From Urban Turkey into the Middle of Nowhere…

After adjusting my bike setup the night before—installing a new frame bag and new tires—I only went to bed very late, around 2:30 a.m. I needed a new frame bag because the old one kept coming loose (the Quick-Lock system didn’t work well for me), and the zipper had been broken since Serbia—it didn’t even last three weeks. I wanted new tires because of the frequent punctures. I upgraded to “Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour 50 mm.” Previously, I had 45 mm tires, but I couldn’t find that size. Since my frame can take up to 54 mm, I chose 50 mm—I had read that the wider the tire, the more comfort. And that’s something you really need when you’re on the bike every day and the roads are uneven.

At 4:30 a.m., I got up again to accompany Jiabin to the bus station. She had an early flight back to Switzerland and also took along some items I no longer needed.

After that, I got a bit more sleep until my alarm went off at 9 a.m. We had planned to leave around 10, and with the new setup, I had to reorganize everything again.

In the end, we didn’t set off until 11. The new tires felt great—much more comfortable, and they seemed to roll at least as well as before, if not even better! After a few kilometers, we took a ferry across the Bosporus. Now we were in Asia! We followed the route I had prepared, which largely avoided major roads. At first, we rode along the sea, then back into the big city, and later again along the seaside promenade. By the time we got past the busiest areas, we had already covered more than 20 km. It was similar to riding into Istanbul, though with fewer pedestrians since it wasn’t Sunday. The city just wouldn’t end…

Nach etwas mehr als 20 km machten wir an der Meerpromenade eine Mittagspause und jetzt kam bei mir auch noch Osterstimmung auf dank des von Jiabin mitgebrachten Schoggihasens – ein Geschenk meiner Mutter.

As soon as we left the sea, it was constantly up and down again, something I had already become used to in Turkey.

Everything was going well—the weather was nice, children by the roadside were happy to see us, and we were making good progress. Until suddenly, right after one of the steepest climbs, we found ourselves in front of a closed school gate. There was no way through, so we had to turn back. Fortunately, the detour wasn’t too long.

Shortly afterward, still on the same climb, we found ourselves in the middle of a huge construction site. The workers couldn’t agree on whether we were allowed to pass. They said there used to be a road there, as shown on the map, but it had been removed for a large housing development. A detour would have been very long, and nothing was signposted. After some back and forth, we decided to continue on foot, letting all trucks pass to avoid drawing attention. At the top—the last part was no longer construction but a dirt path past a house—we decided to stop following my GPS track and instead head down to the main road. We feared more elevation and unexpected obstacles further inland.

However, when we were almost at the bottom, we realized that there was still a highway between us and the main road we could ride on. We had to find a way across. At first, we tried following the highway eastward, but the road suddenly ended—contrary to what some locals had told us earlier.

So we turned back and followed the highway in the opposite direction. On my map, I saw there should be an underpass. We eventually found it, but there was a fenced-off area like a bus terminal in between. We managed to get around the barrier, and at the other end, a man noticed me. When he saw that two more cyclists were coming, he even opened the gate for them. What a relief that we didn’t get into trouble for trespassing.

We then continued on the main road with heavy traffic. We thought we would surely find accommodation in the next small town just a few kilometers away. By then, it was getting dark, and it had started to rain lightly. But when we arrived, it became clear that there was no accommodation. We asked several people, and they all gave the same answer.

The nearest hotel we could find was about 16 km away. By now, it was completely dark, but there seemed to be no other option. So we continued along the main road—fortunately, we all had rear lights and were clearly visible. Those 16 km took quite a long time. We were all tired—it turned out the other two had also slept very little—and with limited visibility and traffic, we had to be cautious. So we rolled slowly toward our destination. I think we were all glad not to be alone in that situation. Physically, the day wasn’t too demanding for me—it was just very long.

About 3 km before the hotel, we saw a supermarket, but it was closed. A woman told us that a nearby Migros was still open, so I entered a Turkish Migros for the first time. I’m not sure how much it still has in common with the Swiss Migros, but somehow it felt familiar.

In the end, we arrived at the hotel exactly at 22:22. That meant we had been on the road for more than 11 hours, but everything was fine. We were all very tired, so after a quick, late dinner from Migros, we went to bed quite soon.