sunset over camp in turkey
“Beep! Beep!” “B-b-b-b-b-eep!” “BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPP!!!” The variety of the Turkish car horns was impressive, the musical warnings not quite fitting in with the rusting cars they were attached to. “42 to 3″ I shouted over my shoulder to Brad. We’d been keeping track of the day’s ratio of friendly beeps and toots to the more angry horn blasts from the passing cars.
Having taken a ferry out of Istanbul to avoid the traffic we were heading on the main highway from Bursa towards Ankara. It was a move that proved pretty pointless as it was hard to imagine cycling conditions much worse than the heavy traffic on the dusty, partially constructed highway leading out of Bursa.
“Not sure about that one” I yelled as I swerved to avoid a pothole into the path of a minibus, who responded with a long blast of the horn accompanied by a friendly wave. “Call it half, 42.5 to 3.5!”.
Although the driving in Turkey is unquestionably crazy and erratic, I never felt too endangered, as most drivers would dangerously swerve into other lanes to give us enough space to cycle. Loudly beeping their horns and causing chaos as they did.
After a long and hilly day in the saddle we stopped at a service station market to stock up on camping food before pushing our bikes into a field and up a hill to find a spot to wild camp. Keen to get further out of sight from the highway we continued down a track and then across a field until we found a suitably hidden spot. Little did we know our attempts to escape the highway had led us very close to a small town and we were found before even erecting our tents. The man was more curious than anything and soon let us be to cook food and set up camp.
wild camping in turkey
The next morning we woke early and pushed the bikes back to the highway, after a buffet breakfast and wash at another service station restaurant we continued on our way. Just a few kilometres down the hill brad got a puncture and under close inspection it looked like thorns from the field where we camped had caused the problem.
Brad Puncture repair
I checked my tyres to before getting back on the road, keen to make up for lost time.
The landscape was arid and the riding boring following the highway cross country, we were therefore keen to move as fast as possible and put in another long 150km day before reaching the summit of a hill climb as the sun was going down. We again pushed our bikes off the highway and sheltered behind a small hill. obscuring us from view. Looking out from the road we had an uninterrupted view and a clear night sky was lit up with as many stars as i’d ever seen!
Camping under the Stars
Another 140km stood before us to reach Ankara, so another early start from camp was in order. In 3 intensely hot days, temperatures hitting 40 degrees +, we’d become pretty familiar with the range of Turkish service stations on offer – our favourite being P-dog (Petrol Office), who often had the best markets and restaurants, cleanest toilets and even free wi-fi!
P Dog
As any water bought would be undrinkably hot after 30 minutes, we would stop often for more and more drinks, experimenting with the local pop, juice and topping it off with gallons of coke and ice creams!
Ufuk, our couchsurfing host in Ankara, lived in a suburb Etimesgut. Having successfully navigated to his street according to google maps, we were then led on a 1 hour wild goose chase having asked a security guard to point us to the street it turned out we had started on!
It was great to get washed up after 3 days cycling and wild camping. Ufuk took us out for dinner, and refused to let us pay! before we went back to his place and chatted into the evening, whilst watching “Turkey’s got Talent”.I eventually retired to bed, exhausted.
We needed a few bits and pieces for the bikes so headed into Ankara the next day. 4 punctures plagued me in 3 days, all attributed to the “swine thistles” from the field a few nights back, which made for slow progress and we eventually decided to cut our losses and take a hotel in Ankara, after only 30km cycled. It turned out to be a good decision, as we were able to take our bikes into the massive hotel room, strip them down and give them a good clean – only slightly abusing the shower facilities provided!
Hotel Anakara
After what was more-or-less a rest day (despite not much rest being had!) we were keen to get back on the road and targeted getting to the Black Sea coast at Samsun in just two days.
