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As my trip continues the weather continues to improve with each day getting a bit warmer. The last few days have been in the 70's and that is my kind of weather. Today I reached the Mediterranean Sea as I had been following the Agean Sea coastline.
 Mediterranean Sea
At Fethive I deboarded and tried to find the direction to the town of Ouldeniz which had great reviews in my travel guide. As I found my way out of town and got riding on a pretty good road, I came across a tortise out in the middle of the road. He was about 9" in diameter and I didn't think he would probably make it across before getting smashed by some vehicle. I stopped and picked him up and then took him to a safe place off the road and placed him in the grass. I guess that is not where he wanted to be as he made a slow 180 degree turn and headed back to the roadway. This guy must of had a death wish! So I retrieved him again from his dangerous journey and this time carried him about 30 feet off in a field and placed him down. I looked back as I pedaled away and he seemed to be staying put. That was the first tortise I'd seen, but as the day continued I saw many more, some of which were crunched into the asphalt. Every so often, there would be a road sign noting a turtle crossing.
I hadn't seen any direction or mileage signs for Oludeniz for some time and stopped to ask someone how far it might be and just like many other places I've traveled, people only know distances by the time it takes to get there by bus or car. They don't seem to know mileage or kilometer distances. I could see what looked to be a hard climb up ahead and sure enough it took about all I had to make the grade. It was a 4 mile ascent requiring that I shift down to my lowest gear. It took my over an hour to cover that 4 miles and then the downhill was even steeper and I had to ride my brakes for much of the way as the road descended to the sea's coastline. The remaining miles to Ouldeniz were very pleasant as I cycled along the shore and beautiful views of the sea.
As I was entering Ouldeniz, the evening Islamic chants were being performed over loudspeakers from Mosques throughout the area. That is one thing about Turkey that I will not miss when I get home. Ouldeniz, just like every other beach town I've been to, does not have a sandy beach just small pebbles. It was just warm enough that I wanted to lay out by the sea and I took my towel and laid out in the sun. Although my thermostat stated the temperature at 71 degrees, it felt more like 80 degrees. The beach stretched for at least a mile and there were about a dozen other people sunbathing on the warm day. In two more weeks the real crowds will start to arrive. The tourist areas are busy with workers as they clean, paint and spruce up for the coming hordes. Most of the hotels, shops, and restaurants close during the off season, from October to the middle of May. After a short, relaxing nap in the sun, I started a search for my night's accommodation. I found a new hotel and I may have been the first guest to stay there as everything looked to be brand new and there were no indications of any prior use. One of the most popular activities here is paragliding as this town is in a deep gorge with sheer cliffs that rise to 2000 feet. All day long vans take people up to the top of these cliffs and then they send the paragliders off the cliff out toward the sea where the uplift wind currents allow the glider to sail for at least 1/2 hour before landing on the beach.
The quaint village of Kas
I was up early anticipating a nice buffet breakfast which was included in the room rate at this nice hotel. But, as I guessed, it was the same offering that I've had in the past. Olives, tomatoes, goat cheese and some kind of cold cut meat. I loaded upon bread and jam. There wasn't a ripple on the sea this morning, just as calm as could be. It would have been a really tough grind to bike out of this gorge on the sea, so I went looking for the local dolmus as they would be transporting people back to Fethive up in the coastal range. With some luck I found one just getting prepared to depart and there was room for me and my bike went on top with other baggage. I was hoping I could get the driver to stop near the summit and then I could of had a nice descent in Fethive, but I couldn't make him understand so went all the way to town where he dropped everyone off. All the men and women around here greet each other with a kiss on each other's cheek.
My cycling route was very nice today. I rode along for 30 miles in a valley. On one side was the coastal mountain range and on my other side were snow capped mountains. I stopped and took a picture of the snowy peaks. I hadn't thought that it snowed here. The valley had a lot of agriculture and fields of workers were out with their hoes and shovels doing a lot of planting by hand. Some workers were watering the new plantings by hand with a hose attached to a tractor with a water tank. A little water for each new seedling. As I cycled along I kept looking at a mountain range in the distance and hoped that the nice flat valley would continue somewhere around those mountains. This time luck was not on my side as I ended up making a 10 mile climb with the expenditure of a lot of effort. The vista from the summit was my reward as I could look out into the vast blue green sea and see numerous little islands protruding from the water. The next reward was a great discent down to the coastline. The coastal road traveled all along the rocky shore. I cycled in an out of little coves where the turquoise sea lapped at the rocks.
After my longest ride of this trip, I entered the quaint seashore village of Kas. It was 4:15 pm and I had cycled 78 miles. Kas is situated on hills next to the sea. Little streets and pathways go every which way and the locals were busy climbing up and down these streets. A car was a rare site. Many cute little shops and restaurants. Lots of nice small hotels. I found one where my room overlooked the sea and there was a restaurant and bar on the roof. At dinner time I went for a walk around the village and selected a small restaurant with outdoor seating. I ordered a filet steak with mushrooms and cheese. The first piece of beef I eaten on this trip. By this time it was 7:30 pm and you would think there would be people out eating dinner, but I was the only customer in the place. I was seated on the outside terrace that had a lattice covering that was covered with bright red bouganinvillea. When my meal was brought to my table the plate was overflowing with food. That was what I wanted as I was pretty darn hungry after my long day on the saddle. A big No! No! over here is spilling food on the table when eating. That is a sign of very poor manners. Well, all of a sudden and a complete surprise, a cute little kitty jumped up in my lap and this caused me to make a spill. I figured I was in trouble if this was seen by the wait staff. I put the kitty back down on the floor and he just stood there and looked at me with his big eyes. When the waiter wasn't looking, I cut a small piece of meat and gave it to the cat. I then placed my napkin over the spill so it wouldn't be noticed, and was able to pay my bill and escape without a tongue lashing from the waiter.
The climb toward Mt. Olympos
I awoke to another beautiful morning as the sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I climbed the stairs to the terrace restaurant for some breakfast and looked out over the Mediterranean Sea. The water was like glass with not a ripple. I very serene scene as ships and yachts plied the calm sea at this early morning hour. Also, from this vantage point I could see a road to the east that zig-zaged up the side of another mountain range. I asked the waiter if that was the road to Antalya which was my next and last destination. "That's it" he said, and told me the road climbed for 15 miles to the summit and then it would level off for some distance. I thought...why suffer more than I need to, and headed to the otogar. I figured that I'd climbed enough mountains and I would bypass this next one. I took the bus on a 60 mile jaunt to the small village of Linike and then deboarded. Again, that was a good decision on my part as the road was very steep and the bus driver had to stay in low gears during much of the ascent.
As I cycled along I could look out over a valley and the whole area was a mass of hot houses. They grow much of their vegetables and fruits in this region. There must of been hot houses for at least 10 miles. Up ahead I could see another mountain range and sure enough I had to make that climb. I had sheer cliffs on one side and a long dropoff on the other side as I weaved my way up the road. This was a tough climb and took all my stamina to keep going. I had to make a stop part way to the summit as my legs were screaming for a rest. I pulled over and took a rest and drank a soda while my heart rate got back to normal. I was sitting on the big boulder watching the heavy laden trucks and tractors inching their way up the mountainside. Most of them were traveling at 5-6 mph whereas I was able to pull only about 4-5 mph. Some of these loaded trucks were going so slow and were so close to me that I had the urge to grab hold of the back and get a free lift. The sheer volume of exhaust and pollution made me change my mind about using that tactic. After another hour I came upon a restaurant that was situated at an overlook, so I pulled over to get something to eat. I had assumed that this was the crest and I would have easy going from here on. I found out later that this was not the case at all and there were still mountains up ahead. I had a good lunch and a good view of the valley below and where I had started a few hours ago. There were numerous great vistas to be viewed from this road and I finally reached the crest at 2100 feet then the terrain leveled off considerably, changing to easy rollers. Just near the summit was a turn off to Mt. Olympus where the eternal flame is still burning and has been since the beginning of time. At the end of this turnoff you must still hike for about 30 minutes to see the actual flame. I didn't make this sidetrip as I didn't think there would have any way to secure my bike and gear. The downhill was much more fun! I had 15 miles of constant descending to the coast. On my way to the bottom, I came upon a cycling couple for Holland. I've cycled there in the past and Holland is completely flat. The mountainous terrain of Turkey was proving extremely difficult for these cycling tourists. On this day they had cycled 15 miles so far and they were planning to camp up the road about 25 miles. The other difficulty they had was that they were cycling north and the prevailing winds along the coast are from the north. They've had headwinds whenever they are biking near the sea, while I've had tail winds as I've been traveling south.
It was 3 pm when I reached the exquisite little town of Kemer, Just as I had turned off the main road onto the exit road, KA-POW! KA-POW!, I got two flat tires. I had cycled right through a large patch of broken glass. I used my last two patches to make repairs and hoped that I could find a bike shop in Kemer before leaving tomorrow. This little town was also very nice. Clean and pretty. A really nice beach area, a harbor, marble sidewalks and inlaid brick pedestrian lanes. There were first class hotels, restaurants, and shops. I noticed that everything seemed to be pretty pricey compared to what I had experienced earlier on my route. It is a favorite holiday retreat for both Germans and Russians and there are direct flights from Munich and Moscow for those wealthy individuals who vacation here. Presently those countries are still in the grips of winter and that makes this a popular destination as it is much warmer here this time of year. The town was crowded with tourists and it seems that most of the people here speak German. Maybe I look German as almost all shopkeepers greeted me in that language. I must not look Russian. I spent a good deal of time looking for a reasonable priced hotel among the high priced ones, but located one that had just opened for the season, $10.
Reaching Antalya
My trip is nearing it's end as only a couple of days remain. Last night, even though I cycled all around town, I could not locate any bicycle shop. There are plenty of stores that sell bikes, just none that had parts and supplies. I decided to try asking at the local tourist office, but it would have to wait until morning as it was closed by the time I got there. So the tourist office told me to go to the industrial zone where I would find a number of places that worked on bicycles. Road bikes are not very common over here and I still was unable to find a 700 tube for my bike at any of those repair shops. I was told, this size could only be found in a major city. I couldn't find any pre-sized patches that would fit my tube, but was able to purchase some large ones for mountain bke tubes and these I would be able to cut down to a smaller size.
 Antalya Hadrian's Gate Time to depart
I was up early as usually and had breakfast in the hotel courtyard. The sweet French cooked French toast and it was served with fresh squeezed orange juice. Yum! The best breakfast I'd had the whole trip. I then cycled down to the Turkish Airline office as they offered a shuttle for the 10 mile trip to the airport where I departed on a flight back to Istanbul. Upon arrival at the airport in Istanbul, I obtained my bike from baggage, and took up the challenge to find my way into the city and my previous hotel. It took me just over an hour to maneuver through the city traffic and with the aid of my city map, find my way. I pulled up to my hotel at the end of my trip and after 551 miles of cycling in Turkey.
I spent the evening repacking all my gear and stuff and was able to go out and do some last minute shopping. I asked the front desk to give me a wake up call at 4 am, as my departure flight was at 7am. I set an alarm clock too, and I was glad I did, as the front desk never did call. I even had to wake up the night clerk and have him call a taxi. Then it was off to the airport and board my flight to San Francisco, via Zurich.
Final thoughts, bits, and pieces
Turkey is a very beautiful county with many natural wonders and a very ancient history. I felt I really needed an additional 7 to 10 days to do it more justice. When I considered the length of the flight to get there, a longer stay would have been preferable. Much of the country was in economic recession, but where I was able to travel the economy was much better do to the number of tourists. I think my timing turned out well as the number of tourists was minimal compared to what would arrive there in a couple of more weeks. The weather could have been a bit warmer, but I'll take what I got and at least it didn't rain. My travel expenses in the country were reduced by about 20 percent since it was off season. My room accommodations were excellent everywhere, except in Istanbul. My room prices averaged about $10 per night and all were clean and some had great locations. The hotel in Isatanbul was just passable at best. The food was good, except for the traditional breakfast offerings. When it comes to eating, I'm not very advertureous. If I find one or two things that I like, then that is what I will continue to order. A big surprise for me was the amount of mountians. Mountains, mountains, and more mountains. More noticeably because I was on a bike. Another surprise was the low profile, or complete absence of women everywhere. Turkey is a man's world. I don't recall seeing one female driving a car on the road. Then there is one last thing that I found odd....There sure are a lot of guys with the name of Mustafa!
May 2002
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