Halfway through Turkey: 3 Wochen and 1000 km from summer to winter

Arrived in Turkey we first notice the great amount of cycle ways and free lanes on highways, so cycling is very relaxed. It takes us a while to realize that this is also due to the patient turkish drivers - no honking any more, except occacionally to grett us. Generally people here are very hospitable and helpful, almost every day someone invites us to have tea, stay overnight or we get little presents... One boy helps Monis to push up her bicycle up a very steep street and people offer to take us uphill by car or just because of bad weather. What we don't like is the smog in every city and village, people burn everything here...

Our first aim is a Airbus A300, which was sunk close to Kuşadası a couple of years ago. Before we leave the sea behind for a long time we want to dive one last time. Tagmac of Active Blue Diving Center organizes a boat trip and two dives for us: Besides the Airbus we get so see two stunning caves where Mediterannean Monk Seals live. Tagmac and some reporters were quite impressed that we came by bicycle all the way from Germany so  he arranged a TV team to accompany us during ur stay at Kuşadası - an interesting experience.

It is a hard decision to leave after two days, even with the UNESCo world heritage Pamukkale wainting for us  few hunderd kilometers away. We can make out the white shadow from the distance growing bigger as we approach it and we are very impressed how huge the place is - here the similarity with publicity ends: When we vistied it only 10 artificial pools are filled with water, the remaining water is used to restore the place. Thus we are pretty dissapointed by the view - we hope it works out and makes a more beautiful view in the future. At the moment we consider a cave located 40km away near Kaklik the more rewarding place to visit - here you also find travertine terraces, dripstone and maybe a cave dive site?

While we enjoy the warm weather and sunshine during the first week in Turkey we cycle towards winter during the first 3 weeks. Weather changes quickly to autumn, still warm and sunny but the rain turnsevery gravel road into mud. In the end it is a relief wheit starts snowing and the grounds are frozen. As weather changes quickly, this limits us to main roads where the winter service does an maznig job. New boots help to keep Moni warm during daytime, for the nights we probably need new sleeping bags and mats soon...

The second part of our tour leads us to Cappadocia and the coast of the Black Sea...