We were up bright and early…to get to the ferry terminal an hour before our 9am ferry.
And at that time of day….on a Sunday…and election day to boot…the roads were delightfully quiet.
So it was a lovely run into the heart of Bodrum…which itself was surprising really. 150,000+ population…..but a very chilled low-rise seaport sort of place….contrasting somewhat with its thunderous approach road!
We nearly missed the ferry terminal…..
……and the ferry…squeezed as it was between super-sized yachts!
And…due to election day?…..the ferry was running two hours later than scheduled…so we enjoyed a great breakfast at a place nearby.
Onto the ferry…
…where we found only our second “touring bike” in Turkey……belonging to one very brave Iranian woman. She was delightful…..and delightfully frank about the Mullahs of her country…and her fears that Turkey is moving in the same direction. She loves the freedom Turkey offers.
She also had to ride that awful approach road…but chose to ride it late in the evening (dark!). Sensible…or mad…I am not quite sure!
And so to the Marmaris peninsular. It looks delightfully remote on the map…so we were hopeful that the roads would be enjoyable once again. Rest stop at Datca…and we could check in early…so went straight to our AirBnB…for some well-earned R&R.
Great riding……and Datca looks sweet…more on that tomorrow! But as we pulled in the thunder rumbled…and we were subject to a full afternoon’s deluge of very heavy rain! A mixed blessing of course…for we have yet to don waterproofs while actually cycling.
Funnily enough…a few days ago…we decided to change our route. The original plan saw us riding to Marmaris and on to Fethiye…for our ferry to Rhodes. But once again it looked like there was little opportunity to avoid the dual-carriageway for 200kms or more….so we decided to end our Turkey trip on Marmaris and hop to Greece from there and spend the extra day or two touring around Rhodes. If we had not made that call…..I am sure we would have made it after yesterday’s hellish ride!
And today…election day once again! I have possibly spent six weeks in Turkey in my life…and this is the third presidential election I have been here for!! What are the chances? But wise to the alcohol ban…I asked, and our lovely AirBnB host agreed, to stock the fridge with beer in anticipation!!
We have not seen one banner or poster for Erdogan in the places we have travelled. Not one! Plenty for Kemal Kilicdaroglu….but as the evening went on…it became clear that the religious conservatives of Eastern Turkey were going to steal the day. We were surprised to hear plenty of car horns honking in celebration…even here. Erdogan does have a stranglehold on the media here…so maybe it was not so surprising. Just sad really…to see Ataturk’s sectarian nation being slowly dismantled by a dictatorial autocrat.
Putin was of course one of the first to publicly congratulate the man….followed by a string of like-minded bedfellows.
Petrol here is just over NZ$1.20/litre..! So…with inflation otherwise running at over 50%pa….that Putin relationship is evidently quite valuable!!
And what has Erdogan done to control inflation? Halved the interest rate!! It is difficult to see how things will be resolved here…but if the economy crashes and burns completely…that will be little surprise. And all those new home builders will surely crash with it!
After the Balkans…Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia in particular, but also after Bulgaria…Turkey is surprisingly expensive. Possibly slightly more expensive than Greece too. Except for the smoker in me….for this is by far the cheapest place in Europe for cigarettes. And everyone smokes. All the time!
