Sultanhani

August 19, 2023

As mentioned in yesterday's journal entry, we skipped breakfast (having shoveled some granola and bananas in our hotel room) and were on the road by a quarter past six.

Cycle path for much of the way out of Konya although I must admit that we hardly used it because there wasn't much traffic on the road.

Once on a D300, another four lane highway, it was flat as a pancake for over forty five kilometers. The negative was the heat that developed as they wore on and the strong headwind which would be our companion for the whole day. The D300 was mostly straight, very busy and the scenery was fugly. It was a truly crap road to ride.

We stopped for a second breakfast of çorba ve ekmek (soup and bread) after about twenty five kilometers and then reluctantly climbed back on the bikes.

After 42 kilometers we spied some cycle tourists coming in the opposite direction. We all stopped and they dodged four lanes of traffic to come and talk to us. Two Bulgarians. We didn't have a common language to communicate but they were so enthusiastic that they brightened our spirits immediately.

Soon after the Bulgarians we had a climb of a hundred and twenty meters. The wind was really a big hindrance and by this stage we were at least an hour behind where we had hoped to be.

Seventy kilometers produced another restaurant where we had a second meal of çorba ve ekmek. At this point we realised we needed to push on all the way to Sultanhani despite the headwind because there was no way we would find a decent place to wildcamp. By now the temperature was heading towards thirty five and would reach the predicted thirty eight later in the afternoon. So all we could do was put our heads down and slog it out until we reached Sultanhani.

I had thought we would camp at one of the two campsites in the town but Leigh was determined to have air-conditioning. Two kilometers short of Sultanhani we reached the Grand Han Otel. Reviews on Google weren't too bad, it had a restaurant and the bicycles could sleep inside so we took a room for the night. To our horror on entering our room we discovered there was no air-conditioning. Too late, we had already paid for the night.

After washing our clothes and having a shower we bent over at the Hotel restaurant while they had their way with us. Adana kebabs weren't too bad bad the price of the beers was out of the ballpark.

Thd most expensive beers we have drunk in Turkey at over three times the going rate.

Our longest day on the bikes in six months so we are knackered and heading to bed early.

Today's ride: 106 km (66 miles)
Total: 510 km (317 miles)

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