Turkey for Christmas

9 January, 2011 by 20 Comments

We flew down a steep country lane, swerving round potholes and skidding through gravel. It was late December but the warm sun and green valleys meant it felt like an English summer. We weren’t quite sure exactly where we were as this road wasn’t on our map, but we didn’t care as we enjoyed the adrenaline rush of being nearly-but-not-quite out of control.

We’d grown bored of following the same winding coastal road for weeks, so we had turned inland down a narrow country lane in the hope of finding a more interesting road. Previous deviations from the map had backfired spectacularly, but fortunately this time our decision to ditch the main road was rewarded – our boredom instantly vanished, and we met Muhammed.

We’d stopped for a quick lunch of water and bread by the local mosque when Muhammed, the village priest, saw us and invited us back to his house for a much tastier lunch. The dinner table was rolled out and loaded with a delicious feast – Muhammed wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept refilling our plates until we could take no more. Cycling onwards with bulging bellies wasn’t an option so we chatted using the invaluable Google Translate, watched Muhammed’s children ride Bex’s bike, and before we knew it we were eating dinner and preparing to stay the night.

We put a few big days in to arrive in Samsun on December 24th so we could enjoy a mini-holiday in a big city. For once when searching for somewhere to stay we considered factors other than just finding the cheapest possible price, as a stay in a hotel was to be our Christmas present. We ended up somewhere that felt like The Ritz compared with our usual standard of accommodation, it was definitely a nice treat for us to enjoy. Even better news was the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet – I was first in/last out each day, got a few strange looks from the hotel staff, and I’m pretty sure we ended up making a small profit from our stay.

On Christmas Eve we raided a newsagents for chocolate, cookies and satsumas and spent Christmas morning gorging ourselves in our room. We played games and read books over a few glasses of tea in a bustling cafe, surrounded by people oblivious to the celebrations back home. We gave the camp stove a night off as we went out for our Christmas dinner, which turned out to be a lamb stir fry with a couple of huge glasses of wine.

 

We left ourselves a long day of pedalling to reach Giresun where we hoped to have a few days off over New Year. We started nice and early, but a routine food/water/toilet stop at a petrol station in the afternoon scuppered our plans for an early arrival. We’d finished our admin and were just about to leave when the petrol station owner brought out cups of tea, swiftly followed by fresh jam, olives and cheese (like Muhamet, it seems he’d seen us munching on a plain loaf of bread and taken pity on us!) When we were finished and once again ready to be on our way the owner’s daughter appeared and could speak excellent English – a relatively rare occurrence outside of cities in Turkey. We stayed for a chat and it was nice to be able to explain our journey to her father who’d been so kind.

Unfortunately, when we finally got round to leaving we had an hour of light left, two hours still to cycle, and it had started raining. We were quickly drenched through (our new waterproofs were waiting in Giresun for us to collect that evening!) and covered in grit from the road. Cycling on the hard-shoulder of what is effectively a motorway in the dark whilst raining was pretty miserable and we were glad when we finally reached the Giresun city sign where we met Mertcan, our host from Warmshowers. A few parcels from home had arrived at Mertcan’s containing a mix of useful kit and fun treats – it felt like a second Christmas had arrived!

We ended up staying for four days to sort out some admin, relax, and let our hangovers subside after we had a great time at a student house party on New Year’s eve. People in cities are generally less conservative than in rural areas – virtually all women in the small villages we’ve cycled through wear headscarfs, whereas in the bigger towns and cities that we’ve visited many don’t. Likewise with alcohol – between Istanbul and Samsun we didn’t see any bars and weren’t offered alcohol when staying in homes or eating out. My first beer since Rob and I rocked the bar in Istanbul over a month before was consumed at Onder’s house in Samsun – thanks Onder, it tasted pretty good! Once we were back in larger cities such as Samsun and Giresun we saw bars dotted around, and the students we met certainly enjoyed a drink or two on New Year’s Eve!

After a month spent on its shores we finally left the Black Sea at Tirebolu, turning inland towards Erzurum, mountains and the Iranian border. The coastal route we’d taken until this point certainly wasn’t as we’d imagined from our extremely limited research – the road from Amasra to Sinop was hard, hilly and took us ages to cycle, but the coastline was beautiful and the weather warm and sunny for the most part. The main highway on which we’d naively envisaged racing across Turkey in a matter of days started at Samsun. Even with the benefit of hindsight I’m glad the road was full of surprises, even if they weren’t usually pleasant ones! If our research was so thorough that we knew exactly what the road ahead would look like, what would be the point in cycling it? The less planning, the greater the adventure…or so we kept telling ourselves as we were faced with yet another lung bursting climb.

Every single day in Turkey we’d been told that it was defintely impossible to cycle to Erzurum in the winter due to the mountains/snow/cold/ice. We hoped otherwise – our view was that if the road was ok for buses and lorries, then surely it could be cycled. We’d been checking temperatures on the internet and Erzurum (the highest, and therefore coldest, city en route) seemed to average daily highs of -2 degrees and night time lows of -17. England has had worse recently! We ignored the advice, turned right off the coast and hoped we’d packed enough jumpers.

The ascent from coast to Erzurum, which lies at 1900 metres above sea level, was stunning, and the highlight of the trip so far for me. We spent the first two days catching tantalising glimpses of huge mountains in the distance – we knew we were heading straight for them and would soon be more than two vertical kilometres above our current position.

We cycled along a deep gorge for two days, the road winding gradually ever higher up the steep sides. The temperature began to drop noticeably compared with the coast as we inched our way upwards towards the snow line. The road was a rare combination of smooth surface but little traffic and the views were incredible – it was impossible to get bored on this road whilst gazing at endless peaks, lakes and houses pearched crazily on the sides of hills. We ate lunch sat on a wall overlooking the gorge, legs swinging over the edge, occasionally holding our breath to appreciate the absolute silence.

One night we slept in a teacher’s hostel – they finish school early and spend the evening drinking tea and playing cards in the communal area. I challenged one teacher to a game of backgammon – Turkish people play in a completely different way to anyone I’ve played before. After playing a number of Turks over the last month or so, I think I’ve worked out their rules (apologies if you’ve no interest in backgammon!):

1) If it’s possible to take an opponents piece, do so at all costs.
2) When deciding between two moves, always choose the highest risk and most aggressive option.
3) Leave as many of your own pieces uncovered as possible.
4) Whatever the move, always slam your pieces down as hard as you can.

At least it makes for an entertaining game!

The following day we arrived in a town just before dark looking for somewhere to sleep. We couldn’t find a place to camp and the two hotels were both full, but luckily Servet, a jewellery shop owner with excellent English had spotted us. After phoning half of the town, we were handed the keys to his friend’s empty apartment. We lit the wood stove and rolled out our camping mats in the living room (the bedroom was freezing as houses with stoves tend not to have central heating).

So far we’ve crossed two mountain passes (of 1875 metres and 2409 metres – for reference, Ben Nevis is 1344 metres, and the highest mountain in last year’s Tour de France, the Col du Tourmalet, is 2115 metres) which came complete with summit signs for celebratory photos. These were much more fun than the short but steep climbs on the coast. On the coast the hills were short but incredibly steep, requiring every last ounce of our effort as we stood on the pedals to battle gravity, and as we began and ended each day at sea level our efforts felt wasted. In the mountains however, the climbs generally involve around forty kilometres of relatively gentle ascent (proven by the fact that Bex’s panting remains in earshot behind me), which takes a half a day of more measured effort. The road crawls between huge hills, the entire landscape white with snow with the exception of a strip of black tarmac ahead and behind. When we reach the summit we’re rewarded with a real sense of achievement – we’re standing on top of a mountain pass, with a photo to prove it!

 


The temperature is considerably colder at the top and although we’re warm on the way up the descents are extremely cold. Bex teased me for putting on every last piece of cold weather clothing I was carrying, but less than two minutes into the descent I heard a muffled squeak from behind as Bex was forced to stop and wrap up. The wind chill of a fast descent plus the fact our bodies are no longer working means the sub zero temperatures feel much colder and the feeling was lost from hands, feet and faces within minutes. My brain felt like a frozen pea by the time we reached the bottom.  Once over the pass we dropped down on to a flat but high plateau, surrounded by 3000 metre peaks.

Our tent hasn’t had much use in Turkey as whenever we ask for permission to camp people usually say it’s much too cold to sleep outside and find us somewhere indoors to sleep. However we really wanted to camp for a night up high in the snow for a bit of fun so we snuck off the road just after crossing the final pass about 70km before Erzurum, found a flat spot of land and set up camp. The thermometer read -5 as we cooked up dinner and a hot drink, but the temperature soon began to drop as the light fell so we got into our sleeping bags at 5.30pm (rock and roll) and read our books by torch light. This was by far the coldest place we’ve stayed (because it was the highest), but we were nice and warm wrapped up inside the tent. It’s impossible to explain that to any locals though, given our extremely limited Turkish – they think we’re slightly insane just for cycling in the winter, let alone chosing to sleep outside in the snow.

We’re now in Erzurum giving our legs a well deserved rest after 4000m of climbing in the last week. The Student Winter Olympics begin here in two weeks – we saw the massive ski jump on our way in and there are hundreds of flags decorating the city.

We hope to enter Iran next week, after we’ve tackled the final two 2000+ metre passes that lie on the road between Erzurum and the border. We’ve heard that WordPress may be blocked in Iran – we’ll try and post a quick update to the website by email, but our next proper blog update will probably be from Turkmenistan in early March. Enjoy February!

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The Black Sea

18 December, 2010 by 16 Comments


We had a massive break in Istanbul, 11 days off the bikes in total! We hopped from budget hostel to nice hotel when Dad came for the weekend and finished off spending a few nights with Emma and Justin, who are living in Istanbul for 6 months before continuing their cycling tour home to New Zealand. Probably a good idea as they’ll avoid the Central Asian winter that we’re on a collision course with! I had a practice bash at making pizza with just the utensils we carry on the bike – they didn’t look up to Pizza Express standards, but Ryan wolfed the lot and we now have a third dish to add to our pasta mush and rice slurry repertoire.


Cycling out of Istanbul and out into the Asian landmass was exciting, despite it being the start of the more challenging and unknown section of the tour. We have learnt so much already and our confidence has grown, the thought of cycling across continents doesn’t seem quite as daunting now as it did when we left 3.5 months ago. I suppose most people attempting to cycle halfway round the world would do a few smaller tours first for that very reason, but not us! Our training consisted of one return trip to Brighton.  At least we weren’t over prepared.

After leaving our hosts in Istanbul we pedalled north up the Bosporus towards the Black Sea, where we’ll be spending most of December. We enjoyed the seaside villages and blue skies as we meandered out of the city sprawl and began getting a taste for the hills – which later on will torment us. Ryan was still suffering from a bout of illness picked up whilst in Istanbul and was munching antibiotics like sweets, so we kept the pace lazy and the days short, but it was good to start moving.

We got our first glimpse of the Black Sea after two days and that evening we hauled our bikes along the sand to make a beach camp. We found a secluded spot before Ryan made a solo streak for the icy water leaving me giggling (and warm) on the sand. The dry night and mild weather enticed us to roll out our sleeping bags on the deserted stretch of beach and not bother with the tent. It was surprisingly comfortable on the soft sand and we were asleep soon after sunset. The crashing waves and brilliant stars made it quite a special night, and each time I woke I was amazed by the beauty of our little insignificant spot under the night sky. You should all try it this summer!!


As has become usual in Turkey we have had lots of spontaneous hospitality over the past few weeks. Every day we meet new people in new villages and get a glimpse into their daily life. We’ve stayed with lots of kind families already including sailors, farmers, policemen, Kurdish workmen and shopkeepers. The people we have stayed with invite us into their homes a few minutes after meeting us on the side of the road.  Once inside there is usually a flurry of calls to bemused neighbours and relatives who pop over to see the “bisiklets” and crazy “Ingilizce” during the evening. Sometimes we’re handed the telephone to say “hello” which is generally greeted by shrieks of delight and laughter. I never get bored of the excitable chatter as people listen to our story of what we are up to, even if usually people struggle to grasp that yes we are cycling the whole way and we haven’t flown to Turkey with our bikes! The Turkish homes have all been filled with tasty food, noisy banter, endless cups of cay, laughter and sometimes bum wiggling dancing (which Ryan is awesome at). It is always difficult to pedal onwards the next day as they all want us to stay, as do we!

Further along the coast line we spent a night in Sile, which is a pretty seaside town with a big harbour, where we treated ouselves to a Pansyion (a cheap hotel) and slept for 12 hours. Even though we’re never more than 6 ft apart [except when we’re going uphill!] occasionally it’s still nice being just us two for a lazy evening with no tent or phrasebook to battle with.

From Sile the weather took a turn for the worse and we left our cozy bed for torrential rain, within minutes we were soaked to the bone. We discovered our rain clothes are pathetic despite claiming to be ‘waterproof’ (should’ve done a practice tour!) and water gushes down our legs, inside shoes, trousers and pretty much everything. Not fun when you have to sit on your arse outside for 6 hours then crawl into a wet tent and put on the same wet clothes tomorrow. We have just ordered painfully expensive new outer layers, but in order to stay warm as we head into the coldest winter either of us will have experienced it’s important that our clothes don’t get soaked through every time it rains or snows. At least here on the coast in Turkey it isn’t as cold as England yet! We have enjoyed checking the weather out at home and seeing London fall apart in the snow:-)

Given the biting rain, wind and hills we have been surprised to have had some of our best days so far. Violent waves, winding climbs and snow peaked mountains is pretty awe inspiring stuff from two wheels, so we do get rewarded for our efforts. It’s a great feeling being curled up in the tent at night and thinking about what we achieved and experienced in the day. The other night I was zipped me up my sleeping bag with just my mouth exposed to keep warm and was being fed cookíes, unfortunately only on a cycle tour is that acceptable behaviour.

Between Karasu and Eregli we were delighted to have a stretch of smooth flat road, much more like we’d imagined the coastal highway would be like from our limited research (we now think (hope!) it starts after Samsum in 300km). The mountain roads reappeared too soon and as we cycled along an exposed cliff top road out of Zongaldak with ferocious winds and even more rain we were fighting for every revolution of the wheels. The thought of getting round the next corner was horrific, let alone NZ! On tough days like these it’s priceless to be rescued for some precious minutes by friendly villagers, who toast us dry by the blazing wood burning stoves that are the centre piece in every tea house.

The temperature dropped as the road moved away from the coast and into the mountains, as we climbed higher from Filyos we were surrounded by snow (which was a relief as Ryan had refused to cycle another climb without seeing snow that day!). The roads became very icy, occasionally we had to push the bikes as it was too dangerous to ride. It’s so frustrating not getting the thrill of a fast descent after an exhausting climb! One family we stayed with explained that just 2 km further inland the snow is waist high at the moment. I think we made the right choice to stick to the coast, however we will have to tackle the snow at some point. We both agree that cold, clear, icy days are infinitely preferable to rain in any format!


The road is now back on the coast and wiggles back and forth and up and down over the lumpy cliffs, so we pedal 5km for every 1km of coastline. Its been pretty gruelling and we are having to rely on each other to keep morale high as the relentless climbing and slow progress take their toll.

We are currently enjoying a rest day in Inebolu after having spent last night dinning in a police station. During the meal a phonecall resulted in one guy casually getting up, pulling a big handgun out of a desk drawer and tucking it in his trousers before strolling off! A little reminder we really are out of Europe.

Tomorrow we head towards Samsun, maybe in time for Christmas – fingers crossed Ryan gets enough chocolate to fill my perpetually hungry belly!

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Video #1 – Europe

28 November, 2010 by 27 Comments

Whilst enjoying our time off in Istanbul we’ve had a play around with some of the video footage we’ve taken so far using the camera that was a very kind leaving present from work.  You can see our first attempt at amateur video editing below:



(If the video above isn’t working, click here to view)

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The end of Europe – Nis to Istanbul

24 November, 2010 by 19 Comments

After Bex’s last post we left Nis (south east Serbia) and battled the strongest headwinds I’ve ever experienced either side of the Bulgarian border. The wind was being channeled down the valley we were cycling through and gusting savagely in our faces. We were down to 9kph on the flat whilst pedalling at full power and were both blown off the road a fair few times. Having to pedal even when going downhill is not good for morale!

After wondering at times whether we would ever make it, we were relieved to finally arrive in Sofia where we stayed with Andrew and Tereza for a well earned rest day.

With recharged batteries we set off for Plovdiv where we planned to meet Rob, who was cycling from Hungary to Istanbul. Rob had spent the previous week chasing us through Serbia in the same gale force headwinds which, when combined with the punishing schedule he’d set himself to make our rendezvous, required repeated dawn to dusk days on the bike, on his own. It sounded extremely tough, but at least he was full of entertaining stories about the various low points on arrival in Plovdiv. The three of us were to cycle the rest of the way to Istanbul together at a considerably more relaxed pace.

The plan came together nicely as we all arrived in the pre-determined hostel on the same day and used our two days off to catch up over some delicious cheap Bulgarian beer and explore the city. Plovdiv was surprisingly nice – I knew nothing about it before we arrived, but Roman ruins, a centre busy with families and a good rock pub made it a great place to spend a weekend.

We left Plovdiv excited about the prospect of Turkey – one of the best things about starting the trip from England is that the excitement increases seemingly every day as we get further from home. To us, everything is always new and the differences, although gradual at bike speed, are continual.

The most clear cut change happened as we entered Turkey. Every other car greats you with a horn blast and a wave, we’re woken every morning by a call to prayer booming out of the nearest mosque at 6am, and when we stop anywhere an offer of a cup of Turkish tea is made almost instantly. The tea houses seem to be a real focus of the village communities we’ve passed through so far, with the locals passing the time playing dominoes or having a chin wag alongside endless tiny glass cups of ‘cay’. We’re trying to say yes to every offer as these little experiences along the way are what travelling by bike is all about, but at some point we have to politely say no to another refill as otherwise our 90 day Turkish visa would expire before reaching Istanbul!

The friendliness and hospitality displayed in these villages has meant we felt confident enough to ask in villages and tea houses at the end of the day if we could pitch our tents somewhere in the village. This usually leads to interesting experiences that would be missed if wild camping in woods or staying in a hotel. Every time so far we’ve been shown a place to pitch our tents, which have included next to a mosque, a shopkeeper’s garden, and behind a petrol station. Luckily the night we camped behind a petrol station was the same night our fuel for the camping stove ran out. Two minutes later we had a fresh litre of petrol, the beauty of a multi-fuel stove.

Rob noted that the challenge provided by not knowing the language or where we would sleep as the sun begins to sink provides many of the best experiences.  My favourite moments from our short time in Turkey have come when incredibly kind families have invited us into their homes for a meal, minutes after our arrival in their village.

We cycled a northern route towards Istanbul to avoid the busy and notorious D100 road that runs from the border straight into the city. Although it took a couple of extra days, the alternative route meant we visited lots of small villages that were the scene of most of the hospitable acts described above. The weather is still amazing – aside from one thunder storm we’ve had clear blue skies and warm sun, so our long days in the saddle meant we all looked like raspberries most of the time. The rolling hills of this less direct road combined with our heavy bikes got the sweat dripping off our brows, our efforts rewarded by the clean air and long views from the summits. Shepards hearded their beasts across the green fields to our right whilst the Black Sea was far beneath us to the left.

Then last weekend came the moment we’d been looking forward to – we cycled into Istanbul!  After the quiet roads and small villages the heavy traffic and fifteen million people of Istanbul provided an abrupt change. It was awesome to cycle past the Blue Mosque and we stopped for some end of Europe photos on the banks of the Bosporus.  All that remains is for us to catch a ferry over the famous stretch of water before we can begin tackling Asia.  It felt good to check into a cheap hostel for a few days, take our first shower in a week, tuck into a kebab and begin exploring a new city. We had a celebratory night out which somehow ended with Rob and I (after one or two half shandies) getting up on stage in a bar and performing an acoustic double act. I know about 3 chords on the guitar and Rob couldn’t remember the second line, but we escaped major embarrassment (I think…).  Apologies to Frank Turner for butchering one of his songs.

Istanbul is a major milestone for us (and all European cycling expeditions heading east) for a number of reasons, including it being the conclusion of our first continent, a change in dominant religion, and it marks the end of the warm up leg through relatively familiar territory.

Our task gets harder now, not least because the countries get much larger. We’ve cycled for 4 days across Turkey so far and have barely made a dent on the total distance. Our thoughts have turned to possible ways of negotiating the impending middle eastern winter whilst continuing to make progress on the bikes. Our Iranian visa applications were successful and we’ve collected them already here in Istanbul. As such, we intend to slowly cycle along the Black Sea through Turkey followed by Northern Iran (roughly as per our route map), taking as long as our visas will allow. This should allow us to spend the worst of the winter in these slightly less cold countries before heading up through the ‘stans to China in the spring, visas permitting (we’ve begun the tricky business of lining up the visas already, I’ll write more on the details of this when we’ve finished the process).

However, this is all very much educated guesswork from us – we don’t know for sure how cold it will get en route (certainly parts will be sub zero) or how well we’ll be able to cope when the temperatures do drop. We may end up having to hole up in a town if we hit a particularly cold snap, or seek alternative transport if snow halts our progress and our visas are running out. Either way, it will be good fun trying and we’ll give it our best effort to stick to the bikes and tough it out.

For now though we’re kicking back and enjoying Istanbul, combining some sight seeing with expanding our bike spares selection for the next leg of the trip.

 

Europe stats:

Distance cycled: 4000km (exactly!)
Countries visited: 11
Days on the road: 76
Days wearing the same shorts: 76 (we’ve been very lucky with the weather)
Days off: 21
Punctures: 3 (all mine – may have to cut back my baguette consumption)
Sets of eyelash curlers sent home: 1 (not mine, I hasten to add…)

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Earthquakes and Mini Mountains – Budapest to Nis

7 November, 2010 by 3 Comments

We spent six whole days in Budapest! It is a brilliant city full of colourful bars, cafes, museums, a huge castle and thermal baths to relax tired legs. We got some welcome visitors from home and were treated to a few nights in a luxury apartment in the fancy part of town. Thanks Mum! The city is famous for its alternative courtyard bars so there are hundreds of cool and cheap places to go… Katy and Bill came with us on a rare night out to see a band, Drag the River, and we all had our fair share of the local tipple VBK (translated as red wine and coke). The locals really do like their red wine here, we even found a red wine fountain buried in the network of underground caves that flood the city. If it wasn’t for the previous night I would have relished it…

I felt a little lonely the first day after all the hustle and bustle of home left, it’s pretty quiet on the bike and for those that know me well will see that it’s a challenge for me to go so long at a time with just my self as company! The average day for us consists of a huge amount of pedalling and an endless cycle of eating, clothes changing and comfort stops. I’ve learnt the tough way that if I’m desperate for a bathroom break I have to act all nonchalant, other wise I swear someone knows and makes sure there isn’t a bush in sight or scatters farmers everywhere. If I don’t need to go the dense forest mocks me as I cycle past. Grrr.

From Budapest we cycled back along the Danube river and had a bit of a rough ride down bumpy tracks with terrifying dogs angrily chasing and barking at us. I surprised my self (and no doubt Ryan!) with how loud I can scream when one leapt out of the trees and went for my leg, even if it was just a small one it was still horrific!

We cycled for hours down the same path starting to look for a place to camp, frustratingly we couldn’t find anywhere safe and as the sun started to set Ryan suggested we just roll out our beds on one of the fishing jettys which lined the bank. It looked very romantic, but I decided I just couldn’t trust myself not to roll off into the icy waters beneath so we kept going, plus the bank was of course lined with more menacing dogs (don’t let the picture deceive you into thinking it was tranquil!). Eventually we found an old fisherman’s lodge and after some odd sign language and extra loud talking in our native tongues we were offered a bed for a few pounds each. We were then generously given a bizarre fish head stew for dinner, which we ate politely whilst restraining our gag reflexes, and continued our game of charades as we all attempted to communicate with each other.

A few days later we spent a night in Baja with another host, Ben, who is planning a big cycling trip next year. Ryan and he both rowed so there was a bit of chat I zoned out on while I ate the delicious home made pizza:-) I can’t express how incredible it is when we arrive at a house and get warmth, comfort, friends, a bathroom and all out of pure kindness. The next day we continued through our first proper border crossing and into Serbia. Excited to show our passports for the first time since Dover we pedalled out into our 9th country and I’m sure it got instantly hotter! Since arriving in Serbia over a week ago we are yet to see a cloud – even the tent is warm, dry and toasty at the moment.

Novi Sad was the first main city we came to in Serbia and we stayed with a family who lived at the top of a savage hill just outside the city (which we both had to walk up). Shockingly the family have no drinking water as the supply to their house was cut off from a bomb over a decade ago and it still hasn’t been repaired. We have also seen buildings that are still lying desolate with holes blown out of them – a sad reminder of how recently Serbia was at war. The country is noticeably poorer in areas and we have found it difficult to find safe and discreet places to wild camp so have been “splashing” out on accomodation more often. The people here are so welcoming and as friendly as ever, it’s such fun when we meet someone who can speak a little English. Yesterday a guy gave us a giant pot of honey and went rushing off to get his son to meet us and take photos once he read our “magic letter”, translated into Serbian, explaining our trip.

We arrived in Belgrade after a long slog down main roads with some suicidal drivers overtaking around hairpin bends and over blind summits. Exhausted, we cycled straight past the place we arranged to meet my friend Dom at and got lost in the city for a few hours in the dark. Grumpy Bex would be an understatement for my mood, however a local cheered us up by offering to help and walking us to the right place. He then gave us 500 Dinar (approx 5 pounds) to buy some food, I guess we looked worse than we thought!! When we finally met Dom he took us for a KFC which we gobbled down tastily before Ryan went to get a lasagne for pudding.

Dom has an apartment in a communist style block of flats which are in the new part of Belgrade. We were all woken in the night by an earthquake which was frightening, the next morning we sadly discovered a couple of people were killed and the quake measured 5.3 on the Richter scale.


 The next day was a rest day but after all the sightseeing my legs were just as tired as they are after 100km on the bike. After another fairwell and a cheesy grin from Dom we hit the road once more. The cycle out of Belgrade was absolutlely glorious, I’m tempted to say my favourite so far. The weather was (and still is) perfect and the landscape mountainous and interesting. The big downside however is the increasing amount of roadkill, the further east we go the more cats and dogs we see sprawled out in front of us – which horrifyingly I can’t help but look directly at as we dodge past. Also, my Sherpa is broken – I have had to start carrying more kit and he is getting evermore cheeky. I’m sure if I had gone for one of the Mount Everest ones I would have dinner and camp waiting for me when I arrived at our destination each day!

We are in Nis now, and in two days we will be arriving in Sofia. It’s weird how far we seem to be getting on our map!

Oh and one more thing, my knees have miraculously recovered (wahooo!) and I’m in danger of getting fit. The hills don’t seem so bad these days and I even take the lead and let Ryan rest behind my big arse from time to time.

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