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Thursday, 13 December 2012

12/12/2012 - Oslo to Israel. Day 80

Distance cycled: 92.2km from Pumukcu, turkey to
Average speed: 21.1km/h
Moving time: 4h22m
Total distance: 6775km
Border X'ings: 22
Money spent: 20 lira = €8


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To not sleeping very well at all last night due to the passing trucks 20 feet from where I camped and then road workers checking out my place of supposed rest for the evening in the early hours of the morning I began the day ruined.
80 days of cycling with 5 days without a shower and I am certainly feeling it, perhaps smelling it too.
Still, I have made it this far and I have to conquer this mission of mine.
There was a cold 500 meter climb today that I had to tackle but other than that the terrain mostly sloped in my favor. I did however meet some great people who made my day a little better and I got the chance to organize a place to rest in a proper bed tomorrow night in Izmir using warm-showers.org.
Whilst on the Internet I found out that Nash, a good friend from home who i traveled with a few years ago and caught up with at a festival in Germany before starting this trip will be in Israel around the same time i will be there - around New Years. There is an issue though, because I cannot travel through Syria then into Israel I will have to take a boat to Cyprus then to Haifa, Israel. This boat to Haifa could cause me a bunch of difficulty because boats don't often, if ever, take this route. I really don't want to take a flight reaching my (supposed) final destination by air - it really defeats the purpose of this trip. Damn Israel.
I was thinking it would be nice to be there for Christmas, New Years and my birthday on the 3rd.
Anyway, I have a few weeks to organize this so, I'll just enjoy my time in Turkey.
Ok, back to today, looking for a place to camp as the sun was setting was difficult because the flat plain I was cycling south on had no suitable places, I thought however I'd give it a try asking the locals if I could crash with them but without success.
With only a little bit of daylight left I went into another muddy olive orchard but was deterred by some yapping dogs that scared me off.
I was getting worried and continued with the hopes of finding something decent and thankfully I did; I found a farming side road that took me into some scrub where I set up camp.
Just like the other day I jammed up my rear wheel with mud and tomorrow will have to sort that shit out. *sigh*
It's going to be a cold one tonight but at least it's not going to rain - I need a decent night of sleep.

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500 meter up… lets hope for 500 meters down.

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Great shoulder all day… the further i am away from those 16 wheelers the better.

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These two guys stopped me and offered food and drink, thanks guys.. great meeting you two.

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Coming down the mountain and into the plains to Akhisar, Turkey.

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