My last days in Turkey

Yesterday afternoon I arrived in Fethiye on the Turkish Mediterranean coast.

The last few days have been quite hard, out of different reasons: I always had to worry about the bike - will the bearing hold? I still don`t know. It is looking good at the moment - touch wood. The last few days I moved into and out of the mountains a lot - the Taurus Mountains (Turkish: Toros Dağları) go parallel to the coastline and, of course, I could have stayed on the coast but I wanted to see and experience the mountains. Also, the coast is lined with ugly resorts: Mersin, Alanya, Antalya and Fethiye. While it is nice here for beach holidays the cyclist`s paradise is about 30 to 100 KM inland! So from Mersin I stayed at the coast for about 90 KM to Silifke, then I moved inland to Mut, from there to Ermenek. The route from Ermenek to Alanya was the most dramatic and beautiful I have seen for a long time. In less than 30 KM the road drops from 1500 m to sea level = simply stunning.



From Alanya to Antalya I spend a really relaxing but also boring 130 KM near the coast, note NEAR the coast, as the road is not directly following the sea. Antalya is a big, touristy place but inmidst a beautiful setting. The Taurus comes very close to the town and only 25 KM from Antalya I had forgotten all the concrete buildings and I was back and alone in the hills. The road climbs in several steps to over one thousand meters. The next day I cycled back to the coast, my last cycling day in Turkey. To Fethiye the road also drops significantly from 1300 m to sea level but it is not as dramatic as near Alanya but better to cycle: you can pedal down easily at a leasurly pace.



Now yesterday I arrived in Fethiye: my hours in Turkey are counted - tomorrow morning I take the ferry to Rhodos and then onwards to Piraeus, Greece. It is good to have some rest days - I am tired, my legs, my arms - every muscle is flabby. Maybe quite normal - I cycled over 1.600 KM in the last 14 days without rest day.