Day 21 - Running on Fumes

Much of the first half of the day was spent battling our usual nemesis, pedaling hard just to move downhill. Only today we were having some serious fueling issues. Perhaps because of the sprint finish yesterday or potentially the inadequate pot noodle dinner, we were both down on energy. After a decent breakfast, a 1000 calorie food stop 40mins later and another equally massive feed another 40mins after that and still barely keeping the hunger beast at bay, we finally gave in and decided to reduce the speed and therefore increase our CPM (calories per mile). This proved particularly wise as we didn't see any shops in over 75 miles which was quite the change from the previous 1-per-village situation we'd got used to. By the time we found the first tiny store and plundered it as pirates plunder gold, we really needed sugar. Coke has never tasted so good.

Eventually the tactic paid off and by about 3pm we finally felt caught-up on the fueling situation and could resume more normal eating. Honestly though what a pain. It's so fustrating always being hungry, never being full for more than 15mins and constantly, CONSTANTLY having to eat. I know it sounds great, and perhaps on holiday with a massive kitchen or a personal chef it would be, but even then you'd want to do something else after a while that wasn't grocery shopping or eating. We're also trying to not eat too much processed food which limits our options to a few regulars on constant cycle. But mostly it's just annoying always being hungry.

Just as we resigned ourselves to a very low mileage day the route swung North and suddenly we had one hell of a tailwind. We could go uphill at the same speed we were managing to go down in the morning - mental! And despite the many stops to chat to very interested locals and raid any shop we came across, we made amazing progress and suddenly the day was back on track! 🎉

Approaching a village before the final climb and very close to our planned camp spot we overtook a tractor. Stopped in town a few minutes later he pulled up alongside us impressed, "how do you cycle so fast?!". Following a short Google translate conversation he invited us to stay with him, but after much deliberation we decided we were too tired and too close to an early night in the tent for a whole evening of Google translate and gesticulatation so we politely declined. We then raced a friendly kid through the village on his bike, again politely declined someone waving us to come to their house and started up the hill. A moment later a car overtook and pulled in ahead. In any other country this is a huge huge red flag and I'd be planning my escape route (past experience shows this to be wise), but here of course they were just keen to say hi and invite us for dinner. They spoke English so we were tempted, but having declined two in the village already we felt we couldn't accept the third and a few miles later found a very pretty, but very windy, campsite. These people are insane, and that village, Karacadere, are a particularly shining example! We'll have to work hard to get our street smarts back for later in the trip but for now - stay awesome Turkey!

Food spend today: 12.10 euros