Day 42
Sleeping location: Patch of woodland a few km W of Edirne, Turkey
Distance (km today/total): 115 / 4167
Estimated climb (m today/total): 800 / 34400
Apparent soldier:dog ratio in the Turkish army: 20:1
Day in three words: Under military escort
I got up early and ate my oats before heading up for a look round Perperikon. I was in fact so early that the ticket desk wasn’t yet open, so I went up and figured I would pay on the way out. On the way up to the site I was befriended by a weird looking dog that I called Oscar, who devotedly followed me around the whole time I was there. The site itself was pretty interesting, with bits of it dating from the Bronze Age up to medieval times. It was in an atmospheric setting up on a hilltop, and I had it to myself for the whole hour I was there (apart from Oscar). Thankfully Oscar did not charge me for a guided tour as I left, and even better the man now on the ticket desk refused payment after asking if I had cycled here. Result. After that I had a nice phone call with a sleepy Rebecca, then set off about 10.
The aim for the day was to get to Turkey, 100km away, so I headed off across a landscape of rolling hills and fields with sleepy little villages every so often. By mid morning a strong and persistent wind formed, which was mainly coming from my 10 or 11 o’clock, which made life difficult for most of the rest of the day. In one of the little villages I stopped to get some coffee and try to repair my front rack, which had started to rattle like crazy as the rubber “padding” had worn away. An old Turkish man* took a great interest in me, then in my bike, then in my repair job. He was very pleased when I managed to fix it by using the lid off a Fanta bottle, as was I to be honest. On one hill I started being chased (slowly) by two quite big barking dogs, so I remembered the advice I’d read on the internet, stopped the bike and started forcefully shouting at them to go away. This actually worked too well, as one of them made a sad noise and I felt a bit bad as they slunk off.
The approach to the border was kind of confusing as I was using the old road, which was in total disrepair as it had been superseded by a motorway, and at the end I had to push Maggie up a bank to get to the border proper. The border itself was surprisingly efficient and hassle-free though.
The next bit was the opposite of hassle-free. I had earmarked a camp spot on google maps about 10km east of the border, south of the main road and near to the river that marks the border with Greece. It seemed to have no buildings and some dirt tracks running into patches of woodland. So gamely I set off down one of these tracks. At the first decent looking patch I went to ride down into it, but spotted a man in camo gear with a big gun. I guessed he was a hunter, but he didn't notice me so I headed on, eventually finding an ok spot in a sort of man-made clearing. I was figuring out where to put Maggie and the tent when four faces peered over from the track nearby. All in camo gear. All carrying machine guns. Hang on...
A couple of them came down to me and the oldest asked a few questions in Turkish which I didn’t understand. He then got out his phone and used google translate to tell me that I was in a “restricted military zone” and something garbled about a “penalty”. Oh dear. I used his phone to say in Turkish that I was sorry, I hadn’t seen any signs (I hadn’t) and that I would leave immediately (I absolutely would). He said to follow them. So the five of us walked, me pushing Maggie, back the way I’d come already. I was slightly annoyed about the retracing of steps and the wasting of daylight, but wasn’t really in a position to argue about this. On the way we picked up another four soldiers, one of whom was probably the “hunter”, then another four, then another eight, until there were twenty Turkish soldiers with machine guns and a very worried English guy pushing a bike. They also had a dog, I guess either a mascot or a sniffer dog, who didn’t like me at all and kept having to be shepherded away from me when he started growling too much. I should point out that at no point did I feel unsafe, they were all friendly and I was mainly worried about a fine or some Erdogan propaganda jail time. As it turned out I needed have worried about anything as when we got back to the main road they simply pointed towards Edirne and waved me off. I pedalled off like crazy before they changed their mind.
It was almost dark so I figured I would head into Edirne and look for a hotel unless I found somewhere to camp on the way. As it happened I found a decent little patch of woodland which couldn’t be military as there was littler everywhere, and slung my hammock so I could make a quick getaway in the morning. Quite the end to an otherwise normal day.
*There is a significant Turkish minority in this part of Bulgaria
Distance (km today/total): 115 / 4167
Estimated climb (m today/total): 800 / 34400
Apparent soldier:dog ratio in the Turkish army: 20:1
Day in three words: Under military escort
I got up early and ate my oats before heading up for a look round Perperikon. I was in fact so early that the ticket desk wasn’t yet open, so I went up and figured I would pay on the way out. On the way up to the site I was befriended by a weird looking dog that I called Oscar, who devotedly followed me around the whole time I was there. The site itself was pretty interesting, with bits of it dating from the Bronze Age up to medieval times. It was in an atmospheric setting up on a hilltop, and I had it to myself for the whole hour I was there (apart from Oscar). Thankfully Oscar did not charge me for a guided tour as I left, and even better the man now on the ticket desk refused payment after asking if I had cycled here. Result. After that I had a nice phone call with a sleepy Rebecca, then set off about 10.
The aim for the day was to get to Turkey, 100km away, so I headed off across a landscape of rolling hills and fields with sleepy little villages every so often. By mid morning a strong and persistent wind formed, which was mainly coming from my 10 or 11 o’clock, which made life difficult for most of the rest of the day. In one of the little villages I stopped to get some coffee and try to repair my front rack, which had started to rattle like crazy as the rubber “padding” had worn away. An old Turkish man* took a great interest in me, then in my bike, then in my repair job. He was very pleased when I managed to fix it by using the lid off a Fanta bottle, as was I to be honest. On one hill I started being chased (slowly) by two quite big barking dogs, so I remembered the advice I’d read on the internet, stopped the bike and started forcefully shouting at them to go away. This actually worked too well, as one of them made a sad noise and I felt a bit bad as they slunk off.
The approach to the border was kind of confusing as I was using the old road, which was in total disrepair as it had been superseded by a motorway, and at the end I had to push Maggie up a bank to get to the border proper. The border itself was surprisingly efficient and hassle-free though.
The next bit was the opposite of hassle-free. I had earmarked a camp spot on google maps about 10km east of the border, south of the main road and near to the river that marks the border with Greece. It seemed to have no buildings and some dirt tracks running into patches of woodland. So gamely I set off down one of these tracks. At the first decent looking patch I went to ride down into it, but spotted a man in camo gear with a big gun. I guessed he was a hunter, but he didn't notice me so I headed on, eventually finding an ok spot in a sort of man-made clearing. I was figuring out where to put Maggie and the tent when four faces peered over from the track nearby. All in camo gear. All carrying machine guns. Hang on...
A couple of them came down to me and the oldest asked a few questions in Turkish which I didn’t understand. He then got out his phone and used google translate to tell me that I was in a “restricted military zone” and something garbled about a “penalty”. Oh dear. I used his phone to say in Turkish that I was sorry, I hadn’t seen any signs (I hadn’t) and that I would leave immediately (I absolutely would). He said to follow them. So the five of us walked, me pushing Maggie, back the way I’d come already. I was slightly annoyed about the retracing of steps and the wasting of daylight, but wasn’t really in a position to argue about this. On the way we picked up another four soldiers, one of whom was probably the “hunter”, then another four, then another eight, until there were twenty Turkish soldiers with machine guns and a very worried English guy pushing a bike. They also had a dog, I guess either a mascot or a sniffer dog, who didn’t like me at all and kept having to be shepherded away from me when he started growling too much. I should point out that at no point did I feel unsafe, they were all friendly and I was mainly worried about a fine or some Erdogan propaganda jail time. As it turned out I needed have worried about anything as when we got back to the main road they simply pointed towards Edirne and waved me off. I pedalled off like crazy before they changed their mind.
It was almost dark so I figured I would head into Edirne and look for a hotel unless I found somewhere to camp on the way. As it happened I found a decent little patch of woodland which couldn’t be military as there was littler everywhere, and slung my hammock so I could make a quick getaway in the morning. Quite the end to an otherwise normal day.
*There is a significant Turkish minority in this part of Bulgaria
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