38. 09/08/2017: Chilling in Samsun with our new Serbian friend Alex

Garmin Activity: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2247879770

26km, 1h47, 35hm

Hotel Konaks. We had a nice breakfast here.

Interesting to see how the dining hall was virtually empty. At this time of the year that is just absurd. All because of one man and his nationalistic policies. I felt sorry for the local businessmen.

We had to go to the bike shop to revise the bikes once more, not everything was 100% and I wanted things to be perfect for when I would be cycling alone. As we were waiting for the shop to open, we met another bike packer. His name is Alex and he is from Serbia. His cycling goal was to cycle from Belgrade to Baku. It sounded like I have a new travel buddy for Georgia.

My bike got a new chain, but more importantly new tires. The shop had Schwalbe Marathon World tires in 40mm with some grip pattern. They are a bit smaller than my 45mm tires, but more versatile for rougher surface in Asia.

Flat protection level 7, the best I could get. I HAD to get these tires NOW.

His travel buddy. Only thing I did not like was the absence of disc brakes

He was on a more tight schedule than I was, so we would not be cycling all of the itinerary together, but the segment in Turkey was doable.

We somehow decided that we wanted to chill today and recover a little. After all, we have been cycling for 4100 km. Was not a bad idea.

We had lunch near the bike shop and then we cycled through the city of Samsun.

Black Sea beach

Cycling lanes

I learnt that Samsun is the name of an Ancien Greek warrior

We took pictures and went to a local bar for a drink





What I did not like was that our Serbian friend was too budget minded, he could not spend anything and was giving us a hard time about it.

The Great Samsun

And two great cyclists that came from afar.

After the drink it was already late in the afternoon, we cycled to the other side of the city

We found a nice spot with this view. We sat here for a while to relax. Alex did have money to buy cigarettes and beer which is very expensive in Turkey. Where a man puts his priorities...

I guess everyone just has their own way of living, it's all good. Alex is a good guy who has had a rough life. Coming out on this bike trip is still a very nice achievement! 

In the end we stayed at a camp spot just outside of the city Samsun. Only 25 km this day but we let our bodies recover.. For Roger, the trip was coming to its end. Only three more cycling days left to Trabzon. All of it along the Black Sea.

37. 08/08/2017: Reunited with the Black Sea after 4100km in Samsun!

Garmin Activity: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2247879732

117km, 5h41, 1297hm

Today was the day it was gonna happen. We were going to connect back to the Black Sea and reach the big city of Samsun

The same daily ritual: breakfast, packing the bikes and leaving the town of Boyabat

109 km left to Samsun...



The first 20 km of the ride were tough. We had a long climb and they were working on the road which created even more resistance. It was one long climb from 330 meters to 850.



We took our time for it and completed the long climb. Good thing I have low gears on this travel bike.

Beautiful views along Turkey's D795

They were in the process is making a new road: first they put a layer of tar and then all these stones, it was up to the cars to squish them till smoothness.. This caused extra resistance for us.

Every hard climb is rewarded with a roller coaster downhill.

Havza was a city on our path

We descended but not all the way, we stayed around 600 meters and thus I knew there would still be a long descend before reaching Samsun city

Interesting to see Turkey also has a Venice...

The next climb came, this time to 900 meters. It was by no means a relaxing ride to Samsun today.

And it never went really downhill, constantly these stingers.

This is where we started descending, in the middle of heavy traffic.

This was a very long descent and we knew we would at some point see the Black Sea

Some 20 km before Samsun, I saw lightning and the skies looked creepy. We needed to descend as soon as possible

After a long struggle of more than 100 km and 1200 hm, we arrived in Samsun. Now we needed to look for a hotel.



4100 km from Lummen, Belgium to Samsun, Turkey

Actually, I had done my homework and I knew that there was a good bicycle shop in Samsun called Moda Bisiklet. I saved its location in my GPS and that's where we navigated first. It meant for us cycling through the city of Samsun, to the west side. We did 4100 km now and we needed bike service: a new chain and new tires! The big bike service!

Garmin once again proved to be reliable: we found the shop like that and the owner had everything on stock we needed. That was just amazing.

Our height profile for today. Mind the huge drop towards the Black Sea