6/1/24
The music carried on most of the night. We were pretty sure it was a nightclub later on, and not as close as earlier. Our nearby friends didn’t go to bed too late either fortunately.
We packed up at sunrise, about 8am. Despite being so visible, we didn’t feel rushed at all. The road was getting busy. We cycled round the eastern edge of Marmaris, heading to the main road. Just before we joined the D400 we stopped for a Turkish coffee at what appeared to be a bus terminal. It’s unfiltered. So you’re meant to swirl it occasionally and it’s meant to be grainy. You’re drinking the grounds. The smartly dressed cafe owner asked if we wanted sugar, as it’s added during the brewing. Frankie did so. Jonathan did not. A young man brought it over. A little glass of water to accompany the rich coffee.
We got some Lira from the cash machine. After checking each one for the lowest charge we ended up paying 8%. Not in the EU anymore. Straight out of the coffee stop we were joining the D400. It’s a long road and varies in width and quality. The section north out of Marmaris is a dual carriageway. It sounds scary and had we not been utilising another tourers route, that he’d cycled with his teenagers, there was no way we would have planned to have been on it. We probably would have ended up on some very rough tracks through the mountains.
As it was, we were on a nice hard shoulder, at least two metres wide. It was an immediate 5km climb, and up about 250m. We were a bit anxious about it, as when we thought about it, we hadn’t cycled a full day in about two weeks. Crazy. There was only one truly moronic driver, in a VW camper and going way too fast, and most people drove carefully.
Occasionally we were in the sunshine, but mostly in the shade which we didn’t mind. Looking back gave us beautiful views over the bay. Marmaris is surrounded by a national park, which is a thick forest of red pine. We stopped briefly at the top, to discuss how easy it had been, then began the rapid descent. It was steeper on the way down, about 7%. In Turkey, at least this tiny bit we’ve been in, there are signs telling you the gradient.
It was easy going, we were still surrounded by the pines and on perfect tarmac. Occasionally the hard shoulder narrowed but it was consistently fairly wide. It was oddly pleasant to cycle on such a large road. We passed a police checkpoint. They just wave most people through and one of them gave us a friendly hello. There are quite a lot more police here than we were used to though.
There was a steep 7% climb for about a kilometre and near the top were netted sacks of orange and green plastic balls. The type stupid influencers fill their houses with. At the top was a stall and it became clear what was going on. They were advertising and populating their fruit stall. There were a few actual bags of fruit but nobody actually there. Just a camera. We stopped nearby for some nuts and fruit.
Again we descended. Even steeper it felt. Being from the UK we just aren’t used to such mountainous main roads. At the bottom was a straight stretch, flanked by fruit stalls. We stopped at the first one and they had many jars lined up. There was an old lady sat there but soon her husband and, kind-of English speaking son came out. In the jars was ‘pine’ he said. So we assumed some kind of pine syrup. We asked for a smaller jar, and he rummaged out back to find one. He suggested a little taste and we obliged, it turned out to be honey! We felt like bad vegans. But it was too awkward to change our minds. We bought a few oranges too.
Not more than 500 metres down the road, having passed half a dozen more stalls, we stopped again at the last one. They all seemed to be family affairs. An older man with two women, one younger. He spoke excellent English, having studied hard at school. Freshly squeezed pomegranate juice was too good to resist. They had piles of them and happily mashed them through the juicer for us. We bought a couple of avocados too. It wasn’t that cheap, about £5, maybe he saw us coming!
After a few more kilometres on the dual carriageway, we finally left it behind and headed into a village. There was a steep uphill that separated us from the shops. We bought some bread, some from a local small shop and some from the supermarket, as well as a tomato based spread.
Out of the village the road was a mix of cobble and tarmac. The secondary roads weren’t as smooth. The scenery was spectacular as we joined the tiny coastal road to take ourselves west. It was a winding narrow road that undulated frequently. After 10km we started looking for a campsite. It was only 3pm but we’d had a good day and we knew there were a few good spots marked on google maps. It’s a culturally popular pastime in Turkey. They like to camp. And picnic. So there are beautiful spots. Open and free for all.
We found the last marked area on google maps and followed a rocky dirt track down to the water. It was probably more suited to camper vans, but we’d got used to the hard ground. There were a few people down there already, mainly fishing it appeared. The Sun was shining and the sky was ridiculously blue. In the distance there were large snow capped mountains. Close to paradise, very close. But for some reason the Turks litter. They just chuck their rubbish in their prised camping spots. A real shame.
We had a quick dip, just our legs really. The water wasn’t scorching or anything. was a couple of hours till sundown, so we sat on the bank to relax. It was so sunny we even had the solar panel out to charge our power bank. For dinner we had bread, mini cucumbers, avocados (which were a bit too firm) with what turned out to be salsa. There was a friendly dog, that we decided to call White Paw, milling about and she was very polite and didn’t try and steal any of our food. She just kept trying to shake our hand.
A few people came and went. There were a couple of young men jiving to some Turkish beats. For the most part their music was, to us anyway, oddly cultural. We couldn’t imagine young English men listening to such music. We decided to make tea, and then porridge. It was ridiculously easy to get the stove going. The whole place was a tinder box, even in January. We had our porridge with some of the honey. We can’t lie, It was delicious and tremendously thick and goopy. Nothing like we’d seen at home.
A man nearby had been sitting by his old Mercedes. He started setting up a tent. We thought we were going to be alone, it was nice to have someone else around though. After half an hour he was still struggling to erect his tent and seemed a bit bewildered. We got the impression he must be homeless. But maybe we were wrong. We went over to help him get the tent up. A couple of key structural pieces were hiding in the tent bag.
We set our own tent up and because it was so rocky used two tarps underneath. In the tent we ate some nuts and a pack of chocolate wafers that had cost 5 Lira. 11 pence. That is cheap. The Moon was out so the crystal clear sky wasn’t quite showing all the stars that it surely would be otherwise. We got our beds ready and brushed our teeth with what was probably the last of the toothpaste that we’d bought back on Monte Isola.
We could hear the man talking on the phone over the sound of the lapping water. It sounded like the water had surrounded us. It wasn’t going to be as sunny tomorrow. Maybe even the ‘r’ word. We were sure the night would be quieter than the one before it though.
Surly They Won't Make It 