August 12, 2023
Wildcamp in a culvert between Baslar and Derebucak
Today was a tough one but we knew it was going to be. It would start with a climb of six hundred and fifty meters over twelve kilometers to the newly opened, five kilometers long tunnel that exits the mountain just south of the village of Baslar. The climb would be hard enough on its own given our level of fitness but the heat would make it significantly harder.
The alarm woke us at five o'clock. Enough time for us to enjoy a mug of coffee/rooibos and shovel some dry muesli before starting up the hill at quarter past six. The sun was just rising and as it struck us the heat seemed to balloon. We climbed slowly with Leigh walking her bike a large part of the way.
Despite Onder telling us yesterday that it would be safe to cycle through the tunnel we couldn't get our heads around cycling through a one that long, particularly with the number of large trucks on the road. So when we got there we decided to hitch a ride through.
Within a few minutes we were on the back of a three ton truck heading through the tunnel. The tunnel was pretty dark and there didn't appear to be a safe shoulder on which to ride. Decision justified! Leigh rode up front squeezed between a young boy and an ancient looking man with the driver on the left of the young boy while I looked after the bicycles on the back in the company of the young man whose seat upfront Leigh had been given. They took us a few kilometers past the exit of the tunnel and dropped us at the local store in Baslar. Afterwards Leigh asked me if I had noticed that the trucks lights weren't working.
We sat outside the local store and polished off a couple of Cokes each as well as an ice-cream and a large packet of crisps. We were feeling pretty knackered and although Derebucak was only forty kilometers away another three hundred and fifty meter climb lay between us. We decided to push on and see how far we could get in the heat.
We only managed to cover another eight kilometers before we decided to call a halt to the day. We found a perfect culvert (a term that can only have meaning to a roads engineer or a cycle tourist) into which we settled to see out the rest of the day. The view isn't that great but being quite deep it is wonderfully cool and the traffic noise is surprisingly muted.
We had just started the climb when we found the culvert so we will tackle it at first light tomorrow.
Today's ride: 21 km (13 miles)
Total: 198 km (123 miles)
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