The post trip buzz wore off and has been replaced by the reality of what we accomplished in just nine days. I've been trying to come to grips with life again becasue the tiredness of the trip finally made itself felt and I really want a great post for the trip to possibly inspire others to come and visit the country. Unfortunately it would be impossible to convey how great it was to travel across this ancient country was in words. It has also whet my appetite to do more touring like this and I can definitely see my weekends filled with a day or two in the wilderness pumping up the hills with everything on the bike. I can give you a run down of the various days activities and then fill it in but I'm sure you would rather see pictures of a country more associated with war than an epic bike adventure. We would wake up early 4 or 5 in the morning, start packing up while boiling some water for the morning cuppa. If we managed to find bread, it was Pessach so finding bread was rather harder than usual, we would make a sandwich. The first days we had a jar of peanut butter the last half chocolate spread. After our groggy rising and strapping down of the everything, a quick double check and the daily photo we where off. My legs were heavy for the first hour or so and near the end when my Achilles was swollen up until we took our morning break. Mainly we ate dried fruit and nuts as this gave us the nutrients we needed to keep us going till lunch time. After a bit of Turkish coffee, a thick coffee with the granules of ground coffee still in the brew, we would be off. Most days we would have done about forty or fifty kilometers by the lunch time and then we learnt early on it was wise to get out of the sun. I felt like a roasting chicken after 10 'o clock so we would find a bit of shade and have our afternoon lunch, tuna and rice. This became a staple for us although I must say we had various meals along the way as we would find a restaurant or local shop to get a bit of variety. I was never hungry during our trip and also never got tired of the tin of tuna we would each eat after the days completion. I reckon this helped in the recovery because other than my Achilles I never suffered tight legs. We also made sure to stretch after the ride and this also played a big part in feeling good the whole way through. The afternoon session would only start after three or four depending on how hot it was. We would then have a shorter session to our final destination. Luckily becasue of the lack of rain this time of year all we needed we sleeping bags and shared the stars as our cover. I hope the photo's give an idea of how the trip was.
The first day, more to come as I upload
