Friday 14th November 2014 - Another poor nights sleep.
Breakfast of bread and jam. In a dining room of only men, with Turkish breakfast news on the TV, at full volume!
Today it's windy and raining.
Pedal away from hotel with energy levels about 10%. Feel sick.
Stop at first petrol station for some water. Even though I've not been feeling well for the past week or so and it's a struggle to keep cycling all day, I actually really enjoy the challenge of it, weirdly enough!! I'm a bit odd like that.
Pass another touring cyclist who has stopped at a vegetable stall at the side of the road. He is having a cup of tea with the owner.
Think about how different he is being treated by the locals, making his journey and view of a place completely different from mine. We are both obviously visitors from a different country, he gets offered tea and friendliness, I get harassed for sex by a man who clearly hadn't washed in several weeks. Nice!
I continue on. He then catches up with me and we cycle on for a while together. Turns out he has been ill too the last few days.
We stop a few times a petrol stations. At one town he goes to a pharmacy and gets some medicine while I mind the bikes.
Stop at a Burger King. Starting to get dark and its raining. The road has become busier, the hard shoulder gets narrower, turns into a crumbled mess, then to non existent.
Dirt and water spray from the passing cars.
Steadily gets busy as it gets darker.
Road gets more traffic less edge space & lots of on off slips coming in from the right.
Dark now, steep climb up between the two lakes at Büyükçekmece.
Coming down the other side it's an amazing view seeing all the lights of city and roads spread out on all directions below. Nearly like the view when coming in to land on an aeroplane at night.
Up to 40kmph... cars, buses and lorries whizz by us. Being careful to cut across the onslip roads. Such a rush, love it!!
I don't think François was really enjoying it too much though. I had really wanted to make it to Sultanahmet tonight.
Eventually though we pull over at a hotel at Avcilar. I guess it's best not to chance luck too much. He goes in and negotiates a good deal of 80lira for a room which we split.
Put our bikes in the back of a van as there is no room inside. Hmm, wonder if it is the last time we'll see them! That would be funny after cycling all this way. I think I'd just walk the last bit if it happened though!
Such a nice, fancy, modern and new hotel with lovely rooms. We then promptly deposit our dirty, smelly bags and wet clothes everywhere!!
Traffic outside never dies down through the whole night, that surely is one busy road.
Before reaching Turkey I had read a few reports of the infamous D100 into Istanbul. I stopped reading them after about the third or fourth one I found, as it was all generally so negative and suggesting future cyclists take a different route or get a bus in. I prefer to always find out things for myself and to form my own opinions based on experience.
Having just cycled it, on a rainy, cold Friday evening, at rush hour, at night in the dark, I can confirm that yes it was a busy road. There isn't much room at the side, but the lanes are wide and compared to some of the single lane roads through Hungary and Bulgaria, I didn't feel like the cars and lorries were just skimming past me like before.
There is also another road that runs parallel but is separated from the three lane main part by a kurb. It runs along the front of the shops and allows access to the other streets. This could be an option if people weren't confident on the main part.
If you're used to cycling in cities, it's not really an issue though, as long as you keep your wits about you and your eyes and ears open and watch for the merging traffic from the right.
Be confident, be visible and show your intentions by signalling.
Having never cycled in a big city before this trip, I think cycling through Brussels, Strasbourg, Basel, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia was also good training for the D100 into Istanbul!
Day 77 - 14.11.14
Çorlu to Avcilar, Turkey
5h 18min cycling
80.5km
2298 calories
945 metres asc
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