(written by Dave)

We had a short but amazing ride from Anamur to Aydincik.  I know that we are starting to sound like we work for the Turkey tourism bureau but today was another beautiful day riding along the Mediterranean coast.  Oh yeah, we survived the climbs as well.  We managed a 16% grade reading on my bike computer and I’m proud to report that Nancy rode every inch.  It might have helped that when the road got crazy steep, there was large truck gaining on us and fear gave her an extra push.

We started with a nice brekkie in the hotel. ES and YA were up, no sign of their kids – late sleepers I guess.  The kittens were there as well, but they too were late sleepers, in one big ball of fur, them and their auntie sleeping on couch.  Goodbyes were slow, in English, French and Turkish – it felt like we were leaving home, not just a hotel.

We had rolling roads for the first part of the day with only one climb of note before our fist stop at almost 30k.  The fun started just outside Tekeli right after we passed the Hotel Sydney.  I stopped to snap a photo of the hotel while Nancy forged ahead.  This climb was not too long but it was very steep and twisty, my computer registered 14% here.  We only went up to about 300 meters but it was there we stayed for the next 15k or so.  I use the word “stayed” pretty loosely as any road hugging a cliff side is bound to go up and down a lot.  And this one did. There were few trees so you could see twisting road up ahead every time you rounded a corner, sometimes going up, sometimes going down.

The road seemed to narrow and there was some traffic but the couple of random big trucks could only go slightly faster than us and they kept the cars and other traffic at bay.  It was on one of the really twisty sections where we saw a big truck coming from behind (a long ways back) and we knew we would have to pull over.  It became a bit of a race to the top of the next mini summit, who could get there first?  I’m happy to report that we won, and this was where Nancy claimed her 16% grade.  I think it was more fear than strength that got her over the top – we actually beat the truck by several minutes – it is amazing what a little adrenalin can do.

In total, we had about 20k of cliff side road.  Up, down, twisty turns, repeat.  The turquoise blue sea on one side, the mountains cliffs on the left.  We’ve had similar beautiful roads in Turkey but this one felt more remote.  We were basically riding between two small villages, there is little to no tourism here (maybe some Turkish tourism, but not much European).  It would be have to have been one of our most beautiful rides – ever.

Eventually we rolled into Aynidcik and stopped at a restaurant across from a small fruit processing plant.  Nancy enjoyed being the only woman eating there, not sure where all the women were.  The staff spoke no English so it was a bit of pointing before we ended up with a Turkish version of the Sunday blue plate special.  Very good, and pretty healthy.  I don’t think we’ve ever eaten as many veggies as we have here in Turkey.  We start every day with tomatoes and cucumbers; get a big plate of salad with every Turkish pizza and meals like the blue plate special always come with garbanzo beans or something similar.  Three meals a day with veggies – good and good for you.

After lunch we had 1k to go to reach the hotel.  We are staying at the “Teachers House”.  It is a house that is owned by the Teachers Association.  Teachers can stay here at a low rate when teaching at the nearby school.  Government employees can also stay for a little bit more.  And finally, they take in other travelers for a small additional amount.  We’ve read about other folks staying here and there is not much choice in these small towns.  I’m not sure where all the teachers and other government employees are as the whole place seems a bit empty.

After getting cleaned up we walked back to town for groceries.  We are having fruit and yogurt for dinner as we had such a big lunch.  Plus when we were walking to the store we passed a group of older Turkish women sitting on the side of a building making gozleme.  We couldn’t help but stop.  They were putting some kind of potato filling that we’d not seen before.  In fact, they called it something different as well but the language barrier limited us to ordering and eating.  We sat there long enough that they sort of forgot we were there and went on about their business.  All six of them had a specific role and they knew what to do next, all quite entertaining.  We never did figure out who they were making the gozleme for.  They sold two to us but not many other folks stopped.  We were there right at the start of call to prayers so perhaps the rush comes later.

Tomorrow we head for Tasacu, or thereabouts.  It is about 75k and we know there are some hills.  Though at least there are no markings on our maps so maybe climbs will stay below 10% grade.  We are not sure if we get brekkie from the “Teachers” or not.  We tried asking but we were not clear on the answer.  We are pretty sure that they serve brekkie, but we may have to pay – time will tell.

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