(…..a double-ton day when Strava stopped working….12km short!!)
A breakfast-less start to the day!
I was worried…for Martin is not one to move on an empty stomach! But the nearby cafe – who promised to be open – was fast asleep…so we decided to push on!!
25 May…..and the very first day of setting off without a second layer!!
A great start to the day though…..with Google teasing us about childhood “mystery” drives. “Left” ”Right” “Left” “Right”….etc..etc…etc…so you never knew where you might end up!
It did feel like that!
But it worked! Despite some locals imploring us to go in the opposite direction! (They just didn’t know how badly we were trying to avoid the main road!!).
And it was a delightful ride! We even came across a Euro-Velo sign post!! (…but just the one….!!)
But we did hit the big road eventually…and it was ok! More developments of course! It used to be…just a hill….!
We pulled in for breakfast at about ten! What a lovely welcome “Welcome to my home”…as he helped store our bikes! As we were waiting for our delightful cheese and herb omelettes etc…We checked the oncoming ascent! 1,000m for the day…and now only 900m to go!! And we had already climbed at least 500m…so I opted to charge…while we waited!
Good decision!
Could I get my battery out? No!…..the unlocking mechanism had given out! (….another Shimano gripe.,). But after a lot of fiddling I managed.
It was a worry though. For clearly something was broken…and I need to change batteries regularly. So..I looked it up on line…and it is an all-too-common issue.
“Spare parts difficult to source”…etc etc….but then a really helpful post about how to remove the mechanism completely!
So…that is what I did.
And it was missing two screws completely…leading to it being so very loose and barely operable.
But our lovely host….(do not we all?)….had a box of screws!. One of which sort of fitted…! And secured the mechanism sufficiently! What a relief! (I needed two screws …but hey, one is better than none!)
(…& what a star!!…lovely guy!)
And just about to put it all together again…a tiny screw glistened in the sunshine! One of the missing two which had evidently fell out when I took it all apart!
So now all fixed!! We felt very pleased with ourselves!! And the delay was good…as it happened…to allow a good recharge of the battery. Very necessary…!
On, on…down the coast….
…turning inland past Ephesus!
(We have both been before…so did not feel like a second visit!…but having said that…with more time…it is certainly worth visiting a second time! (…unlike Troy…Pompeii etc)).
Great lunch stop. At a butchers!! Just choose your meat…and he then simply barbecues it…with onion, chille, tomato etc! Delicious!
And then…the sting in the tail!….a big climb….
…but a lovely climb up to 650m…on a tricky gravel track (always trickier coming down!)…..
…lovely views…
…..before the slow descent to Soke…which got better and better and faster and faster as the road surface improved.
So…to Soke!! And a reminder not to speed!! These are everywhere in Turkey….and really look realistic…at speed!!
Pronounced with a “Y” between the “k” and the “e”. But we had called it Soke……as in “soak”.
Read on!
We had expected the town (city) to be somewhat like Gonen (our first Asian stop)….but it wasn’t.
We found a hotel…but only one room…so we moved on.
Found another…which was doubling as a shoe shop…so thought we might find a better lodging.
Google was a failure. The next four “hotels” did not exist any more!! So after an hour or so searching…we reverted to the shoe shop!
And we were right to pass the first time!
Grotty place. That worry about bed bugs. And the “reception area” at the back of the shoe shop was so full of stuff….that there was no room for our bikes!
The young manager pointed down the road. I shrugged! And then he took me across the road…to a bus!! And indicated that we could keep the bikes…in his bus (evidently where he slept!).
So…we agreed to stay! Bed bugs…and all. We really did not have an option!!
And then…he saw the bikes! And freaked out…and (seriously!) went running down the road…and a minute later turned up in a (very old) Ford Transit van.
We could store them in there!! So…we did ……..not missing the possibility that if he wanted to nick our bikes…we had just given him full permission….and carefully stowed them for him! Haha!
VERY quick (cold) shower…for this is not a hotel to ponder in. Off for beers to drown our accommodation sorrows!
Google took us everywhere! But could we find a beer? NO!!
An hour of trudging later…honestly nowhere!….and Martin…who is not quite as keen for a beer…was thinking Coke…and an early night!!
You might imagine!
But..no…I was determined! And we eventually found a place! What a relief/luxury/delight(!!!)…just five minutes away from where we started…!! Those beers were well-deserved, and tasted magnificent!
Soke…..Soak…! Not a place full of soaks at all.. We were alone… in what felt like the only place for a hundred miles which served beer!!
It got funnier…for after two beers…Martin was ready to eat. I was still thirsty. And I suggested the restaurant next door. Too empty!
So Martin patiently waited for me to have another beer…and we left for food….only to go that restaurant next door…which was filling up….and (you had to be there really)…they served alcohol too! After an hour of searching we thought we had found the only place in Soke which served beer! There are in fact at least two!!
Serving a population of around 130,000!
A memorable place!!
Glasses were ice cold…peanuts really salty….and the food was quite good too!!
It had been a big day!!
So…back to our hotel….and a bed-bug-worrying night.
And…it is one those(many) hotels which have a key-dependent power supply (know what I mean?)…so without any charging whilst aimlessly searching for beer etc…..I had to set the alarm to wake me up in the middle of the night to swap batteries!
Not really necessary. Not sure I slept at all!!
(…now usually…a trick…the fridge socket is not cut off with everything else! …so you can use it for charging when absent from the room!…..but sadly…not here! So, yes…this dump does have a fridge…but evidently never cold!!).
My one photo of Soke..hunting for beers!
What a day!!
What a lovely man with the Mary Poppins tin.
Btw……Martin has the patience of a saint! Given he had to start with no breakfast, you’d think Neil might’ve foregone the third beer when M was ready to eat 😝
Last time I was in Ephesus, I proposed to Julia, and was later rewarded with a soup in a local café (when we had both recovered from the shock). It was made, almost certainly, from all the bits of a sheep that you really don’t want put into a healthy, tasty broth. . . . without doubt the most revolting thing I have ever eaten or drunk, and that includes diesel and the rare Nepalese delicacy that Chris and I ‘enjoyed’ on a special family feast day, called cuor-tong, made of rotten rice wrapped in fig leaves and fermented in a hole in the ground for three weeks.
I agree with Liz – after a day like that I’d be chewing the table cloth for sustenance.
Incidentally, hi, Liz . . . . and Marion, who I think I last saw some time around 1988 at a CJPM office party, when you were both pregnant (?) and got completely slaughtered together on whatever it was we were all drinking at the time. Seems like only yesterday!
2,500km is seriously impressive – good to know you are holding up – Martin still looking fit, if a bit haggard at times from the absence of a good breakfast and a timely evening meal. Soke to Gulluk – from the ridiculous to the sublime.