3km from Taşağıl

August 6, 2023

Our first proper day on the bikes for almost six months. In fact, this was our longest distance since the day before we arrived in Ushuaia in February. It was flat and mostly boring but at least we feel as if we are cycle touring again.

After yesterday's late start we made sure we were on the road by six thirty this morning. The temperature was already touching twenty eight degrees but, mercifully, we had almost full cloud cover. In fact we had very little direct sun during the ride and even though the temperature rose further during the day the humidity decreased and we only felt really hot when we climbed off our bikes at our final destination for the day.

The ride started off through wave after wave of tasteless holiday resorts most of whose names included the word "palace". Along this stretch we bought a prepackaged sandwich for first breakfast in the hope that we would find something better further on.

After the resorts we were surrounded by various golf courses, many linked to some of the resorts we had passed earlier. On the outskirts of Kadriye we spied a cafe with locals eating so we pulled over and enjoyed a far better second breakfast of various pastries and our first glasses of Turkish tea.

At the town of Belek we turned northwards to the D400 and the town of Serik, passing through cultivated fields, orchids and large greenhouses, some of which contained subtropical fruit trees such as bananas, something I have never seen before.

In Serik we stopped for our daily ice-cream.

As we turned onto the D400 we spied a park on a knoll above the road with a cycle tourist sitting at a table. We cycled over and plonked ourselves at the table nearest to him and spent a good half hour chatting to Zafer, a Turkish primary school teacher enjoying his summer holiday by undertaking his first long cycle tour.

After that it was another nine kilometers down the busy D400 until we reached our hotel for the next two nights. It is an enormous structure jutting out of the landscape just up from the junction of the D400 and the newly built D687. The restaurant is currently closed, in fact the hotel seems completely empty and hardly operational, so we had to cycle to Taşağıl, three kilometers away, for supper.

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 76 km (47 miles)

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