August 28, 2023
Arakli
Today’s ride was embarrassingly short given how easy it was from a physical point of view. But we have time on our hands now that we are leaving Turkey earlier than we had planned. I guess we should have spent at least another day in Cappadocia before taking the bus to Trabzon. We might also have done better to make a plan to get to the Samela Monastry in the hills above Trabzon.
However there is little to gain by dwelling on what we might have done. So after a nice breakfast we headed out of Trabzon around nine o'clock this morning. We had a few false starts with Komoot trying to route us through the local Technical University so we headed back down the hill and joined the dreadfully busy D010 that is the only practical route to the border. We made use of every opportunity to duck onto side roads but the D010 couldn't be totally avoided.
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At the thirty kilometer mark we hit the first of the many tunnels we will have to go through. This one was just short of two kilometers long but in our favour it was slightly downhill and there was a raised walkway just wide enough to cycle on.
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We emerged from the tunnel unscathed but slightly frazzled and descended to the town of Arakli, avoiding the D010 for a few kilometers again. While sitting on a bench discussing how much further it was to the border and how much further we would go today we spotted a sign to a relatively inexpensive hotel. In an instant we decided to call it a day. We have five days to cross the border at it is barely a hundred and fifty kilometers away.
We took a stroll along the beachfront later in the afternoon. Lots of locals were out barbecuing in facilities provided by the municipality and paddling in the Black Sea at the small beach next ti the esplanade.
Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 725 km (450 miles)
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