The Long Road Home

This might be a bit boring, but in case you are interested, this is what it’s like on a typical day on my trip riding a bike across Europe and Asia.

My watch alarm goes at 6.30. Here in eastern turkey it’s been horribly hot and the only part of the day I don’t feel hot is from about 5.30am to 9.00.

If I’m in a guest house etc I check chargers and make sure at least mobile and blackberry are charged up before I leave a safe place with electricity etc.

I get up and eat bread and tea and honey or choc in the room if it’s a cheapo place with no breakfast. I bought a dangerous boiler element when in Azerbaijan which heats water in about 2 minutes.

I pack my two rear panniers and two front. This takes ages for some reason, always. I put on my two money belts under my clothes. All my valuable docs etc are in these. I wear cycling bib-shorts under some loose blue shorts. I take a GPS reading and i write down previous day’s mileage. I wash my two water bottles and fill them, and I wash my shades which always somehow get dirty. I get everything downstairs - this takes two trips, one with bags, one with bike. If I’ve been staying in a guesthouse etc, I say goodbye to the people. If I’m camping I strike the tent and make a quick tea and eat bread before setting off.

I get on the road between 8 and 10am. Ride 20-30 km and then either brew tea and eat by road or stop at cafe or petrol station or something, if there is one.

I’m doing about 18kph on ordinary roads, down to 10kph if uphill. Dreadfully slow but if I just sit on the bike and don’t give up, I still get a decent mileage done. If it’s steep I weave zig zags to avoid having to walk, as walking cuts even my lowest on-the-bike pace by half immediately and ends up more tiring than riding. On steep uphill rubble tracks I have to walk, I can’t manage to ride. In turkey I stop at water fountains of which there are loads on minor roads, and refill bottles and make myself drink. In other places I’ve had to buy bottled water a lot. I’ve got sick from drinking water from people’s cottages e.g. in Kazakhstan.

People wave from fields and cars and house doorsteps and upstairs balconies and from the roadside and call out hello. In turkey merhaba. In Georgia gamerjobu. In Azerbaijan salam aleykum. In Kazakhstan was often ’sportsman’, and then ‘atkuda?’ which I think means where are you from?’ In the cities e.g. Baku etc I’ve met a few westerners. On the road for weeks in between cities, I’ve only met a handful of westerners the whole journey so far. About 6 other people cycling, a few in guesthouses in towns.

I might eat lunch at a cafe if there is one. Often I sit with people and chat. Sometimes even if I sit alone, someone pays for me. They just smile and point at some man, and wave me away when I ask for the bill. People have been incredibly kind. Or I brew tea and have bread and cheese at a river or hill top. Brewing up tea makes it feel more like a proper stop and the humming stove is kind of companionable.

I look out for birds all the way, scanning wires and rocky hilltops and sky all the time. Ikve got binoculars in back pocket and stop as soon as I see something interesting. I’m rubbish and never stop for small brown birds so despite the fact the yakre probably really interesting I have not observed or identified really any. Big, blue, yellow, etc only. Not a proper birder at all.

When I stop to ask the way or get water, people ask me if I’m really alone. I’m getting a bit tired of this. They normally ask if I’m married. I’m getting very tired of that. Do they ask solo men the same? Then they normally say "it’s dangerous". So I ask what kind of danger they know of - specifically - in their area. If they say wolves, I ask when they actually last saw a wolf. I try and find out any specific and likely dangers and risks e.g. road washed away by floods etc, as this is obviously useful information. They often ask if I can mend punctures. They are amazed when I say yes.

Most people are very nice and mean well, but to have to face ten times every day ‘are you alone?’ and incredulity that a woman more or less is managing to muddle along alone is a bit wearing. I’m thinking of bringing back my up-the-road husband to save the effort of explanation again. I ditched him after Azerbaijan but he might be useful again here. I have tried turning things round, and asking back the men whether THEY are married but that has rather backfired on a couple of occasions if they are not, as they interpreted it as an invitation that we resolve the whole problem by getting married ourselves. And then I have to get myself out of that.

I’m normally tired after 60Km and looking a lot at the mileometer, which doesn’t help anything so I try to avoid it. I look as hard as I can at things around me to remember them for later.

If I’m camping I look for a good place 2hrs before sunset so I have time to make a mistake and find a second place if the first is not good. I fill up water bottles plus an extra water bag or bottle for washing. I look for a place hidden from the road, villages, and houses etc, with good windbreaks e.g. trees, and hopefully near water so I can wash more easily. I pitch the tent, wash if I can, and boil up water for noodles or soup. It’s dark by 7.30 here so I might read a bit by torchlight but mostly don’t use torch as it makes the tent light up like a lantern and I’m worried people see it. I look at the stars or the moon and listen to the river or wind etc. Sometimes to listen to BBC world service on my SW radio(THANKYOU rico, dan, ayako, polly, fidelia, helena, vincent, and the LabCi boys for this present amongst others)

I normally ride between 70 and 110km per day.

If I’m going to a village or town with a guesthouse then I can be on the road longer here with sunset around 7.15, I can ride to about 6pm if necessary.

If I’m staying in a guesthouse etc, I pick a decent- looking place and try and bring my bike right up into my room so I know it’s safe. About half the places don’t mind. I wash my clothes straight away as I only have two sets of stuff and wash every day. I shower and then go out to get food. Normally I’m so tired I drop into the first place I see and get whatever they have. I try and drink another 1.5 litres water to make sure I’m not dehydrated… I do stretches to avoid knee problems (hopefully) and spend about an hour writing. Some days I’m too tired. I check birds I’ve seen in a field guide… I read up where I’m going the next day and study the map. I send a text to Vincent and Tara in Hong Kong (and now London) so they know I’m ok and don’t call the police (thanks to the people in Kenneth’s brilliant Reuters HongKong team especially VINCENT and TARA with whom i have a "heartbeat" safety system). I sleep as early as possible between 9 and 10 is best. If I stay up later, then I wake up tired, and the next day is really hard. I guess the rest isn’t very normal, but that part is just like normal life.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 26th, 2006 at 5:59 am and is filed under On the Road, Turkey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.