27/1/25
Today was the day we leave. It felt like we’d been in one place for at least a week. By 10am we were ready to depart. We thanked the receptionist with our best smiles and headed out through the town to the highway. We’d planned an alternative route that avoided the main road but it was actually a very quiet and easy ride to Küçükkuyu.
From there we joined a nice seaside bicycle path. We stopped for some çay. Then further on we ate some fruit, fresh and dried. We were really struggling to find our appetites. After half an hour or so we moved on. We were on a secondary road along the coast. Hopefully we’d seen the back of the highway for a good few days.
We cycled along under the vigorous sunshine. It was supposed to be cloudy. But the Sun is always brutal at this latitude. It was slow going. Frankie was still feeling weak and had had a day less rest than Jonathan but we’d agreed a fourth night would be too much.
There were dozens of campsites and hotels along the road. Mostly advertised as having something to do with Assos, the ancient city, which wasn’t far along the coast. For a car anyway. We took it easy and stopped for mandarins along the way. We were struggling to work out where we’d end up sleeping. Especially as we wanted to see Assos.
There was one big climb on our route along the coast. 137m at 7%. We ambled along slowly, knowing it was coming sooner rather than later. Eventually it loomed up ahead of us, most of it hidden round a bend. We stopped briefly at the bottom to regroup and then took ourselves up. It wasn’t actually as bad as we’d feared.
At the top there was a sign to Assos, 6km. It was about 3pm. There was a hotel in the town of Behram or we would try to camp. As we got closer to the acropolis, built on dark volcanic rock, which dominated the top of the hill, we saw a some land on the left hand side that looked viable for camping. We’d done about 40km and we decided this was sufficient given that we still felt quite weak.
Along a dirt road there were some bee hives. Just behind them a grassy gap in the scrub that we could place our tent. There were a couple of cars and a tractor that passed as we were pondering. We smiled and waved. We weren’t trying to hide. Much of the track had rubbish dumbed next to it, it was very unlikely they would care.
Nonetheless we positioned the bikes in such a way that they weren’t too obvious from the road and lay the tarp down the lie on. We figured we’d get some rest and just chill the rest of the day away. The time went quickly. As the Sun disappeared it got cold quickly. We set the tent up as early as possible, conducting some minor landscaping of the ground and trees to fit it in.
Inside we found the desire to eat some vine leaves stuffed with rice. They were quite bland fortunately. We nibbled some breadsticks, bananas and chocolate spread. Then a few bits of dried fruit. We watched a couple of episodes of What About Brian. A 2000s show Frankie had never seen. It was quickly cancelled but it was part of Jonathan’s ‘youth’ years.
The road behind us got quieter and the dirt track had the occasional passing vehicle but we were tucked nicely out of sight. We settled in to our sleeping bags by 9pm, hopeful that tomorrow we’d feel more energetic.
Surly They Won't Make It 