One city after another

Before starting today’s stage, I asked the friendly staff member at the teachers’ house if she could reserve the next teachers’ house for us for the evening. She said they would only be reachable after 10 a.m., so I went to pack my things first. We weren’t going to leave before 10 anyway, but even after 10, no one answered the number. She then asked if another teachers’ house would be an option, so I gave her one about 20 km further away. She was actually able to make a reservation there—great.

This also settled the question of whether to take the most direct route or go the longer way along the coast. The direct route had a 3,820-meter tunnel and several shorter ones, while the coastal route would have been 15–20 km longer. Since we only set off around 10:45, we chose the shorter option.

After just 2 km, Shaun noticed that his rear tire pressure was far too low. He pumped it up, but a few kilometers later he still had to change the tube—which made sense, as he didn’t want to risk entering the long tunnel with an issue.

After that, he suddenly felt great again—over the past two days it hadn’t been like that. Even though we didn’t talk about it, we both wondered what was wrong. Now the answer seemed clear, and the lesson learned: if things suddenly feel much worse than usual, something is probably off.

The tunnel did feel quite long, but the drivers were very careful and overtook us with plenty of space. For safety, we had our rear lights on. Still, we were relieved when we got out. And there was something else we were happy about: we had tailwind all day.

So we rolled smoothly eastward and quickly reached Altınordu, where we had lunch along the beautiful seaside promenade. After that, we continued at an easy but fast pace, passing one city after another. On the map, it looks like only Samsun and Trabzon are major cities, as they stand out visually, but in reality, one large city follows another here. And there are hotels everywhere, often resorts with well-known Western brands.

About 20 km before our destination, we took another break by the sea and even found a bike path. However, it was disappointing—it ended after about one kilometer. Since we were on the wrong side of the main road, we had to lift our bikes over the barrier to avoid riding against traffic.

There were occasional drops of rain again today, but it didn’t really start raining until the evening. Before reaching our destination, we passed through a few more tunnels, one of which was nearly a kilometer long and somewhat unpleasant. However, a kind driver stayed behind us with hazard lights on and only overtook once we were out of the tunnel and back on the shoulder. I may be repeating myself, but people here are truly kind. In Switzerland, you might get honked at as if to say, “What kind of idiot rides a bike through a tunnel?”—here, people help you without being asked and don’t question your intentions.

After first going to the wrong address—there are two teachers’ houses in Espiye on Google Maps—we found some locals at what seemed to be the newer location. One of the men was especially talkative and offered us tea. He said it was important to him that tourists have a good impression of Turkey, as he knows the country is not always portrayed positively abroad. His sister lives in Germany. I assured him that we had met incredibly kind people here and that Turkey is a fantastic country for cyclists. And that’s no exaggeration—we will miss Turkey! But we can still enjoy it for a few more days; about 300 km remain until the Georgian border.