Day 15 - Holy Headwind
After waking up in our rather beautiful campsite we had what felt like a rather relaxed morning, but one that was somehow also very efficient. Our systems are definitely getting slicker!
The good news continued when we started with...with...with a tailwind!? Feels strange to say. We knew it would turn to super strong cross on later but we'll take anything we can get at the moment!
A long ford provided a momentary obstacle. Emma commited straight to bare feet but I was keen to try. I got there, but since the bottom was super slick with weeds and it was like pedalling on ice one foot was submerged. Managed to keep one dry and not fall off the edge of the road which would have been a full submersion so chalking it up as a win. High stakes!
After that it was straight onto the border crossing, and after a slow but smooth process, we were into Turkey! Very far from home already now!
For the 30km in Greece both last night and this morning we had beautiful tailwinds. The moment we got into Turkey the wind switched and it was like cycling into a wall.
Put your sound on to hear 4 seconds of what we enjoyed all day! 🔊
It was so strong and so gusty we couldn't even slipstream each other. Serious Mongolia vibes, if a little bit more shelter and smaller landscape. The miles just went by so so so slowly.
Stopping in towns we got a LOT of interest from the locals and in particular the kids. Mostly they were nice, and usually disappeared as soon as we refused to give them money, but one little kid took to whacking our tires, panniers and even legs. Taught us to set clear boundaries and when to stop smiling. The one waiting outside the supermarket with the bikes is going to have hard work in this country though.
Promising ourselves we wouldn't stop in the dark, after suffering for another couple of noisy hours, we found a nice quiet spot with a great view, which was sadly drastically short of our 160km minimum target. But hey - at least we're still ahead of the rain!
Camping before the sunset!
And as a final note (because "people like that sort of thing on your blog"): For the second time this trip I was fooled into buying liquid yoghurt instead of milk - Anna and Georgi even warned us about that here. Black tea it is...
Food spend today: 24.70 euros