Our first cycling days in Turkey are not easy. We've gotten used to the easy life in Istanbul and now we have to climb hills in temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius. Our bikes are completely drenched in sweat. Suzan is having some knee problems the first few days and is suffering from a mysterious eating disorder. She is very shaky and needs to stop about every 5 minutes to eat something. After about one week our bodies are adjusted and we start to enjoy the cycling.

We tour the battlefields of Gallipolli, the area where so many Australian, New Zealand and Turkish soldiers lost their lives in the first world war. It's a very moving experience being there especially now that war in Afghanistan is imminent. The beautiful landscape is in sharp contrast with the suffering that took place here. The battlefield is a national park and the landscape has pretty much been unchanged since 1915. Every year thousands of Australians, New Zealanders and Turkish come here in April to commemorate their losses. We are touched by the respect and friendship that the former enemies developed for eachother as depicted by the following beautiful poem written by Ataturk.

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmetciks to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours...
You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well."
(Ataturk 1934).

We leave Gallipoli and head along the coast for a few days. The holiday season has ended and it's somewhat depressing to see all those closed hotels and empty beaches. The road condition is bad: rough asphalt and there are thorns everywhere. We both start to get a lot of punctures. We repair the leaks but something strange is happening. The repaired tubes last only for a few days as the patched punctures rip the tube open. This problem makes the punctured tubes worthless and we have to throw away four inner tubes. We're worried. We've only 2 new tubes left we can't buy any new ones in Turkey. The problem is that the Turkish 20inch inner bicycle tubes do not use the French valve.

The 'out of season blues' is starting to affect us and we decide to turn inland after we reach Ayvalik. Our goal is Konya, some 750 km eastwards. We have a very hard climb before we reach Kula where the great Anatolian plateau starts. We cycle through the very dry and brown steppe for days and are overwhelmed by the vastness of the land. We pass lonely towns and hear the muezzins call for prayer. Their singing travels far and in the distance we can often hear the 'Allah - u - Akhbar' chant. The further east we get the more Islamic society is becoming. Even the smallest towns seem to have an abundance of mosques. We are getting used to the roaring and often fierce calls for prayer that start at about 5 in the morning.

The Turks are extremely friendly wherever we go. Anywhere we stop we quickly gather an audience of men. They offer us tea, food and advice. We start to feel like celebrities. In the town of Usak we are interviewed by local television reporters. We tell them our story, and they film us. After that happens we start to meet Turks who greet us saying: "oh hello, you must be the Dutch couple trying to get to India on a recumbent bike!".

The Turks are very keen to talk to us. A lot of Turks have worked in Germany and Holland. So, in a mix of Turkish, German, Dutch and of course handgestures we are able to communicate with eachother. Every day we try to learn some Turkish and after a while we are able to have a very basic conversation. We are very proud of ourselves.

After reaching Konya we head for Kayseri in the Cappadocia region. We experience days of strong headwinds and our average speed slows down to a crawl. In Kayseri the weather starts to change. After months of heat winter is about to begin. It's getting colder and we're starting to get the chills. Our feet are freezing so our flip-flops have to be replaced by real shoes.

Heading out of Kayseri we follow the signs for Sivas. We end up doing a long, steep climb. Traffic is very light and we are starting to wonder if we are on the right road. On the top of the hill a family is having a picnic. They tell us that we're heading north from Kayseri, not east! It is 2 o'clock in the afternoon, if we go back, we won't make it before dark to the next city beyond Kayseri. We decide that heading north is our fate. We travel through a very hilly region that is completely deserted. Unfortunately the famous Turkish dogs are still around and over the next few days we are regularly attacked by these monsters. We thank our Dog Dazer and the canister's of tear gas that we took with us for these occasions. We were warned by other cyclists about the dogs in East Turkey but we never imagined that it would be this bad. The dogs make our cycling days a nerve wrecking experience and we are constantly on guard.

The area that we are cycling through is very beautiful but rough. We are far away from the main roads and we feel far removed from civilization (meaning: gas stations with restaurants). It's getting colder every day, and the nights are starting to get freezing cold. Cycling from Sorgun to the town of Zile we have to climb several hills. We reach the top of the last hill and we are sweaty, exhausted and hungry. It's late and in the valley we can see Zile. We break a cycling law by not stopping on the top to put on warm clothes and pay for it. The decent is extremely long and cold. Our hands almost freeze off. We both catch flu and have to stay in Zile for a week.

We have already decided that we will not go into Iran in light of the American attacks on Afghanistan (looking back we think that it would have been fine though, our English friends have so far not experienced any problems). After we recuperate from the flu we feel that there is not much point in going further eastwards into the Turkish winter. We cannot reach our goal anyway.

In three days we cycle to Samsun. Our last cycling day in Turkey is memorable. Our speedometers tell us we have cycled 6000 kilometers and we see snow on the last hilltop before descending into Samsun. It's a very strange feeling. We're quite sad about not being able to complete our journey. We comfort eachother by the thought that it was due to events beyond our control. The next day we take a bus back to Istanbul. Looking out of the window we see the beautiful scenery along road D-100 and hope that we will be able to cycle in this wonderful country again.

In Istanbul we spend several wonderful days with Okke's parents. We see the sights again and still cannot get enough of this city. We are starting to think that it would not be so bad to spend the rest of our year here. But, hey, that's not the spirit of the worldcyclist! After much discussion we finally decide to fly to Bangkok. It's time for a new adventure.