NZ2050

Day 58. Monday, September 25. Rest day – Safranbolu I had an office with a view this morning as I caught up on recent days’ blog posts. It was a table in our hotel garden – and that’s Lorna and Jo, an English couple who are members of our crew. Meanwhile in the alley...

Day 57. Sunday, September 24. Forest bush camp to Safranbolu. 128km or riding, with 1,560m of climbing. Perhaps the first hint of autumn added an extra touch to the glorious morning as we began our ride today. We trundled along at an easy pace, the hills never long or...

Day 56. Saturday, September 23. Osmancik to forest bush camp. 128.7km of riding, with 2,117m of climbing. We’ve had longer, hilly days. But today was still a challenge. The morning was cruisey. But so much climbing after lunch with on-the road temperatures peaking in...

Day 55. Friday, September 22. Amasya to Osmancik. 142.3km of riding, with 1,150m of climbing. Amasya’s unique beauty melted quickly away into a typical commercial / industrial strip as we headed northwest out of the city on today’s ride. The drab developments lasted...

Day 54. Thursday, September 21. Rest day – Amasya This attractive city of Amasya has a history going back at least some 7,500 years. But on this rest day I’ve failed to even scratch the surface of that and its present life. I spent barely an hour and a half this...

Day 53. Wednesday, September 20. Construction yard camp to Amasya. 133km of riding, with 1,173m of climbing. Today was the last of our five-day run of riding days, the longest stretch between rest days of our entire adventure. Travelling west over these days, the...

Day 52. Tuesday, September 19. Şebinkarahisar to a former construction yard camp. 143km of riding, with 1,562m of climbing. I can’t resist one more photo of Şebinkarahisar, taken early this morning to give you an idea of its streets coming to life. Followed by a photo...

Day 51. Monday, September 18. Field camp to Sebinkarahisar. 125.5km of riding, with 1,575m of climbing. Given this blog’s frequent references to food and drink, you might think it’s about them rather than cycling. No. We have our priorities right. They are means to an...

Day 50. Sunday, September 17. Corum river camp to field camp. 140.7km, with 1,805m of climbing. This was going to be the big riding day in our set of five between rest days – long with a lot of climbing. That turned out to be true but the scenery and people along the...

Day 49. Saturday, September 16. Erzurum to river camp at Corum. 131.8km, with 1,622m of climbing. Today we started the fifth and last section of our Silk Road Tour. It’s called the Hills of Anatolia which takes us over 12 days of riding through high hills with...

Day 48. Friday, September 14. Rest day - Erzurum   We had perfect weather for our rest day in Erzurum today – a high of 22C and lots of sun. While most of us headed from our ski resort hotel down into the city, Warwick and Joanne went up to the top of the chair...

Day 47. Thursday, September 14. Hizirilyas bush camp to Erzurum. 101km, with 965m of climbing. More tonic! Today’s ride, just like yesterday’s, buoyed our spirits. Just a few kilometres up the road from our overnight camp, we crested a hill to this expansive view....