E, it was great right? 🙂
The day of departure came too quickly as always, but departure must always come in this life…especially on a bike tour.
So off we rolled, and it was a good morning back on the road….fast smooth asphalt and not much climbing at all. There were even some clouds which kept the temps down a bit. Thankyou Lord for a good start.
Turning off the main road we headed along a road that would save a couple days extra riding to arrive at the same place.
I guess then that it’s fairly reasonable that this way should, as compensation, involved some of the worst road this side of the Caspian….
Having covered 60 miles already, and not wanting to carry on to the top of the upcoming 2000 m pass in the midday sun, i asked if it would be ok to camp near his house…..which it was.
Sitting there in the shade waiting for the sun to go away, yet more French speaking people came along…..something funny was going on here.
Invited back to their house with warning of there being snakes bears and dogs around, i gratefully engaged in speaking French for the first time in a couple months, and met the rest of the family.
Turns out that this village, and those nearby, were not Turkish at all but rather were small outposts of Kurdish families living in fair isolation on this quiet mountain road.
Which answered the question of why there were no Mosques around….
Anyway, this particular family have lived most of the last 20 years in France, visiting a few months each year during the school breaks….which also explained why two young French speaking guys should walk up to me in the middle of the Turkish mountains.
Not being Muslim, the family offered dinner and beer during the day which they also ate and drink with me….great!
After dinner thunder clouds rolled on in, and my kind hosts offered a newly completed ‘Salle polyvalent‘ for me to sleep in, and, sleeping in the cool, tiled building on a bed of tables pushed together, listening to the thunder boom and rumble all around the valley was one of the nicest places i’ve slept in ages…..thank you everyone!
The climb to the top the next morning was good….full cloud cover, cool, and dogless.
The descent however was not so good.
After a few miles of slowly making the way down rough and lumpy asphalt, albeit with nice mountains to look at, the road
gave way to the surface that usually goes under the asphalt and heavy road construction vehicles littered the road side.
It was slow. And muddy. With a kind of mud that set like cement and blocked up between the front mudguard and the tyre so that it would hardly turn. I still have some of this mud on my front tyre. 6 weeks later. It wont come off.
Eventually this ended, the way spitting us out filthy and clogged onto a nice smooth road at last, but covering 25 miles had taken all morning……thankfully the clouds were holding for now, so the sun wasnt a worry.
In the next post we’ll finish this day and cover the road over another high pass and finally the long, long road down to the Black Sea coast, and on into Georgia.
Thankyou Lord for taking care of us in the way, and for showing us that you are to be trusted above all even though we can’t see how, and our worries try to overwhelm us. Help us our unbelief and lack of trust.
Amen
The Skitch to end all Skitches August 20, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in christianity, Travel.Tags: bicycle, Christianity, doubt, faith, touring, travel
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After a whole day living in a hotel, cramming quality food in, you would think that a guy would feel his energies increased.
But sadly no, that wasn’t the way of it, and the morning was a bit of a drag.
Leaving at first safe light, bike and i ground our way along a little valley, a valley that was working well as a funnel for the wind that opposed our progress.
A lone combine harvester passed somewhere along the way, but it moved to quickly past to tuck in behind for any distance.
I must admit to pleaded with the Lord this morning….for strength to carry on, or some kind of relief from what was starting to feel like a never ending grind towards my next rest stop in Sivas.
Working up into a strong headwind, we entered a town with a long hill climb out away from it.
That’s when IT happened.
Another combine pulled up next to me at a traffic light on red, and the driver, exposed on his cabless machine, wrapped up and dressed like an extra from Mad Max, signalled that i should, urgently, get behind him and hang on for a tow.
Id never been able to get the hang of holding to to moving vehicles while riding a bike, and especially so on a loaded bike.
That left only spinning behind him in the low pressure area his movement causes.
So we moved on, and the effect was dramatic – zero headwind :-),
But then the hill came, and even in his wake there was no way to keep up by pedal power alone.
The decision was an easy one, and rather than lose this literal Godsend i stretched forth and hooked on.
At first the bike weaved around terribly but soon i figured it out……and away we went!
Unused to the strain, my grip failed at the top of the long hill outside of town, and i had to watch the combine roll slowly off into the distance. But it had be good, and helped a lot….Thank the Lord!
The dow hill after the climb was smooth and fast…..and there he was again…the combine. I caught him up!
The thought then crossed my mind, not sure why, that if this thing was going long distance i would surely stay with them as long as they kept moving. Never having come across a tractor or JCB etc that had gone more than 25 miles or so, i really didnt dare hope that this one would be going far, and resolved to enjoy the experience while it lasted, fully expected him to slow and turn off at any moment.
Only he didnt.
On and on we went, sometimes id spin in the free air behind, sometimes id hang on when i couldnt keep up that way on the slopes.
Passing drivers honked and waved smiling because they knew how cool this was too.
30 miles later he did pull over, and i discovered that he was part of a convoy of combines going cross country 500 miles, harvesting along the way.
We met, shook hands and had some tea…..and then he said that he was in fact going to be in Sivas that very night.
Unbelievable!
So on we went.
Such a blissful and joyful day i have not had for a long long time….on we rolled at a steady 14.7mph through valley and across plain, mountains and wheat as far as you could see, and it all rolled past in a perfect state of peace and stillness: and we were together we long distance travellers, we were on the road together and all would be well.
And there were clouds in the sky……
80 miles passed this way…..the best miles for a long time past; cool, beautiful… peaceful.
That’swhen the other thing happened.
Leaving for a handful of kilometers the smooth asphalt, the road became rough….
And my rear luggage rack snapped.
The driver saw me gesturing wildly that the bike was out of the game, and came to a stop. Seeing the state of things, they did immediately did the sensible thing and threw me and the bike up on the trailer i had been hanging on to a moment before, settled things in and rolled on, together again.
It was a disappointment to say the least; from what would have been a day of days, covering 130 miles and arriving on my own wheels a full two days early, here we were, beat up and in the back seat.
But it couldnt have happened under better circumstances really could it?
Another 30 miles trundled and it was lunch time. We had two of these between four of us SAC KAVURMA
Probably a good thing not to try and ride after that lot, even behind a combine!
I think the Lord gave me peace about the whole thing, because i was singing along to mps all the way to Sivas, even though i had no idea what to do about replacing a rear rack for such a long tour.
Must have looked strange to the driver in the combine behind!
So, as the day drew to it’s end we rolled up on Sivas, a city in a dry and wide barren valley between rolling hills and mountains.
My friend the driver called my friend on his mobile and described where we were.
My friend, I, came faster than i thought possible, took me and poor old bike to his apartment and then took just me to a restaurant for a great meal to finish things off.
And so began a wonderful week in Sivas, the first place ive been in for over a month where you can sleep without waking up soaked in sweat and where there seem to be no mosquitos or even flies.
Next we’ll see what happened with the injured bike, and how the Lord had all in hand from eternity past.
Just like He has you in hand from eternity past if it be that you have been known, called and justified. And out of His hand no one can snatch you…..and that includes yourself.
If you do not call Jesus Lord, call upon Him now out of your sinful and destitute state, seeking His forgiveness and begging that True repentance, and He will have mercy upon you and grant you a repentance never to be repented of.
Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
Then you will know that it is only through faith in His perfect payment for your sins, only by His taking the punishment everyone of us deserves, that you can ever stand before Him on the last day and have life and peace.
Thankyou for this wonderful salvation that we will praise you for in all eternity to come.
Amen
The Melon Sellers Umbrella August 20, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in christianity, Travel.Tags: bicycle, Christianity, touring
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So bagging up a soaked inner tent (havent used the outer fly yet) bike and i loaded up and carryed on our way.
The road that morning took us up through some really wonderful mountains covered in pine forests and small villages huddled around the bottoms of steep hills.
Would really have liked to camp in these woods, but just couldnt bring myself to stop so early on a good riding day – the wind was just right, the road was in good condition, and i was feeling pretty good overall thank the Lord.
Im sure it would have been good to have a short day, but, as many a cyclist will agree, we do sometimes struggle with taking it easy and not, instead, pushing on when perhaps we shouldn’t.
Anyway, it was a great mornings ride that was cooler and cooler the higher up we went.
The road down was good too, though there are some road works along the way. Nothing too disruptive.
Playing cat and mouse with a loaded and slow moving Uzun Arac made things interesting on the fast descent, and eventually we rolled up at a town called Kizilchahamam……geshudheit.
Was advised to camp in the milli park, but a few miles of hill and the guard disagreed.
Rolled back to the road and ended up asking to camp around a petrol station. The young owner was a really cool guy and offered a spare bunk in the staffs quarters.
An english speaking tour guide helped to settle everything out nicely, and the day was spent resting, talking with the great staff members and eating (Free) in the adjoining restaurant……what an awesome bunch of guys!
A surprise steep climb first thing, plus an extra special surprise dog attack which left me hoarse as a Dragoon, took us onto the fast fast did i mention fast road south to Ankara.
When the wind and road feel like it they can really give you the chance to move quickly, and that happened this morning. Nice.
Hoping onto the big highway that goes around Ankara, it seemed to take a long long time to reach the road that leads off east towards Sivas, but eventually it appeared. A can of coke later and we we headed east again on quieter paths.
An hour or so later and the sun meant it was time to stop. Camping at a restaurant was out of the question apparently, but another kind petrol station owner had other ideas, again offering me a bed in the staff quarters.
He was strangely aloof and yet very very kind, handing me fresh and delicious doners twice in the day at just the right times, showing me the HOT shower, and basically leaving me to rest the day through watching english tv on the E2 channel.
Couldnt have been better in any way really….Lord thankyou for their kindness and for providing such good places to stay under hot and difficult conditions.
The next day was a long one, and not because i wanted it to be; at a certain point all civilisation disappeared leaving only a hot and empty deserty kind of place.
Brain baking past the point of comfort, the Lord again showed me to a refuge in a hard place – the melon seller.
The only speck of shade in 20 miles, i pulled over to his collection of tents and umbrellas and was greeted with cries of “stop stop, you will get ill in this sun!”
“Yes yes, i know, its a big problem!” was the only thing i think to say back……who was i to argue with a man who lives by the road in a desert anyway?
We soon became roadside buddies, him wanting to learn the english word for everything, me learning the turkish while constantly soaking myself from the natural spring next to his camp.
I prayed for the Lords special help this day, because i knew from experience that having ridden so late in the day, under such a hot sun, it was certain that some degree of heat stroke must surely follow later on, as the heat welled back up from within.
The hours crept on, and i awaited to rising tide………but it never came.
I can only conclude that the Lord did indeed protect me that day from the effects of the heat, and had he not i think it could have gone very badly that day and night; middle of nowhere, no cool place to be and no fridge to make frozen towels, all could have meant a bit of a mess.
Thank you Lord Jesus our great Physician!
Met with a Belgian couple travelling home by car that day, and ended up speaking French with them…always a surprise to suddenly be able to talk to someone again!
Turned out that, even though its a desert place, it is also infested with angry mosquitos…..so i pitched my tent inside one of his tents and waited for the temperature to drop a bit.
One tip; dont upset guys who live at the roadside selling melons….lets just say that they can shoot back if they want to.
Really didnt sleep well that night because of the heat, and the next morning it seemed that the strange illness of a few days back could be making a comeback.
This lead me to a very bizarre action…….35 miles on i actually checked into a hotel. At 8:30 in the morning.
The staff however were just the best, and not only welcomed me and the bike warmly but also said i could go up to the breakfast buffet and help myself.
Which i freely, perhaps to freely did. After being on the road and everything, such a spread of fresh food was just too much.
If there hadn’t been a plastic bag in my pocket im fairly sure i would have just filled the pockets instead, but thankfully that wasnt the case.
What was the case was that i now had enough food to last the day. Add to that a wifi connection in the room and an extension cord that reached to the bed, and the day was set.
Very much enjoyed that day, and it was well worth the 40TL paid….a great price as it turned out for such a high quality Hotel. Strange that its basically out on its own in dry and barren hills.
Glad it is though.
The next day deserves a post of is own, to follow shortly.
Thanks for reading.
And as always, Thanks be to the One True and Living God and Saviour and Our Lord Jesus Christ for His Mercies renewed each day.
Amen
The old switcheroo ploy August 19, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in christianity, Travel.Tags: bicycle, Christianity, travel
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Continuing to rest that afternoon, a strange thing happened.
After being so kind and welcoming, the man of the house decided that it was time for me to leave at about 4pm…..not really sure why, but maybe having an ill stranger about the place had just become too much of a worry.
Whatever it was, i apologised if it was anything i had done, groggily loaded the bike, and went slowly off to my earlier protectors the Police.
Thank the Lord they were as concerned for my wellbeing as before, and surprised at my being moved along.
Within 10 minutes they had arranged for me to pass the rest of the day in an unused tea house a few minutes roll away, and honestly i think this unscheduled move was for the best, as the new place was cooler and enclosed from the outdoors. It also had refrigerators and a fan 🙂
The owner of the place was also a genuinely caring and gentle man, as were his sons. He also looked like Sylvester Stallone.They fed and watered me, and were understanding enough to leave me to sleep at just the right moment.
Funny how what seems to be a complete disaster can turn into a better situation than before….Thankyou Lord for holding me close through all this, and for not leaving me, you so often have turned my mourning into dancing.
Slept very well that night, and in the morning the fever had departed leaving me feeling really quite well again….an amazing answer to fervent pray really, going on how i felt in the evening.
Resolved to ride on quietly and gently, and the cloud cover during the morning only made that the more attainable – thankyou again Lord for protecting us from the great heat, for covering us.
Bit of a climb in the morning, but it was cool and enjoyable after the heat down at sea level.
Had to go a little further than planned because the road became barriered on either side for a while, but the awesome staff at a motorway service station welcomed me for the afternoon, and we had good times.
It never stop surprising me just how nice people can be to a traveller in need, and it is maybe their friendliness more than anything else which keeps you going when feeling a bit lonely and scared when ill……like the Lords kindness by proxy.
Was so cool that night that the tent was soaked in dew through the night, something that hasnt happened in ages.
The next days road sees us turning south towards Ankara, and on into the heart of Turkey……coming soon 😀
A Turkish Policeman made me cry August 19, 2011
Posted by ridingacross in Travel.Tags: bicycle, doubt, faith, touring, travel
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This is dating back a few weeks now, but lets pick up the trail from where we left off in Istanbul….
After a great stay with friends in Kadikoy, the time came to up and head out on the road again…always a bit of a jarring experience after the settled and peaceful time spent in a friends home.
Thankyou so much T and S, what a great time in Istanbul it was!
So, out the door before break of day, bike and i took the road east out of the city, a road as busy and continually within built up places as the road in from the west.
Hot and humid too, but a good surface and a fair wind helped the keep things moving along.
After maybe 40 miles the buildings start to thin out a bit, and it starts to feel more normal.
Was allowed to camp out near a nearly completed airport this day, and had the chance to rest in a cool corner of a storage hanger…which was very fortunate because that afternoon i started to feel really quite ill.
Passed the day layed out in the cool, batting flies away as they persistently settled.
Had a nice meal with the workmen who were finishing off the construction of the airport.
the night was better; cool and bugless, i slept outside under clear skies.
Felt better in the morning and carried on along the road east. After about 30 miles we rolled up on a guy walking by the roadside carrying a decent sized backpack…..you can always tell the long distance walkers!
Here was from France, 6 months out on a possible 18 month walk around the Mediterranean coast, still going strong!
We walked a few miles together before the pressure of the sun spurred me to ride onwards, with the agreement that i would not go more than 15KMs before finding us both a place to camp for the night.
And a good place the Lord provided – a friendly family were happy to let us use their shady garden for the afternoon and night.
Felt ill again that afternoon and evening, and it was worse in the morning – definitely had a fever.
Was allowed to remain at the house while the walker moved on….happy trails man!
The man of the house called the police round seeing that i was sick….obviously worried about the situation.
And they were the nicest guys you could hope for: took me to the nearby hospital for a quick check up and surprise blood test (surprise!), bought me vitamins, bottles of water and fed me a fine breakfast back at the station!
What a credit to them and their town, their unrestrained kindness broke my heart….
And that’s how a Turkish Policeman made me cry…..not what you were expecting right? 🙂
Thankyou Lord for providing in such tricky circumstances, may we doubt you less and less
Amen
ridingacross 