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On the way home

2010
08.20

Around Göreme (Kappadokia, Turkey)

After Kayseri we spent a few days in Göreme in Kappadokia. It is really a lovely place with nice valleys and of course with the really interesting view. We were so lucky to got CS accommodation and it was very special because our host gave us a cave room in his hotel. There were three of us in the room, together with an American guy who studies in the Netherlands and had vacation in Turkey. Göreme is quite popular for tourist but still nice and cute place with lots of hotels and cafes. It was a nice surprise that we could understand most of the people there because most tourists spoke English.

Love valley, Göreme

From Göreme we headed to the south to the Mediterranean sea. It was quite hot and the view a bit boring for more days. Only farmlands were around us with water sprinkle. The land was really dry so they need water added artificially. The dry land caused some hard time for us as well to find a place for our tent. Because of these factors we sped up again by car. This time a van helped us to get to the sea. 3 men traveled to Adana and again as usually the Turkish people they were very nice and helpful. Although we were a little bit afraid in the car because we had doubts that the driver had drivers license or not. At most of the cases in Turkey we experienced that rules at driving are not so strict that we were used to but this case was worst than ever. Many times we traveled between lanes, once the driver passed a car from the right in the stopping lane, once we got stuck between 2 trucks because our driver observed the 2 truck late and did not have time to pass them in the third lane (which was completely empty), we think he saw every situation quite late, even his friends warned him a few times to drive slower. He even changed a lane unnoticed while trying to light his cigarette (we were lucky that no one came there). The good thing is that we arrived to Tarsus in whole. From Tarsus we still had 40 kms to Mersin (or actually to Mezitli, next to Mersin) where we arranged couchsurfing. We had a quite long day, 100 kms cycling and a lot more hitch-hiking. In Mezitli we had our best couchsurfing experience ever. We stayed at a very nice couple. We went to a very nice beach together, only a few people were there so it was not crowded and we could have some good jumps from the cliffs. (Later when we continued our way we visited this beach again because we liked it so much.) Our hosts were nice to cook us some delicious meal, we tried manti there and liked it very much. They asked: “What? You were in Kayseri and didn’t try manti?!” At the Mediterranean sea it is really hot in July and the humidity is quite high as well (around 80%) and because of that we feel the warm even warmer. Not once it happened that we could only sit and do nothing because we couldn’t move in that weather. Finally after 4 nights there we felt the power to move on and got up really early to avoid the daily hot air. We only had a few hours because even at 8 am it is sweaty hot out there. Again we had some difficulties to find place for the tent because of the dry land and also due to the fact that those area is quite populated.

Swimming in a cave!

We had good times swimming in the sea, luckily we could always find nice and lonely beaches. We saw the castle which is on an island close to the coast, called Kizkalesi which probably could mean “Girl castle”.

Kizkalesi (between Mersin and Silifke)

In Mersin we even bought a Turkish grammar book for foreigners so together with the dictionary we understood a little bit more and found interesting to study a new language. When we left Mersin we didn’t know exactly how we will go home. We had a few ideas but we didn’t fix any. In Tasucu we even thought about taking a ferry to Cyprus and then to Rhodos. Finally, we decided not to because we didn’t find any ship from Cyprus to Rhodos and we were not sure about the political situation there (we were not prepared).
Mostly we rode the bike along the sea, only a few times lead the way inner to the land. From Tarsus for a few hundred km’s the road is quite flat and we could progress really fast. After that some hills came and although it was not that steep as the Black sea coast it was quite difficult and because of the heat sweat was just streaming from us. With some motorized help we visited Gazipasa and stayed there for 2 days. There we finalized how we will go home. One of the options was to fly home from Antalya if we find a direct flight and finally this option was the one we chose. It was the fastest, we didn’t want to hitch-hike through other countries. Actually we not only bought a flight ticket but we bought a last minute trip from Hungary to Turkey and back with 1 week hotel. It is funny but it was actually cheaper than a one way ticket from Antalya to Budapest. The tricky part was the bikes because in most cases we were told to pay 8€/kg but the one we chose (Sky Airlines) the bikes were only 20€/piece. It is a big difference.
On the way to Antalya we stopped in Alanya which is a quite crowded vacation center but it has a nice castle at the coast, on a big hill. Our last couchsurfing was in Antalya. We stayed at a pilot who was from Spain but got job in Turkey.
We had mixed feelings about the hotel we stayed in. From one hand we didn’t really care because we only needed the flight back to Budapest and we got used to not perfect conditions but this was a hotel!!! We showed some photos in the picasa album about the breakfast we had. It consist of some slices of tomatoes, cucumber, 1 egg, a piece of cheese and bread. Out of 7 breakfast 7 was like that. The dinner was more diverse, only sometimes had the feeling that the salads have been on the table the previous day as well. The main problem was the size of the meals. We hardly got a little piece of meat and a few pieces of potato. We were not allowed to take it, the crew put the food on our plate probably to avoid that they run out of dinner after a few people. If we went back to ask for more we were rejected with the reason that there are other people who haven’t eaten yet and so food have to be reserved for them. As a drink we could only drink tea in the morning, nothing else and nothing for dinner. None of the crew members spoke any language, only Turkish. Good thing we knew a few thing so we could understand them and we could explain what we wanted.
Our last week was really a lazy one. We went to the city center a few times and swam in the sea but many times at the pool as well that belonged to the hotel. The last day was the busiest one. In the morning we visited the upper Düden waterfall.

Upper Düden waterfalls

It was very nice, we took many photos. Not only could we see the waterfall but we could also walk behind the waterfall in a cave. After that at the hotel we packed the bikes. We had to put them into a box and wrap it properly. In the previous days we collected some board boxes from bigger shops. Of course none of them were so big that the bikes could fit in them but pasted them together were OK.
We got up next day at 4 am because, missed the fantastic breakfast and flew to Budapest. We were lucky to save the Sky Airlines’ email into a pdf on our netbook (confirming that the price is 20 EUR per bike) because at the check-in they were not sure about it and wanted to charge us per kg, but after I showed them the email, they agreed. All our luggage arrived safely and in whole including the bikes. In front of the airport we spent an hour to put them together. (Packing them in took longer!) For a few minutes we turned on the tracking device again for the last time and cycled to our flat and our adventure ended on 28th July, 2010.

Tags: , , , Category Turkey |

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Hitch-hiking with bicycles in East Turkey

2010
07.29

We left Poti a bit disappointed and headed to south towards Turkey. Just like on the way to the Caucasus on the way back we stopped in Kobuleti for a few days. We lived at another family this time (for just 5 lari per person). The sea was a lot warmer and more people were enjoying it as well. In Kobuleti Felix’s favorite activity (or passivity) was sleeping, he thought it was 4am when I woke him up at 9pm. I was afraid that he won’t be able to sleep at night because he slept so much at daytime but it was no problem for him. :-)
We visited again Batumi, did some sightseeing (we visited nice places that we didn’t visit last time) and then cycled to Gonio. In one of the last shops in Georgia we bought pork salami (actually it was Hungarian) because we knew that it is almost impossible to find in Turkey. Even if there is it is really expensive. In Gonio we stopped at the same beach and run into Ruslan and his family just like before. They were not the only people who we met in Georgia twice: we also met Irakli from Chaladidi and the grandpa and his son from Kobuleti who we stayed at at the first Kobuleti visit. We were quite surprised we met so many people. We were lucky too meet Ruslan because he also offered us a place to sleep.
At the Georgian-Turkish border we met a cyclist. Whenever we met somebody usually we first began to talk in English. This time it turned out that the cyclist is Hungarian. Alfréd was cycling from Hungary to China and than to Indonesia. He was a professional cyclist and was really fast, he cycles 200 km a day. For him it took only 2 weeks to reach Georgia. He came through Ukraine and Russia where he was bored from the view and so he took a ferry to Trabzon and next day he was already in Georgia.
Our goal for that day was Artvin where we arranged a CS accommodation. Artvin was still 70 km far and it was already afternoon so we decided to gain some speed with hitch-hiking. It only took 2 minutes until a man stopped (when we just started to eat a grape) and drove us and the bikes directly to Artvin in a pick-up car. In this city there is at least 500 m difference in ascent between the lowest and the highest point. The city center of course is on the top. Our plan was to buy a Turkish sim card and then to call our host. We faced difficulties already at the first part. In the shops we couldn’t communicate because none of the shop assistants spoke English. We were just about to stop somebody on the street to help us to translate when our hosts recognized us from a van which they were driving and came to help. Leaving the bikes at a restaurant Felix went with Volkan (CS host) to a shop and bought a sim card. It only turned out later that 1.) we only can call numbers at the same service provider (Turkcell) and 2.) because our phone was Hungarian after 2 weeks our sim card can be blocked and we can’t call our receive calls anymore. Good thing we had a Turkish guy with us, we don’t know what could have happened if he is not there.
There was a big valley at Artvin with a few hills around it. On one of them was the city, on another one lived our host and next day we continued our way on a third hill. Everything was close in bee-line but hours on the road.

Around Artvin

We suffered next morning from climbing hours and still see the same city in the afternoon. Even downwards it was not so easy. Of course not so difficult as from Ushguli, this time we only faced strong wind. While winding down the wind came always from different directions but on the bottom it was constantly headwind. Being tired we didn’t want to fight the wind so we decided it was time to hitch-hike again. We made a quite late decision  so when we arrived to Erzurum by a fully loaded truck (with the bicycles on the top) it was already midnight.

Hitchhiking with the bikes is more exciting

The driver was really nice, the communication was limited but he helped us as he could. He took us until a petrol station before Erzurum and arranged that we can pitch the tent on a grassy area next to it. The only thing we felt sorry about was that we missed the Tortum waterfalls (Tortum Selalesi) – we travelled next to it in the dark so we couldn’t see anything from it although it is very famous and beautyful. And before that, the gorge around the junction to Yusufeli was really breathtaking, with 100 or more meters high cliffs hanging over the road in the very narrow valley (so narrow that the GPS couldn’t see 3 satellites) – I couldn’t take a good photo of them. That’s the negative side of hitchhiking.
Next day we cycled into Erzurum where we met another very helpful and nice guy. We arrived to the minaret, probably it was visible from far away that we are foreigners. This guy came to us and offered that we can leave the bikes at a tea house where his friends can watch them and he also offered to guide us around in the city center. He was mountain and city guide, helped the travel book Lonely Planet many times and also worked and taught massage. He said he was a very famous guy. :-)

A jackdaw on my hand

We walked a bit around and after that he even offered to stay at his place for a day. We experienced this kind of hospitality of the Turkish people in the next few days when we hitch-hiked most of the time.

From Erzurum we got a ride to Askale. From there we didn’t even hitch hike, just stood next to the road when a truck stopped. It headed to Kayseri which was good for us and the trunk was completely empty. Felix and the driver tightened the 2 bikes quickly and we leaned back satisfied that we had such a great drive so quickly without even hitch-hiking. Our joy was too early. About 15 km later police stopped the cars for regular control. I worried a little bit because in the truck there are only 2 seats (I sat on the bed) but the driver said that it is no problem and went to show the necessary documents to the policemen. He came back a little bit nervous, said only “police problem” and parked to a locked area next to the road. We stumbled over the difficulty to figure out what happened or what we should do. The driver was constantly talking on the phone with different people and none of the policemen spoke any foreign language. Finally after about 30 minutes later the driver said that one of the documents was missing and he has to wait there for an hour. We didn’t know what to do, 1 hour is not that much but somehow we didn’t believed it is not more than that. Once we have already seen such police control, we were having lunch next to it and we could see that it takes really long if there is any problem. Finally some policemen explained that the driver has to wait there 4 (!) hours and it can only go without the back part of the truck. So we decided to ride the bike or look for another drive.

The next drive was a lorry with a very cheerful driver. It seemed that he really enjoyed that he takes tourists, showed us the sights, called his friend and his English speaking cousin and invited us for dinner. He headed to Istanbul and took us until a junction before Sivas.

Typical landscape in the middle of Turkey

Next day just about 100 meter next to our camp place another truck stopped and took us to Sivas. So, if you want to come to Turkey and travel by hitch-hiking you won’t face difficulty. Most of the cars, trucks, vans stop and they are happy to take you with them. In Sivas we went to the city center to check some mails and look for CS for the next couple of days. We didn’t thought that we will proceed so fast so we were quite lagged behind with that. It was just one of those cases when we found internet, of course we got stucked there for hours… We were lucky to get another ride until Kayseri. Actually not until Kayseri and we were not lucky. From the truck we tried to arrange CS accommodation with the help of Felix’s mother but got only answers when we already pitched the tent. This was the only driver with whom we had negative experience. The truck we were traveling with was really shaky. We didn’t understand why because the road was bumpless and we saw other cars and trucks passing us and they were not shaking at all. We were really worried about the bikes in the back. The driver was also strange, very silent but he smiled strange at me through a mirror in the middle. Why did he have a mirror in the middle??? He could only see his bed there or somebody who sat there. In a truck there is no window in the back. We tried to explain that we would like to stop before Kayseri because we can’t pitch the tent in a city. He said he knows a nice place close which is good for camping. We had doubts because wherever we looked there were only cultivated areas. It got really suspicious and the camping place was always a little bit further so we told him to stop. After unpacking the bicycles he showed money with his fingers. We didn’t understand what he meant exactly. Finally he left with indignation. It was almost dark and no place for the tent so we faced the phenomenon “tentplacefearhysteria” (sátorhelyparahiszti) from my side but luckily we found the only grassy place there hidden behind some trees so we were not visible from the road! When we already unpacked the bikes received sms from Felix’s mom that we can go to Zafer in Kayseri. For that night we stayed in the tent but next day we contacted the guy and stayed in Kayseri for a day. We visited the pass at the mountain Erciyes by car with Zafer’s friend and also checked out the campus. It was interesting to see that all departments are in the same area which actually was huge. In the evening we did some shopping in a mall, the result was a small Langenscheidt (yellow) Turkish-English, English-Turkish dictionary.

Kayseri is about in the middle of Turkey west to east and we got there just in 5 days so this time we were not worried about the visa expiration. From around Erzurum we traveled on a high plateau, there were nice rolling hills and some passes but never so steep as on the Black Sea coast! Next day we cycled to Kappadokia. The plan was to spend some time there and then to travel to the Mediterranean sea.

You can see more photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/felix.kovacs/BikeToAsiaTorokorszag3#

Zsófi

Tags: , , , , Category Turkey |

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Bicycle Travel Network

2010
07.11

We should have wrote about Bicycle travel network for a long time but somehow it got postponed every time. This network was founded by for young bicycle traveler in order to help other long trip cyclists and to promote this way of traveling. You can check out the website at http://bicycletravelnetwork.com/.

I met the network before we left for the bike trip when I read about other travelers and everything that was related to bike traveling. It really took my attention because the network planned to support young first time traveler cyclists with a scholarship. I applied it and in May I read happily that we won 100 $. Here is the article about the scholarship and the winners:
http://bicycletravelnetwork.com/scholarship/
http://bicycletravelnetwork.com/2010/05/2010-bicycle-travel-network-scholarship-recipients/
After the winners were announced from time to time interviews were posted about the other winners’ bike plan. For me it was interesting to read about other people’s plan, thoughts, experiences, fears about the trip.
Our interview you can find it here:

http://bicycletravelnetwork.com/2010/07/btn-scholarship-winner-interview/

and another post about our experiences here:

http://bicycletravelnetwork.com/2010/07/hungarian-couple-biking-across-europe-asia/

Tags: Category Preparation |

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Turning back in Georgia

2010
07.10

The toughest day was followed by some less tough days. From Tsana the road got easier. The biggest problem was that because of the rainy days it was very muddy and puddles took completely the road from one edge to the other. The most interesting were the different tracks in the mud. We saw a bike track so probably somebody went down from the pass just before us but unfortunately we have never met. Then we saw bear foot print or at least we thought it was that. A little bit later we found horse track which was already a good sign that people live somewhere near but we got even more certain about this when we saw the first cows after 40km. The signs were not lying, after a few km’s we really entered the first living village. We saw a strange kind of transportation method, it was a big sled like Santa has but instead of reindeer it was pulled by 2 cows and it was sliding in the mud. We proceeded in the mud slowly.

Muddy road

Once we reached a river which went through the road, it over swelled probably because even cars couldn’t get through it. When we got there some bulldozers were working on the road, it took a few hours until it got ready. That evening just when we were looking for a place for our tent a car stopped next to us and asked where we were from, where we went etc. We told we wanted to pitch our tent and so they immediately invited us to stay at their place. It turned out that our host was a police in Lentekhi. Again there was no bathroom in the house, only one tap outside in the garden. We had dinner with the family and a few neighbors. Georgian people really like to drink their local vodka and also like when the guest drinks a lot. It was impossible to explain that we don’t really want to drink especially that 50-60 % alcohol. However we objected our glasses were filled again and again. So we came up with another tactic, we clinked the glasses and after that we just put down the glass on the table without drinking it. It was not suspicious after a few shots.
Next morning we experienced another over swollen river, even a bus got stuck there but we didn’t wait until the road was built this time, we just walked through it.

No bridge over the river

Good thing that the panniers were waterproof so nothing got wet at all. Finally we reached Lentekhi where suddenly the road was just perfect. Our joy was too early because after a few km’s of the city it got bad again. Anyway it was good to reach Lentekhi because we could by some food (and Nutella of course – Jucus, sorry for making you addicted). Here Felix called the guy from Poti who offered us possibility to get on a ferry for 50 $. The guy said that there will be a ferry in 3 days which was enough for us to get to Poti. This day we also got some rain, cycled hours in actually, even on a pass which surprised us before Tskhunkuri. We couldn’t really find good place for the tent, we almost slept in a cabin but then we discovered some bees’ nest so we had to go on and look for another place. Finally, it was too late so we ended up sleeping in a very windy place which is not good for Felix, we learned that already in Turkey, he feels like that the tent will be blown away. Because of that he was quite mad in the morning and complained about not sleeping enough. As compensation next day we found the best place on the trip so far, I think. It was in a small village, Kutiri. First we wanted to pitch the tent in front of a house on the street which was quite abandoned but then some locals came and told us that we can go in a garden nearby, nobody stayed in the house that time. They said it is better because at the other place we will meet cows in the morning. So we stayed in a nice garden, trees gave shade in the morning, there was a bench where we could cook and we could take a shower from the water-bag in a kind of garage that belonged to the house and was open. The bad thing was that we left the rocks there which Felix collected from the Caucasus and also my comb which was combined with a mirror. Now I have to use Felix’s which is not the same… Later that day, the guy from Poti called and said that the ferry will leave 2 days later than planned so had plenty of time to get to Poti.

That day we had again an interesting accommodation. Again the same thing happened, we looked for a place for our tent when we got invited into a house. There we learned and later saw it as well that usually in a garden there are 2 houses. In the nice big one no one lives, it is empty and it waits only for guests. There is a smaller one in the garden as well, in our case it was composed of 2 rooms, a little kitchen and a living room. Our hosts lived there, a couple, their son and a grandpa. In none of the houses were there any bathrooms but got not surprised about this anymore. We were though wondering how they wash themselves. Especially that most of them, as this family as well, worked with animals. Later we unpacked the bicycle and took the panniers to the room. I saw something running suddenly under the bed but it was so fast and I really saw only for a second I wasn’t sure if I saw it or not. A few minutes later Felix heard some sounds and as he looked there he just saw a rat running up to the roof. That night I had bad dreams because I was afraid that the rat wants to turn back to his room.
We got to Poti one day before the ship left. Felix went to the ticket office to talk to the guy and arrange the trip. It turned out that the price is not 50 $ but the original price plus 50 $. He couldn’t figure out why the extra 50 $ was for then. He felt he was fooled and thought the 2×160 $ is too much. There was a Bulgarian office there as well and they let us use wifi. We checked mails and Felix’s mom sent an email in which she copied opinions about the ferry trips from Poti which frightened me. So finally we came up with a new plan: we go back through Turkey, we will visit Kappadokia and the Mediterranean sea and speed up traveling a bit with hitch-hiking.

Tags: Category Georgia |

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The toughest day in the Caucasus

2010
07.05

I thought this day was so tough that it deserves a separate post.
On the second morning in Ushguli there was no clouds on the sky so we decided to leave to the pass. I left with the thought that the way up the road will be very difficult, probably there will be lots of puddles, cows and rocks but it is only a few kilometers and then it will come the fun part because we will just roll down from 2600 to 0 meter and probably the view will be amazing. I wasn’t wrong with the first part of the previous sentence, the road was difficult. It was 7,5 km from Ushguli to Zagar pass (2620 m) but mostly I pushed the bike, Felix only for a few times. We tried to make some photos but they can’t give back the quality of the road.

From Ushguli to Zagar pass - terrible "road"

I could use the following words to describe it: steep, small and big, fixed and rolling rocks, mud, puddle, cows, lots of cowshit, very little snow. What I didn’t expect that breathing is more difficult as well. The view on the other hand was really beautiful.

Almost at Zagar pass

It was interesting that on the north slope there were trees while on the south slope only grass. The higher we went the less trees we saw. As we heard before the road was free from snow but we could see some on the slopes.

Zagar pass (2620 m) between Ushguli and Tsana

After a few hours we finally reached the top, took some photos and started to descend. I thought the difficult part was over but I was wrong. I can’t decide which was more difficult. Climbing up was phisically tiring, descending was mentally tiring. It is hard to compare but the road was probably even worse, steeper, muddier etc. Even down I got off the bike and pushed it many times. We think that it was a mistake to sign it as a road for cars on the map. It is OK that this road looks like that but it should be marked as a mudroad or a path for walking. We met only 1 car on the way up, the dutch family whom we met earlier and sometimes we were wondering how they could manage to drive down. There were some creeks on the way as well, sometime the creek was the road. The second and the last car we saw until the first (living) village was a TRAKTOR which worked on the road where a creek ran through. Next to that it started to rain quite heavily.
Finally we saw some houses, it was good to see that probably we will be able to buy bread and see other people. As we got closer to the village, Tsana, it got more and more suspicious, there was no single sign that anyone lives there.

Tsana - only a ghost village!

There were no animals: no cows (no cowshit), and no dogs (no barking). All the houses were abandoned, some of them were not possible to approach because in front of them grass and other plants grew like jungle. It was a strange, kind of scary feeling to be in that ghost village. We found one garden where the grass was cut so we decided that we will camp there. In that garden there was a marble board about a man who probably died there, it didn’t make the place less scary. We ran out of water so we took our bowl, bottles and the water puryfier and went to the river to clean the water. I know it is funny but I had in my mind that what if we go back and the bikes won’t be there anymore. Of course they were there as besides some birds and bugs there was not a single creature in the village. We cooked some pasta, pitched the tent and moved in in the rain.
In the tent I showed Felix some of the red spots I had on my body. In Usghuli a mosquito basicly ate me, I was full of mosquito bites, they were itching like hell and because I couldn’t resist and scratched them they broke and turned into wounds. I felt like that I have more and more bites every day but that day I found different red spots, they were smaller (3-4 mm) and not bumpy. As we were discussing what it could be I saw that Felix has some on his hands and then we found some more on his arms. Again my imagination worked and thought that that’s why there was nobody in that village because there was something infectious from which we got the red spots. We couldn’t do anything, we just went to sleep. The spots disappeared later.
So just to summarize the day: mainly pushing the bike up to the pass for hours then many times down as well while raining, if riding braking all the times and concentrating not to fall, creeks on the road, shoes are wet, we could only go about 20 km’s, ghost village with the marble table about the guy who died there and spooky red spots…

Zsófi

Tags: , , Category Georgia |

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In the heart of the Caucasus

2010
06.30
The Mestia sign

The Mestia sign

We arrived to Mestia on the 13th June. It was not a difficult day, we cycled 10 km only. We took some photos at the Mestia sign when a girl came to us and said that they already have waited for us and we are the cyclist who slept at Lahamula some days before. We were surprised but soon we remembered that the guy who sold us milk and other stuff gave a phone number of a host where we can sleep. There are a few hotels in Mestia but the most common accommodation is at families who rent rooms in their homes. So we already had a place to sleep. They expected us to come one day earlier and they already thought that we are not coming. The room was 10 lari per person for a day. Fortunately the family had internet so we could send some news home but we couldn’t plug it to our computer to upload photos from Picasa, so you still couldn’t see the photos we took. After we unpacked the bikes we went to the center to meet Misha, a couchsurfer. He couldn’t host us because he was already hosted but he was very nice to show us around. He is a polish guy and volunteers in Mestia for about 8-9 months, he teaches English. We learned from him that Mestia is a city and not a village with population of 2500 people and that water and electricity is for free. Water comes from the mountains, electricity from the dam at Jvari. It is free because it is a kind of support from the government. People there mainly live from tourism, in the main season there are more tourist than locals, and they also grow vegeteblas and have animals. Although tourism is the main source of income there are only a few small grocery stores and there is not even a single sign of souvenirs. If we were e.g. in Austria probably there would have been everywhere magnets and key-case with the peaks of Ushba.
Misha took us to the top of a tower which was part of a museum. There are many towers like that in the mountain villages/cities. One tower group belonged to one family and it had a protective function. The mountains were actually never attacked, it is quite difficult to get there but the families fought sometimes with each other. After we saw the nice view from the top of the tower we went down on the steep stairs to the museum which consists of one room and it shows how a family lived in the 14-15th century. It was a relative small room if we take into account that 30 people lived there together with all the animals except the pigs because reputedly they smell bad. Our experience is that other animals we have seen on the way don’t smell nice either… Anyhow, it was interesting that the people slept above the animals to utilize the heat produced by them. When we came out of the museum someone asked us in English if the bikes belong to us. It is not very common to hear English words here. The guy was Lukas, a Canadian who was also on a bike tour with 2 other friends. They also arrived the same day and headed to the pass but later we didn’t meet so I don’t know how they felt about the pass. They route was Istambul-Baku, you can check out their blog at bakubybike.wordpress.com. After Misha arranged accommodation for the Canadians he showed us a place where spring water comes from the mountains. There are many places like that in mountains, the one we tried was sparkling, it tasted good!
We had some bad experience when we wanted to eat something in a local cafe (Cafe Ushba). First we received the same french fries that was a leftover from the previous guests. It was cold so Felix asked for a new one. Then we got some meat which we couldn’t figure out what part of which animal was. It tasted a bit as liver but it felt like sinewy eraser.
Next day we met Misha again because he came with us to the mountain Zuruld from which you can a have a good view to Ushba. I think Felix was exited because it was something he wanted to see on every account. We got up early, at 5am because he was afraid that clouds will come later and he can’t take nice photos. Well, no clouds that day but unfortunately we couldn’t reach the top of Zuruld. After a while we lost the track, the signs and tracks are not well maintained. Everywhere we went we got stucked in bushes. Anyhow we could see the twin peaks, we were only about 100 m below the top.

Ushba, Zsofi, Felix

On the way we passed by an elevator which was built for skiing but has never operated because the holder stations were not built in line so the cord constantly fell off. We got home tired in the early afternoon. Unfortunately there was some reconstruction on the water pipe line and so water came only in the evening that’s why even we slept in a house we took a shower from our Ortlieb water bag. It was a warm day so we could bear the cold water. We spent the next day by just doing nothing, having a rest. I had a really bad muscle fever, my legs got used to ride the bike but got unused to walk.
We needed the rest because from Mestia the road got more and more difficult, the quality got worse and we climbed higher and higher. Ushguli, the next bigger place was on 2100 meter and there was a pass before that with 1926 meter. There was even a creek on the road. We put on our sandals and walked through, it was ice cold, quite deep with big rocks on the bottom, so we didn’t dare to risk cycling through. That time we didn’t know that it was not the last one on the road…
In Georgia we have nice experience with policemen. On the way to Ushguli a police car stopped and wanted to take us over the pass saying that the road is very hard but Felix with his great Russian declined the offer saying that life is hard. The policeman didn’t lie though, the road was full of rocks, we couldn’t go faster downhill than uphill. It was a hard day so we decided to take the Mestia-Ushguli road in 2 days. We stopped at Bogreshi and as we were very hungry asked for a shop or a place where we can have some khachapuri.

The village of Bogreshi (Ipari)

As it is very common in Georgia the guy we asked invited us to come in and offered us to sleep there as well. Georgian people are very hospitable but sometimes they want to take advantage from tourists. This time the guy who was an forester didn’t say the price of the room but something like “there won’t be a problem, we will agree on the price for sure”. When it came to say a number he asked us how much money we have for that. We said we paid 10 lari in Mestia so we said we would pay the same. He seemed upset and said it is at least 20 lari because in Mestia it costs 30 lari. So we decided to sleep in tent. In these cases when they want money they ask us what we work or how much we paid for the bikes. We suppose it helps them to estimate how rich we are.
The son of the forester told us that the pass would be cleaned next day, it was good to know that we won’t face snow blockage.
The rain started to fall at night so next day the road was full of puddles, and in the next days it got worse and worse. We asked an old man for bread in a small village (just a couple of houses) and he invited us to eat bread and cheese – you can always eat bread and cheese here (and usually that’s all). Meanwhile, some Israeli tourists came by car and bought 2 chickens from this old man (they offered 20 lari for a chicken).
My kickstand was breaking out so I finally dropped it out – from now on I only could lean it against a wall or post or something, or Zsofi had to hold it, which is quite uncomfortable, but my kickstand was really weak for the weight of my bike. The problem is that the front wheel tends to turn out if it is not stable enough – even from the whirlwind of a truck passing by. If there was a lockable handbrake and a handlebar lock (which blocks the handlebar from turning while it is standing still) it would have helped against accidental bicycle falls. But there isn’t. This will be the next thing I will invent after I go home. (I’ve already invented the handbrake lock – which is just a velcro-strap.
We also met a family from the Netherlands in a Jeep – they were traveling with 2 small children on the Middle-east and in Europe for 6 months. They also told us that the pass will be opened the next day so we were quite confident now that we can cross the pass.
Before Ushguli, the road got quite steep and the rain began to fall. A guy with a jeep stopped next to me in the rain and asked “I know that you are tough and I am spoiled, but can I help you somehow?” :)
I think he offered that he can take us with his car.
In Ushguli, we met a Polish guy who was taking photos. He traveled alone from Bangladesh to home, taking photo reports. His blog is www.nomad123.blogspot.com – you can check his Ushguli-photos for example! He showed the way to the only “shop” in the village, where he used to put down his backpack during the day and he also recommended us a place to tent, he also sleeps there. The shop was rather a store, with boxes laying around everywhere so we (or she, the shopkeeper) could hardly move or step anywhere. We asked for Nutella, of course, and she told that there is, for 5 lari. We told her that we’d like to buy one. OK, she started to look for it. It is in a small paper box. After a while I offered my help to search. We couldn’t find it so she assured us that she will find it by next day (but she couldn’t). What we bought was some wafers (measured by kg on a hand-held scale). And khachapuri, of course. And we indicated that we’d like to buy 2 breads the next day. Yes, do not think on a regular shop in Europe – there are very few tourists here, only we and the Polish guy, so they carefully estimate the demand and only produce what will not be wasted. It is a very homely shop but from bra till toilet seat you could find everything – if you are lucky, with Nutella we weren’t.
And it was cold! The cloudy sky and the occasional rain (and the 2100 m elevation) cooled the air down so we had to put on our pullovers, raincoats and rain-legs, winter caps and winter gloves as we sat there by the outdoor table!
In the evening we tried to find a place for the tent – after fighting through several puddles in the mud, we set up the tent on the top of a little hill. Later it turned out that it is also a favorite place of cows and bulls. The cows seamed to be very curious and interested in the bikes so some of them licked my saddle and handle bar. Later in the evening, I had to beat the wall of the tent from the inside to stop them sniffing into my ear. When I peeped out from the tent, there was a huge bull standing just half a meter away. I have never seen such a huge bull before! There are cows, you know the size of a cow. But this was twice as wide and twice as tall at least! I imagined that it will bump into the spanning cord of the tent and fall on me with its one ton of body mass and I will die flattened out… They bulls were also producing some very frightening sound so I hardly could fall asleep. And the ground was quite uneven, very uncomfortable, a big bump right under my waist (I didn’t choose the place carefully). So I decided that next night I will pay for a room in Ushguli. We didn’t want to start next day because of bad weather, so we decided to spend a day here. I wanted to see the highest hill of Georgia, and it was covered by thick clouds.

A really big dog appeared

Next morning a light rain came, we still couldn’t see the mountains. We went back to the shop, which is also a guesthouse, we got it for 10 lari per person (instead of the original 15). We like to get the rooms early because we can enjoy the comfort for a longer time than when we take the room late at night. So even if it was a half-ready wooden house, we enjoyed that we have a room! We wanted to take a shower. OK, there is no shower in the houses (as is the case usually in Georgia) but we had the Ortlieb mobile-shower so we just needed a private place, protected from eyesight. The lady first offered us the stinking toilet, but after we made her think about a less disgusting option, she showed us the way to a half-ready “bathroom” which consisted of a non-functioning shower and a non-functioning floor-drain (the water just stayed there, didn’t flow through). The good thing is that we had warm water filled into our shower-bag! So it was a relative luxury for us.
Back in the room, we had to pull the beds a little bit further from the walls because the rain came through the half-made roof and the ceiling was dripping. In the evening I had luck with the view, because for a couple of seconds, I could have a glimpse on the highest peak among the clouds.

Shkhara - highest peak in Georgia, 5068 m

So I told Zsofi that we can move on the next day and continue our way through the highest pass in Georgia…

Tags: , , Category Georgia |

6 comments

Caucasus, khachapuri, matsoni

2010
06.23

During the 3 days in Batumi we felt that we just got even more tired but somehow we managed to leave. We realized that here in Georgia the cars and trucks smell worse than before. E.g there was a tunnel where we seriously were thinking whether we really should enter it or not. It was ascending and full of smoke but having no other option we crossed it and survived. After such tunnels we always eat some vitamins. We slept 1 night in tent then in Kobuleti we asked for a place to sleep and a man told that he has got free rooms and even internet so we spent 2 nights there. They were very kind, gave us food several times, let us wash our clothes in the washing mashine and when we were just about to hang the clothes to dry we noticed that the grandma already did it. We really could use the internet whenever we wanted although the guys were also using the computer. Once we went to the stony beach, it was quite empty and the wheather was a bit cloudy as well. It was Batumi feeling in a sense that we hardly could start from here as well.
The next bigger city was Poti which is a port town. Here we inquired about the possible ferry routes and prices to Ukraine. In the ticket office (Instra) the lady couldn’t give us a timetable, they only knew that the next ferry leaves the next day and costs 175$ per person. So there is no schedule for the ferries. There was a guy there who heard our conversation and told me another cheaper option, namely to board a cargo ship to Kerch because the captain can take 5 passangers on board. This option costs probably only 50$ in total.
You might be curious why we are interested in shipping to Ukraine because it is not on the way to the Himalayas. Well, after having that break in Batumi and Kobuleti we couldn’t get out of our mind to have some more rest, to have proper shower whenever we wanted, to speak the language of the country where we are, to eat good meals, to buy the food whatever we wanted etc. We also wanted to avoid Tehran with the heat and the smog. We had bad experience riding the bike in big cities (Istambul). The main reason is that this 2 months riding the bike was enough. So we wanted to see the Caucasus and then go home. Even with the new plan we will still ride the bike for several more weeks and km’s.
This guy told us to call him several days in advance so he can arrange our transportation to Kerch. Having his phone number we left to the Caucasus.
In Chaladidi we asked for a place to camp and we were invited to a house. We got some potatos with onion which was very tasty. Unfortunately there was no bathroom, only one tap in the garden. The whole village looked very poor and we learned that salary is so low that most of them don’t work just like our host, Irakli. His plan was to collect enough money to go to Austria after his brother who worked there although he didn’t know where exactly in Austria. We set up the tent in their garden. We didn’t know that we didn’t choose the best spot, we only realized that at 4 am when a rooster started to kukorékol about 1 m next to the tent… It was horrible, my ears still hurt if I just think about that noise. We also learned that it is not worth to ask for e-mail address. We wanted to send the pohtos but after asking for the address both times in Kobuleti and Chaladidi as well the guys left for several minutes in the house and when they showed up again they brought a paper with their names. We couldn’t explain that it is not an e-mail address. Communication is not so easy, my russian is not the best. :-) What could have happen was that they thought we were asking for normal post address and so they wrote their names what we can write on the envelope. The reason of taking so long to write their own names was that they don’t use latin alphabet. They speak Georgian and Russian but both alphabets are different. We were suprised that Irakli called me 2 and 4 days later in the evening just to ask where we are.
Chaladidi also seemed to be an endless village, probably it was more but we didn’t know when one was ending and another starting. We couldn’t see any crossing, all the houses were next to the main road.
The next bigger city was Zugdidi where we ate khachapuri. It is a Georgian food, similar to a pizza but there is dough on the top and inside only cheese. Sometimes they put other stuff inside as well, like meat or beans. It is very tasty. Zsófi liked Zugdidi, she said it was cute. At the end of the city some guys offered to take us to Mestia with the local bus service, Marshrutka. Of course we denied the offer. They seemed a bit drunk and they also offered us some chacha, the local spirit. We already tried it in Chaladidi, it is really strong. Even though Irakli and his friend had about 5 or 6 shots in half an hour. :-)
Just like in Turkey, here in Georgia we are a strange phenomenon, people are staring at us as we pass by and if we stop they immiadetly ask where we are from. In a village before Jvari we seemed interesting for some policemen, a policecar followed us for a very long time. Whenever we stopped they stopped as well, sometimes they passed us staring out of the car. Then not far they stopped, waited for us to pass them and followed us again. We couldn’t figure out why we seemed suspicious. :-)
Not far from Jvari we found a perfect spot for our tent, there was a table and bench there, some trees that gives us shade and it was enough far from the road as well. We just needed water so we were looking for a tap. Then a guy came out of his garden to help us. After that the following conversation took place:

Felix – Is there any water here? (Voda jeszty?)
Guy – Yes, there is. (Da.)
Félix – And is there a shower? (I dus jeszty?)
Guy – Yes, there is. (Da.)

That’s how it happened that we could take a shower. :-) Ok, it was a bit more complicated but the point is that nice and clean we went to set up the tent. Even though we had a shower we filled the Ortlieb bag with water. It was the first time we used it and we were really satisfied. It is a lot easier to was our hands or wash vegtables from the bag. It was my name day that day so we celebrated with some potato pasta (krumplis tészta).
Next day we said good bye to the flat roads and started to ascend to the Caucasus.

Ascending into the Caucasus

We passed by a dam and a 30 km long lake. We learned later from a guy where we had khachapuri that the dam was built in the 70’s and people lived where the lake is now but because of dam the houses were flooded so they had to move.

Felix takes a shower in a damn cold waterfall

Felix takes shower in a damn cold waterfall

We crossed several tunnels on the road, they were quite scary. There was no light in the tunnels we could hardly see the road which was bumpy and some water was dripping from the ceiling. The good thing is that we didn’t meet any car when were in the tunnel. It happend only once that we almost had company in one tunnel but we rather waited for them to leave – because it was a goatherd, at least 100 goats in a tunnel could have some smell!!! That day we slept in a little wooden house next to a restaurant. We could also use the bathroom, although it need some repairing the point was the hot shower. Sleeping in a house was a good choise for the night because there was heavy rain in the evening. The bad choise was to have some khachapuri with meat. Or at least they called it meat, we rather felt as mócsing and it was so spicy hot that we had to cool our lips with some ice cream. We couldn’t eat the whole thing it was so bad. I was looking for the expressions in our little Russian dictionary like “This is not what I ordered” or “This is uneatable” but Zsófi dissuaded me to tell that to the cook when I brought back the remaining pieces.
In the morning it was the second time we waked up on some noise from an animal, this time it was a few pigs. Animals like pigs, goats, cows and chicken is not a rare phenomenon. The same day happened that we went through a tunnel where some cows were cooling in the shade. They look mad but when we get close to them they jump away. The road was not always easy, we met less ans less asphalt and sometimes there were constructions on the road because some rocks were falling down. For lunch we tried some soup, again instead of meat with something else but otherwise it was good. We ate it in a little wooden house with some plastic roof so if outside was 28 degrees then inside in the house about 38 degrees. Zsófi laughed a lot when I said I will ask if the sauna is also included in the price of the soup or will we be chagred extra for it. Again although she found funny she dissuaded me to ask it.
In the evening when looking for a place to camp we passed a wooden house where a guy worked. He showed us a nice place for our tent, he said it was his property. We wanted to make some pancakes for dinner, flour is heavy and pancakes are tasty but we had no milk. We don’t carry milk anymore with us because it goes wrong during the daily heat. We asked the guy if we can buy from him or maybe he knows where we can get. He was nice and told that we can buy in the nearby village and he will go there soon. We thought he needs something as well from the village so he can take me to a shop in the village and I can also come back with him. What really happened was that he lived in the village and took me to his home where we got fresh milk from one of his cows and he and his wife also packed us some jam and wine. I started to realize that he drives back to our camping place only because of me when her wife said that she will come as well to see Zsófi. I already asked in their house how much does all this cost but they answered something from which I thought it is a gift. Already at the camp place I asked again when the wife said it is 20 lari included everything, camping place as well! We felt bad because the guy didn’t say he will ask money for the camping place and 20 lari is quite a lot for half a litre of milk. Fortunately we could agree in 10 lari. The “shopping” took so long that at the end we didn’t make pancakes, only in the morning. The same evening we tested the shower function of the Ortlieb bag. It is also satisfying, both of us could comfortably take shower from 10 l bag and it is much better than pouring water from bottles to each other. There is only 1 tiny problem… it is cold but we are taugh guys!!! :-)
Next day was very nice. From one part of the road we could even see the famous Ushba twin peaks (4710 m) which is the toughest mountaineering challenge in Georgia.

Ushba - only one of the twin peaks is visible yet

Because it was my big dream to see it I told Zsófi that we have to stand there for 10 minutes in silence but she didn’t take me seriously.
10 km before Mestia, in Latali, we wanted to have something to eat so we asked for a shop or restaurant. We learned that there was no shop but the lady said we can have dinner at their place and later also offered a room to sleep. All for free. The dinner was delicious! We had a different kind of pancake made of matsoni (instead of milk), which is the caucasian kefír in Georgian language. Although I didn’t expect it we could also take a shower, the bathroom was very nice. I have mixed feelings about the Georgian hospitality, some of them are nice but some of them want to take advantage of tourists.
Next day we cycled the remaining 10 km to Mestia but this is already another story…

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/felix.kovacs/BikeToAsiaGruzia#

Zsófi & Félix

Ps.: We got a response that you never know who writes the post. This time we wrote it together, although “I” refers to Félix.

Tags: , , , Category Georgia |

11 comments

Rushing out of Turkey

2010
06.06

For a few more days we continued slowly knowing that we have not much chance to ride through Turkey in 30 days. After we spent a day on Inebolu beach in the evening we rolled out of the city to look for a place to camp. The place we found was quite close to road but we thought was not visible from the there. Around midnight, when Zsofi was already sleeping, 2 guy came and talk to us in Turkish something like we should not camp there, they mentioned police and jandarma (and cakal again). We didn’t understand completely what they said. We tried to explain that we just stay there for a night and then we will leave in the morning. The same evening earlier we cooked some chicken first time using the petrol cooker. Gas cooker was easier to use but probably we won’t be able to find a compatible gas canister. We have to try out exactly how much petrol it needs. Before using it, it requires some pressure in the bottle, which I can produce by pumping the built-in pump 20 times. Then I have to prime it by letting some petrol into the pre-heating area and burning it – at this time it burns with a huge flame! Then after a minute, it will be OK and the orange flame turns into a blue one, indicating that it is ready to use.
We started to hitch-hike 6 days before our visa expired on the 45th day. We didn’t like the idea of hitch hiking but we had no other chance, we couldn’t extend our visa and couldn’t go faster either. If we really want to stick to the plan we could go back by buying the visa again and cycle the route we didn’t but right now I don’t really feel like doing that. We used 2 cars. The first van stopped after Türkeli and took us to Ayancik, it was about 30 km. Then we continued cycling, we thought it is still faster than just standing next to the road. Later, a truck stopped for us which carried medical toxic trash. When the guy opened the back door, it was full of closed plastic bags full of garbage, and a smelling liquid covered the floor – he said it is just water. OK, maybe 99% of it is water, but the remaining 1% can be still smelling… We were a bit afraid that the bikes will smell strange (and our CS host will fire us) but it was not that bad. The 2 guy who took us was very nice because there was only 1 empty seat left in the front and still they took us for about 200km till Samsun. This way unfortunately we couldn’t visit the city Sinop (where we originally wanted to hitchhike) just saw it from afar from the road. On the way with the help of Felix’s mom we could arrange a couch in Samsun – it was quite last minute! We entered the CS’s coordinates into the GPS – the truck went almost exactly to the same place and the driver also offered that we can stay one night at their place! Ersan, our CS host had quite a big flat. The living room, where we slept, was more than 60 square meters. There was warm shower, we could wash our clothes and use the internet – the 3 most important things for us in these days! :) He didn’t let me pay in the shops and so invited us for a dinner at home. Next day we started late because I didn’t know that Zsofi wanted to ride the remaining 535 km in Turkey in 5 days, I thought that she will want to hitchhike again, but she wanted to cycle all the way! So we made 70 km on the first day after Samsun (then 135, 106, 140 and 93 to Batumi). Looking for a camp place was easy – we agreed that after 70 km we’ll start to look for one. We left the main road and asked the owners of a house whether we can sleep in their garden. They not only allowed this, but we could also use the bathroom and they invited us to a dinner. Unfortunately the language barrier didn’t let us communicate too much.
We spent the next 4 days with serious riding, we didn’t stop so many times to take photos, just rushed through the towns. However, we marked those which are worth for a revisit: Ünye, Fatsa, Giresun, Rize.

Fatsa - we had a rest here

We had a CS in Giresun, the cousin of the Samsun CS host :) They prepared us lavas with some very delicious (red) breakfast sauce which I couldn’t find in the shops (and I can’t remember the name of it). It contained paprika, tomato, walnuts, hazelnuts, garlic, oil, etc.
We met some kind people on the road – before Giresun, where we stopped to check our GPS, they gave us a pack of famous Giresun hazelnuts. (They say that 90% of the world’s hazelnuts are from Turkey, and the Giresun region is the most famous.) It tasted really good! Sometimes we ate it with pure milk chocolate :)
We crossed lots of tunnels (total maybe 20 km), the longest one was almost 4 km before Ordu.

Our longest tunnel before Ordu

But the road quality was superb and there were no steep and high hills to cross. However, looking back on it, we preferred the small and steep roads in the western part because there was much less traffic, it was much more quiet and the landscape was beautiful. In the east, it was like going on a highway, as if we also were cars. It was noisy! But the towns here were more modern, there were lots of nice parks on the seashore.
We met another cyclist traveler, a french guy, who was riding to Mongolia alone, then to Africa. He looked quite tough, he left his 2 children at home and wants to spend 6 years from the next 10 by traveling. For a while, we cycled together but after I got my first flat tire (I couldn’t see the glasses because he was in front of me) we said goodbye.
Just before the Georgian border, there was suddenly such a heat (about 20 degrees sudden rise in the temperature – as if they had switched on the hairdryers in front of us!) that we thought it came from the roadside trucks. But after we left them, the heat remained! So we thought that there is an industrial plant in the near. But it was still hot after we left the town. In Hungary I’ve never met such a heat.
We soon reached the border – it was a complete chaos. Lots of trucks, buses, crowd… People got off the buses and queued for passport control (some 200 people in a queue on the sun). They said that we should go for a check to the same window! We were frightened but fortunately we did not have to queue up… It was around noon, there was heat, we were sweating like hell, the sun was shining from the top, people in the queue tried to shelter themselves with their suitcases. The Turkish guy just stamped our passports after checking it in the machine, but the Georgian side was much more complicated. We had to go through customs control – they had us unpack every bag and they checked them with a device like at the airports. I told them that I cannot unpack my rear bags and I can only place them on the FUTÓSZALAG together with my bike. So the man opened the bag and looked into it – he could only see the things on the top: a bread, and some dirty clothes. :) So he let us go. The guy said that this heat is normal here, and for them this is still winter! In July and August it is much worse.
So our first impression of Georgia is the extreme heat. We quickly tried to find a beach to cool us down. There were a lot but there none of them could be approached by bike. Finally we found one in Gonio. The sea was very cold, the air very hot and humid! Everybody was expecting a big storm, and in the evening it has really arrived. On the beach Zsofi got a small flower from a man who later invited us to their house, and we also ate dinner. We also learned from him that we must set our clocks again forward by 1 hour (actually, Tbilisi’s time zone is UTC +4 but there is no Summer Time). I must refresh my Russian language knowledge immediately. Almost everybody speaks Russian here besides the Georgian language, which has its own alphabet and strange letters. For Zsofi it is difficult, she didn’t study Russian at school (She is too young :) ). I’ve studied for 4 years but completely forgot everything.
The dinner was very delicious, we have experienced new tastes that we’ve never tasted before. We started to Batumi in the evening, when the storm came! It was big wind, we hardly could see anything, the wind blew the dust everywhere.
In Batumi, the roads are in very bad condition, they are rebuilding the city but it takes years. The park and the surrounding near the sea is already nice, but the rest is a mess. The roads are even worse than the worst road in Bulgaria on the mountain pass! The smaller streets are dark, even the one where we had the CS host. But, as we’ve learned from Petra, it is not dangerous now, as it was 6-8 years earlier.
We were so exhausted after the long cycling days that we stayed there for 3 days in spite of the fact that there was no shower, washing or internet. We used the internet cafes in town for 1 lari/hr. The town is like a mixture of Budapest’s VIII. district and the Chinese market, multiplied by 20. :)

Market in Batumi

However, Petra still likes it! She has traveled almost every continents. I also had a slight fever and my bowels moved when we arrived (so we were not such an entertaining company to Petra), but it is better now.

Leaving Batumi

Leaving Batumi

Félix

Tags: , , Category Georgia, Turkey |

9 comments

From Cide to Inebolu

2010
05.26

We spent at least 2 hours at the petrol station in Cide hanging on the internet. Then heavy rains came so again we couldn’t make too much progress. :) We couldn’t find a bigger supermarket in Cide, just the usual small and expensive ones. Nobody speaks English here, it is quite annoying! We also ate döners. We’ve discovered that here in Turkey the restaurants’ tradition is that if you order something (in this case, döners) they bring a lot of other food and drink without asking you. Then it turns out only after you’ve finished that it cost some extra liras – we thought they bring it because it is included in the döner’s price.
After Cide a climb came again and we also met a hitchhiking guy there – we just talked shortly while passing by, but we regret that because it would have been so nice to finally speak to somebody who speaks English!
We only did 26 km this day, it was getting dark so we settled down at the first camping place we found, even if there was no panorama, only bushes surrounding it. When we started next day, we found an ideal sleeping place right after 3 km – just as I expected. :) It was a small house, carpets inside, a “Yöneldiginde Allah yanindadir” sign above the door, with a small terrace, plus water outside and a separate small building with toilets. It was empty and open. We stopped to wash our clothes – the weather is finally sunny again so they dry quickly on the quickly stretched ropes. Meanwhile, Zsofi also fries some pancakes. I’m afraid that the 450 g Primus power gas will run out, we’ll see. The solar panel has fully charged the netbook so life is good now. :) We’ve decided to write down notes whenever we can – in this way we can immediately post it on the blog when we find a wifi.
There are some landslides which block the road along the coast – we’ve already met some. They repair the road constantly. By bike we can sometimes pass by without waiting for them to let cars go. Sometimes not. The hillside is quite steep at some points and big rocks are falling down, making the half of the road disappear.  But fortunately the traffic is not big on this road! So when we had to wait for 5 minutes at a construction work, only 1 car queued up. :) And although the road is very difficult by bike, the nice landscape compensates. We always look at the sea and the nice coastline while riding. We also got used to go on the left side of the road because then we can see more. We had the feeling that this Karadeniz yolu is a bicycle road (it is quite narrow at some points) on which sometimes a car passes by. We don’t like when car comes on the road because we can’t slalom up the steep hills.
The most important sentence we learned is: “Ne kadar?” (How much does it cost?) because at the small vegetable and fruit stalls they never indicate prices. So when we arrive, we ask “Ne kadar” 10-20 times, pointing at every item. :) They also tend to round the numbers. So 300 g tomato costs the same as 500g.
We like to eat peanuts as snack at short stops. Here, in Turkey, the salt is on the brown skin of the peanut which we don’t eat. If we peel the peanut the salt comes off, so we do not peal it! We try to consume a lot salt because we probably lose a lot with the sweating.
You might be curious how we stand sitting on the saddle for so much time. The answer is: on the first few days when we were riding for long hours without stopping then we could feel our bump in the evening. But since we stop regularly – that is the advantage of the very steep road – it doesn’t hurt at all. Probably it only hurts if we go (or actually sit) a lot at a stretch.
Felix regretted that once we slept at a place where we couldn’t see the sunset from the tent because next day we saw so many nice places where we could have slept. So next day he didn’t want to stop until he found a sunset place. I start usually feel uncomfortable around 6:30pm if we are still not looking for a place to sleep because it is not fun to ride the bike in the dark and it is also more difficult to find a place when you can hardly see anything. So I started to feel that anxious when he said we have to climb another hill knowing that it takes for a while and it is also really tiring. Finally we found a place which was really nice, it was kind of on the top of a cliff.

Many bumps on the Black Sea coast...

We saw the sunset, recorded our every day statistics and went to sleep. The next thing I know is that Felix wakes me up that he can’t sleep because the wind is blowing very strongly and it makes such a noise that he can’t stand so we need to go. It was at 5am!!! I didn’t like the idea to start at 5am but had no chance. So that is how it happened that we went already more before noon than other days.

We visited Doganyurt which is a small city with a square, a bunch of people are sitting in cafe’s and drinking tea. At the end of the day we both were very tired, the total ascent was 1232m while the highest point we reached was only 235m. So we climbed a lot, actually we broke a record with that! To emphasize that even more it means we climed more than what we did at the high passes in Romania or Bulgaria.
Next day we rolled down to Inebolu and had a rest on the beach. Felix asked the hotel’s wifi password so that’s why we have internet access now.
Today, 26th May, Zsofi had a swim in the sea for the first time! :) It is not so cold as it was in Sile. But the locals still don’t understand why we came here and not to the south of Turkey. They say that summer begins here only in mid or end of June…
The solar charger has charged the netbook from 60% to 95%. At the beginning, it consumes a lot of current and the small battery always discharges and breaks connection to the load (which is the netbook).  But when it is near total capacity, the charger switches from constant current charging to constant voltage charging, thus resulting in less and less current which is no longer a problem for the solar charger and the small Pb battery. So it is a good practice to keep the netbook nearly fully charged when possible.


Tags: , Category Turkey |

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1000 m ascent a day

2010
05.23

Last time when you received a bunch of posts to read we were in Eregli. We decided to stay there for a rest day, the continuous ups and downs were very tiring.
Tamás mentioned once that there was a loudspeaker on a mosque. Well, there are speakers on every mosques and 5 times a day we can hear some pray and because of the speakers you can hear it everywhere in the city/village (and also in a 10 km circle). It was not different in Eregli either, the only difference was that before the pray started we heard some dialing tone from the speaker very loudly. I think it was a recorded voice and played at the time it was needed but we are not sure as we don’t understand a thing. We find it a little bit strange this loud pray so many times a day. We tried to find something similar in Hungary, maybe it is like the bells at noon but it doesn’t wake you up in the morning.
After Eregli we climbed a 500m pass but it was not that steep as the Turkish average. Next to the road there were a lot of small booths selling strawberry, one small bucket for 10 TL. We found it very expensive just like everything in small shops, more expensive than in Hungary. The bigger the city the cheaper the food is, the cheapest was so far Istanbul. We find this quite surprising as in Hungary it is the other way around.
It was so hot that the asphalt melted and we felt that the tires stuck to road making climbing a bit more difficult. Whenever a car or a truck passes by they always push the horn just next to us. I think it is supposed to be some kind of welcoming but we find it annoying because it is quite loud and we will go deaf if we have to listen to it very long. I think Turkish people like the horn a lot and they push it whenever they see something unusual. Surprisingly the road did not continue in a ravine and we could roll down for a long time. At the bottom there was a beach where Felix went to swim. I changed for a bathing suit as well and felt like people are looking a bit strange at me so at the end I didn’t dare to take my T-shirt of. But it was OK because the water was very cold anyhow. People grilled some chicken which had good smell. The cyclists are always hungry so we visited a restaurant and eat some chicken. The meals cost 7 TL each that’s why we were quite surprised when the lady at the end told us that we should pay 40 TL. We couldn’t decide why she said that because nobody spoke English there so our guess it was just a nice try. Felix explained them that 7+7=14 but still after that we got only back 5 TL from a 20…
There was our first tunnel before Zonguldak where we had to switch on our headlights, although it was not long, 100-200 m.
We arranged our next CS in Zonguldak, the GPS navigated there (we knew the address) – it was on the top of a mountain with extremely steep streets! This was the steepest so far. We had to push, but it was also very tiring. My shoes even slipped on the asphalt. We had to stop every 5 m and there were stairs next to the road – you can imagine how steep it was.
Finally we found the flat. It looked like a hairdresser’s saloon (it was that before). The guy was kind with us and we’ve learned that youtube is banned in Turkey because there was some offensive material about Atatürk. We asked him about the religious habits in Turkey – it turned out that on the beach, women swim in clothes so when Zsofi wore bikinis on the beach, she was not only imagining that others look strange at her, but she was right.
Not only was the road out of Zonguldak killing (the extremely steep ascents continued with lots of stinky buses and trucks) but we also realized after 10 km that we left our big jar of Nutella at the CS place! The biggest loss was the light plastic jar in which we always repacked the Nutella to get rid of the heavy glass.
The ups and downs continued until Fylios. Then the microbumps (Edirne-Istanbul) reappeared but the road was more or less flat. After we left the main road at Saltukova (to take the shorter road to Bartin), ups-and-downs begun. Here on this road we would have been lost without the GPS because there were no signposts! Zsófi was tired and said that we will not reach Bartin that day so we canceled the CS host in an sms. We found a camping place with nice panoramic view. This day we climbed more than 1000 m so I had to promise Zsofi that we will take a rest week in Amasra, which I soon managed to bargain down to 3 days.

In Bartin we finally found a supermarket. Both of us went in, one by one. While I was waiting outside, a man came there and looked askingly like Besenyő Pista bácsi in the beginning of this VIDEO ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqh_kWyj_iM ). Finally he asked: “Tourist?” I don’t know how could he figure this out… :)
We bought grilled chicken (6 TL, 9 if you eat it on site) and we ate it next to the river on a nice bank. We had to climb through a pass to reach Amasra. There we could not find a place for our tent so we slept in a pension – the room cost 17 EUR. The view from the terrace was beautiful! Amasra is a cute little town. We took an evening walk. In the morning, Zsofi fried some pancakes (we forget to ask whether breakfast is included or not). We found the only place in town (a jewelry) where they change money but finally we took it from an ATM. After a late start (at 3 PM)  we wanted to look for a camping place in the near (this is a rest day, after all). We found one after 279 m climb but I had to get water and bread from the nearby village (this was the zig-zag on the tracking). There was no shop in this village, so a man was so kind and gave me some bread (plus olives and apples), for free. We set up the tent next to 2 cows on a grassy land. They were tied to a stick so Zsofi dared to pass by them and to camp there.
We realized that we don’t have enough days left from our visa to ride all the way through Turkey! When calculating at home using a map, it was much easier – we did not see the tiring ups and downs next to the coastline on Karadeniz Yolu – the Black Sea route.
The sun came out from behind the clouds and there was no shade so we set up to find an other (more shady) place for the tent. We found it after 10 km. We asked the neighbours whether we can sleep there – they allowed it and later invited us for dinner. There was also internet in the house (but no wifi so we could not use our own laptop in the tent).

Next day we rolled down to the beach of Cakraz – it was very nice, we took tons of photos there. However, it was not beach time here yet – I was the only person to swim.

On the cliffs next to Cakraz beach

Again, a steep climb came – Zsofi almost wanted to give it up and told me that I should continue alone – but somehow she continued. We luckily found a very nice place for the tent (the only possible place in a 20 km area) with a nice view of the sea and the sunset over the sea! We were sleeping until late next day – we slowed down to 25 km a day :)
The next day we had some rain and also cleaned our chains after 2170 km. Again we found a nice place, and we just started to cook when a bus stopped and about 20-30 people got off and walked towards us. We thought that they are looking for a place to pee, etc. and all of them will do it in the bushes surrounding us. But they just had a rest and gathered around us (just as if they’d seen an UFO). To our surprise, none of them spoke any languages other than Turkish! Some of them said “Yes” and laughed… This is common in whole Turkey – they either don’t speak any languages, or if they do, they are very hard to understand. Many times they just repeat the one sentence they know and laugh after that.
At night there was heavy rain, it was so loud that we woke up. In the morning we woke up to barking dogs – when I looked out, there were 8 dogs around the tent! They went away but came back in 5 minutes, sniffing our food and settled down there. When I opened the tent and shouted “go away!”, they did not move. But when I came out and stood up (threateningly holding up an empty plastic bottle in my hand), they realized that I’m bigger than they are so they reluctantly walked away.
Today is a short day again because we found wifi at a petrol station and wanted to write to the blog and upload photos.
More photos at: http://picasaweb.google.hu/felix.kovacs/BikeToAsiaTorokorszag2
(We opened a new album because picasa wanted to start synchronizing from scratch…)

Tags: , Category Turkey |

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