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
Félix
