Mar 2008

Today was an interesting one because of height profile. So perhaps you would like to watch the track of the last four days here (three days travelling, Safranbolu was rest day) first and look at the height profile over the last almost 300 kilometres:

- The peak towards the end is the Ahmetusta Pass taking us up to 1030 m asl with snow patches and a rather alpine environment: steep, though non-glaciated valleys with subalpine coniferous vegetation and villages like 'birds' nests' glued to the steep slopes of the wide valleys reminding me of what I have seen in the Trentino in Northern Italy. In two of our printed maps the altitude is stated erroneously as 1580m, so we were actually prepared for a much longer and higher climb. Also notice the short but steep ascent before reaching the coastal beach resort (and of course historical town with a Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Genoese and Seldjuk past) of Amasra. So it seems once more that we are crossing geological structures perpendicularly rather than parallel.

Somewhat unexpected ascent before reaching the coast at Amasra

- A few more words about track and profile: every now and then I forget to switch on my device, especially after I switched off for a good Pide or Köfte lunch and then I try to fix the track manually afterwards which adds of course to the imprecisions.
- Duration: This is an approximation of the time that the device has been receiving signals whether moving or not, so consequently the
- Average speed is not the same as speedometer would count (counting only when wheel is moving)
- The length measurement is based on straight lines connecting position points plotted in 15 second intervals. So the GPS distance is more realistic and precise the slower the movement is, i.e. during slow climbs. During fast rides the GPS recorded distance is less than speedometer distance.
- The most reliable data recorded by the GPS is the height profile (vertical up and down), because it effectively processes the elevation data from digital globes like Google Earth rather than the weather dependent barometric altimeter of my MC 1.0.

So 6623 height metres over three cycling days makes an average of more than 2000 metres of climb during one day (which gives you an idea what we're going through - or rather over...

Continuing eastwards: Akçakoca to Ereğli along the coast. Ereğli is a major centre of shipbuilding and has many other industries that make the Black Sea Coast the economically more developed part of Turkey. From there we ascended back into the mountains and because of poor maps and information on road conditions stayed for wild camping on the Babadağ Geçedi Pass (Geçedi = Pass) at 720m asl. A fairly chilly night at around freezing point in our tents! Map reading skills are the more important the poorer the map is. Climbing and downhill rides can be estimated from the water network if no other information is available. Yesterday (March 11) it was cycling through the magnificent and steep gorge of the Yenica Irmağı river that contains also the main railway line between İstanbul and Ankara.
Safranbolu is for Turkey something like the Rothenburg ob der Tauber for Germany or Rauma for Finland, a world heritage site anyway and experiencing all the benefits and drawbacks of mass tourism. The Japanese are particularly prominent here (I haven't found out the reason why).
Moving eastwards against the Earth's rotation even causes a kind of 'bike lag' because we sun set time just keeps staying the same even though spring equinox is approaching and day length expands now more rapidly than at any other time of the year. So we should be getting out of our sleeping bags a little bit earlier every day, but that is pretty contrary to a cyclists nature (the more mileage, the more contrary...)

I'm currently having problems with uploading photos and GPS tracks; so please refer to the travel map on this site for up-to-date location.

As pointed out yesterday, you might get the impression from a small scale Atlas map of Turkey that the Black Sea coast is flat. It isn't and you can check height metres between Istanbul and Akçakoca from my track on http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=14645. Today though cycling was a little less hard through the Sakarya river delta in the Karasu/Kocaali area with a flat road for about 30 km. We truly haven't had many of those yet! Road conditions are overall quite satisfactory with only patches in disrepair. Tourist infrastructure along this part of the coast is also patchy but obviously developing with colonies of new holiday homes here and there hiding the view onto the sea.
In the more hilly areas large hazelnuts

Traditional rural architecture: Two-storey square shaped houses with barn and stable on the ground floor and hip roof. The timber framework construction filled with tiles reminds of certain areas in Northern Germany.

This is surely not the last image of a sedimentary rock outcrop on this blog.... Viewed from the old Genovese fortress in Akçakoca, called Diospolis by the ancient Greeks.

To avoid cycling through busy urban and suburban areas of Istanbul, we took the ferry to the northernmost port on the Asian side of the Bosporus - and were welcomed by damp and foggy forests that reminded us of two things: That we had left the mediterranean climate and vegetation zone and that it is - astronomically - still winter! After a very long day with riding for several hours even in dark we finally got to the town of Şile where - on the following morning - we could enjoy sunny first view of the Black Sea.

Today - Saturday and International Women's Day - we continued eastwards on a very hilly road with numerous ups and downs across (less often along) the many river valleys that drain into the Black Sea. Final destination after ca. 95 km of mileage the town of Kaynarç.

A moist re-entry into Asia. Summergreen deciduous trees still bare.

A rather typical encounter in Turkey: Habe 33 Jahre in Deutschland gearbeitet. Jetzt Rentner. (Notice that the guy with the helmet has scored only 25 years in Germany and not even a single one working.)

Sunset before 1800 hrs. The picture proves that we are moving eastwards.

On the way along the Sea of Marmara, behind the town of Şarköy I noticed a severe failure in the rim of my front wheel and it wasn't possible to fix it on the spot. So I had to be in contact with the manufacturer and then try to get a new rim. With Istanbul being so close already, I decided to get there on a bus and arrange repair services. For that reason I missed out two days of cycling through the sprawling suburban belt of Istanbul. By now, Thursday, everything is fixed (wide tyres on narrow rims apparently are not a good combination, even though manufacturers insist that there shouldn't be a problem) and I had plenty of time to do sightseeing in the city. Finding bicycle repair services here wasn't even all that difficult as bike shops tend to follow the oriental bazaar principle of all the other merchandise on offer, i.e. similar products are concentrated in one or two streets.
After other final arrangements (a.o. emptying and cleaning the car, stockpiling gas cartridges for our cookers) we're ready to go east!

In this street we found probably 90% of all bicycle services of Istanbul

Tourist buzzle in the Hagia Sophia