April 30th – 84 kms, Akköpru
May 1st – 84 kms, Fatih Yaylasi
May 2nd – 69 kms, Yesiloz
May 3rd – 83 kms, Kulu
May 4th – 52 kms, Sereflikochisar
May 5th – 57 kms, Catalcesme

As we left Eskişehir, we arrived quickly in the deep of central Anatolia. We cycled on beautiful gravel roads, which look like a paradise for any touring cyclist : nice curvy gravel roads, gentle uphills, gentle downhills, without potholes, no cars (actually nobody!) and beautiful landscapes. We cycled several days on these roads, moving rather quickly.
We crossed many fields and find out this part of Turkey is quite rural. Fields, cows and goats. And barrils of agrochemicals. While we get invited by locals of the small villages to drink a cup of tea, we observed that many of the farmers have a cap with the brand of big agrochemical companies. This confirm us that intensive farming is quite practiced here.

We remember a funny moment of these days while we were cycling kilometers without seeing anyone on these lost roads : all of a sudden, a car arrived (yes, it is surprising). As the car-bypassed us, the drivers just honked at us with a huge smile (this starts to be common). A few meters later, he turned back, and drived crazyly from the village he just arrived. Well, fair enough we thought. But 5 min later, the same car arrived, with the same happy-face drivers. And then they asked us to stop. They offered us two watermelon/strawberry sodas, were very happy, asked us where we come from, took a photo with us, and then disappeared. It took perhaps 3 mins. Then we were again in the middle of nowhere, with this fresh bottles of soda in the hands, happy, and still getting surprised by how kind Turkish people can be.
Later, we realized that we were getting out of food. Not good. So we had to make a detour from our itinerary to find a decent village with hopefully a supermarket. We arrived on the village too late, during nightfall, bought some stuff, a local offered us some cola as we probably looked exhausted (it was a soda day), and then realized there was no hotel there. Well, finding a spot to camp during the night is defintely not ideal so we get slightly desperated. As we were asking our way to a petrol station, a gentle guy invited us to his place. He guided us during the night driving at our speed. And then we arrived in the middle of his entire family, who was obviously firstly surprised and susipcious about us, but get quickly very kind. They offered us delicious dinner made from kind of meat, çay, and prepared us a room to sleep. Within few minutes, we felt so warmly comforted. It was touching for us as it was obvious this family was rather poor, and the few they have, they shared it with us.

The next morning, after having shared the breakfest based on some delicious mushrooms with this family, we get back on the small roads of rural Anatolia. The weather was getting windy with lots of not-good-looking-clouds arriving behind us. We had a lunch at the mosque of a village, only place to get protected from a storm. During the afternoon, we were actually always cycling to escape the thunderstorms chasing us.

We arrived on the evening in the village of Yesiloz, where a farmer family kindly invited us for dinner while we were refilling our water botlles for camping. We accepted this invitation with pleasure and these people where really really kind with us. A kind father, a sweet mother, a very gentle grandmother, 4 adorable childrens, an adopted Afghan boy refugee taking care of the cows. Something very kind and simple was coming out these people. They offered us the most delicious traditional dinner with locals and fresh product coming from the farm (again this delicious kind of mushroom among others), eating on the floor (which gave Pierre some difficulties due to his long non-flexible european legs), a delicious home made bread, a warm shower and the most comfortable bed we had for a long time.

After a good night of sleep, we were invited to take the breakfest with this lovely family. We then had to farewell and Larissa was almost crying as this family was so kind. Later, back on our saddles and as we crossed another small village, we could ear « çay! çay! » (=tea! tea!) coming from a small house, which was actually a market. We accepted this invitation with pleasure as we were cycling for about 4 hours without stopping. The owner was very curious about us and willing to discuss a lot 🙂 So Pierre asked: « Do you know this kind of mushroom that locals used to eat with eggs? Because it is very delicious and we do not know what it is ». And the owner to answer: « Yes of course! » and then took his phone. Two minutes later, we understood he asked his wife to prepare this meal for us… It was almost uncomfortable for us to be that invited. Ten minutes later, his son brought a full pan of this delicious dish, the owner of the market dressed a little table especially for us in the middle of his customers, offered us 2 ayrans and said with a big smile « Afiyet olsun! (=enjoy your meal!). Later, we learned this « mushroom » is called Domala mantari and is a kind of truffle, which means it is like finding jewels from the ground. We feel so lucky, because it was so delicious and precious!

We ended this day arriving in the ugly city of Kulu, sleeping in the only available hotel, which was ugly & REALLY dirty, so as the city. What a contrast with the beginning of the day. Let’s say it was a way to balance 😉

The next morning, we escaped this shabby hotel as quickly as possible. So quickly that we forgot to give back the key’s room. Nevermind, we found someone on the road driving on our opposite direction to the city who accepted to bring back the key to the shitty hotel 🙂 We were then approaching the Salty Lake (Tuz Gölü), second biggest lake of Turkey where 70% of the salt consummed in Turquey is exctracted. As we were refilling our water bottle on the mosque of a village, we were one more time invited by locals. But for a german style coffee this time! Indeed, many Turkish people have spent years of their life working in Germany, are speaking fluent german and brought some habits from germany to their country. We never thought our german skills will be so useful here 🙂 After good discussions, liters of coffee and sweet milk rice, we left, cycling somehow excited by too much coffein towards the salty lake. We stopped on the lake to enjoy the landscape, the salty water, the surreal light coming out of the lake. Time was actually flying as we enjoyed, and we got one more time surprised by nightfall. As we were cycling to the city of Sereflikochisar, a driver stopped and indicated us a hotel to sleep, which was actually well appreciated 🙂

Last day of the week still on the small roads of Central Anatolia. The weather was changing a lot and we had difficulties to find a spot to camp. We finally found some trees to be less visible from the road and get some protection from the heavy wind. Problem: few minutes after we decided to camp here, some guys came with chainsaws to cut the trees! Perhaps some refugees as we saw some camps? We will never know. This trees were actually the only wood available miles around, and we understood these guys used it to make fire to cook/get some heat. We felt a bit uncomfortable, as we were thinking that someone might come back during the night with their lovely chainsaws. Sounds like an horror movie right? Well, we slept, and we were just awaken in the middle of the night by a huge storm, which covers our tent and bicycles of mudd. Nice!