Day 1,449

Wildflower wildcamp

Since leaving Izmir we had ridden 200 miles over 5 days. The riding itself wasn't too hard, but the heat, often high 30s to mid 40s was brutal. Every day the headwind would increase in strength and, combined with then exploring various ruined cities mid ride, we were feeling rather tired and run down. We rode 50 plus miles to Pamukkale then headed straight out to explore. A day off was tempting. We could stay put at the campsite, admire the view, laze by the pool and just chill. We decided to let our bodies decide, if we slept in we'd stay put. 

I woke at what we will now refer to as ‘Strawberry O’clock’, aka 5.30am. Tom slept on, so I turned over hoping to sleep some more. By 6am the noise of the wind was making sleep impossible, I moaned to Tom and he immediately jumped up, ‘that's not wind, that's hot air balloons, they are flying!’. We gazed in awe, spotted one, two, three, glanced to our left and saw another dozen or so. The weather here is so reliable that the balloons launch daily to see the sun rise above the Cotton Castles. So by 6.15am, balloon watching was done and we decided we might as well hit the road. 

A magical wake up call

Today was June 4th, in just 4 days it would be my 63rd birthday. Last year we'd celebrated in a pretty grim town and this year I hoped to be somewhere a little bit nicer. Well, a girl can dream. Yeah, I know we're on a permanent ‘holiday’, I should just suck it up, what will be will be. Tom studied our route over the next few days. About 240 miles away was the city of Konya. Home of the whirling dervishes and over 2 million other folk. It had several very nice hotels to choose from. We had a destination, the only question was, could we make it? We were heading into the hills too, so lots of climbing, stronger headwinds and virtually as hot. It wasn't going to be easy. 

Tom tweaked the route to make it as easy as possible and off we went. We had lovely quiet back roads to start with, beautiful wildflowers lining the roadside and into the fields. Beyond them we were surrounded by mountains. It was beautiful, it was also hot with the ever present headwind. Nearing the 50 mile point we started to look for a wild camp spot. By now we were on a main road, with farmed fields all around. Tom spotted a small track leading off, so up we went into a deserted beautiful valley. We think it led to a quarry from when the road was built. We spotted a flat-ish spot on the hillside and pitched our tent. We sat below on the track as the hillside provided some shade. The flowers were everywhere, it was almost a top 10! 

The wildflower wildcamp

The following day I was struggling, we decided Konya was just too far to reach by the 7th. So today we'd ride to a small town 30 miles away, stay in a hotel, rest during the heat of the day and get an early start in the morning. Everything seemed against us. The road surface was rough and our tyres stuck to it like glue. The heat, headwind and hills were brutal. This wasn't fun. 30 miles later we still had another 3 to go to the town, but finally we were there. The hotel was closed! We ate, and headed off to the next hotel, just 8 more miles, the grass growing out of the broken windows gave the game away, closed. Another couple of miles, another closed hotel. By now our short day was over 43 miles and we were now riding under the midday sun. Just 8 miles more was a big town with two hotels. One we could even book online with hotels.com. Phew, sanctuary was near. Well it sort of looked open. The restaurant was an empty shell but we just needed a bed. Tom was beaming with relief but I wasn't convinced. One look at the reception confirmed my fears, this just didn't look right.  Though maybe we could just camp in the vast empty ex-restaurant space, out of the sun. Eventually a man wandered over from a nearby shop and shook his head, it was closed. So, by now it was nearly 5pm, 51 miles ridden and still boiling hot. We had one more chance, a small hotel, in a narrow terrace which we had dismissed as we didn't think they would have room for the bikes. The two women chatting away by the reception took one look at me and gestured that we had reached sanctuary. Our bikes were squeezed in, blocking a door and a set of stairs. We had a room. It was a wee bit grim but it was ours. The lovely receptionist went out and bought us a takeaway, gee, we must have looked bad. She found us a kettle. OK, so the sheets were full of cigarette burns but they were clean(ish), the decorating and plumbing had been done by a blind man and we won't even mention the electric sockets, but the kettle worked, we ate our food and slept, heaven. 

In the morning, refreshed, we were away by 7am. I had a mini meltdown late morning, both of us were struggling with the heat, and everywhere appeared closed. Turkey was shutting down to celebrate Eid al-Adha, the 2nd of the two main festivals in Islam. The festival would last from 6th to the 9th, a wonderful time for families to come together, but it made our ride that much harder. By now we realised that this area we were cycling through was very remote and many restaurants, shops, petrol stations we were hoping to get food from and shelter in were actually permanently closed. At one point a family beckoned us over to their restaurant  but it was closed, though we were able to shelter, rest and drink tea with them for a while. Just as we were giving up hope we came across an open restaurant and ate our now favourite Turkish dish, pide. We'd given up on looking for a hotel, and decided to ride late into the evening. The air was cooler, the wind easier and somehow the energy returned. By 7pm we had ridden over 70 miles, tomorrow was the 7th, with only another 70 to Konya.  We could hopefully make it. Tom, the wonder that he is, spotted somewhere to camp and we soon collapsed into bed. 

At 5am I woke, ready for off. It turned out to be a day of contrasts. Beautiful scenery, wild flowers all around, but tough riding and no food. We managed to find an open service station and bought some biscuits and a coffee, but take it from me, that's not going to fuel us for a 70 mile ride. Restaurant after restaurant was shut. We forced down a second packet of biscuits and an ice cream, we could do this. Then just as we'd given up hope we spotted an open restaurant. More pide, not the best but we didn't care, we were going to make it! Over 200 miles on fully loaded touring bikes, in brutal heat with horrid headwinds and a fair few hills, but we had it done. Our hotel is awesome, despite the marble floors they were happy to put our bikes in the room. Tom, keeper that he is, went out in 40 degree heat, found a bakery under siege from dozens of people buying bread and bought me a birthday cake. Everywhere else appears shut but as poor old Marie Antoinette said, ‘let them eat cake’!

The prize!