A fantastic breakfast started our day off right but it quickly went downhill from there. We couldn’t resist the hotel’s offer to cook us breakfast for a very reasonable price and we gorged ourselves on eggs fresh from the chickens running round the yard as well as homemade jam, bread, olives, tomatoes, cheese and a huge pot of coffee. The storm clouds started to gather and we asked the hotel owner about the weather report but he gave us a disdainful look and informed us it hadn’t rained in months so he didn’t expect anything to change today.
The owner was wrong of course. Not long after his prediction the water started to fall from the sky in buckets. We’d just started out on the road when the downpour really got going, around the same time as we discovered a flat in Friedel’s back tyre. Thankfully we were only meters from a petrol station so we did a run for cover and fixed the tyre while three bemused service station attendants looked on.
There are so many gas stations in Turkey and they are nearly always devoid of customers when we pass, we have to wonder how in the world anyone affords to employ so many staff! In any case, after providing entertainment for three bored employees we sat under the forecourt awning for some time and discussed our options. We voted for a tour of the town and then to do a run back to the hotel for tea, waiting to see how the day would develop.
The tour of the town was a bit of a letdown, just two corner stores, one cafe and one veterinarian. No excitement there then. Instead we rushed back to the hotel, found shelter and a pot of coffee while we waiting for the skies to clear. Finally just after midday things brightened up and we headed out.
We were glad we hadn’t tried to push on in the rain because the climb to a pass was reasonably hard work and we would have been quite miserable if we’d been fighting the rain as well as the hill!
Once we reached the pass we enjoyed a downhill run and then it was already late afternoon; time to find a camping spot. We thought we’d found the perfect place but we’d forgotten about the rain and stupidly ploughed our bikes straight into a muddy field. Within seconds the mud was stuck like glue to our tyres and we had to literally carry the bikes out of the field and then spend a good half hour cleaning the tyres off so the wheels would run free again.
We weren’t so silly the second time and found a drier spot for our tent a bit down the road. There was still a bit of muddy track to get to our place though so hopefully it doesn’t rain tonight or we may never get out of the field!