The Coast Of Living

March 2025

My travels in this blog:

Lake Iznik

Below Left: Aaahhhhh, what a joy to wake up to this.

The beautiful Lake Iznik, in northwestern Turkey, was totally still and quiet as I rode away from Tarpan and Beste's place in the late morning.

Their backyard had been a great place to camp.

Below Centre: "Bye from the Göllüce neighbourhood." Why thank you, it's beautiful here.

Below Right: A quiet beautiful road, passing stunning old olive trees

Above Centre: Yeah man

The road climbed, as usual. Flat doesn't seem to exist in Turkey. At least not where I've been.

I passed through some stunning towns on the way. Everything was so peaceful, and the sun was out all day. Even the dogs were generally too lazy to kill me. It was pretty much perfect.

I asked these strapping young lads if they minded me taking their photograph, as they were all so handsome. They were happy to oblige.

Above Left: If Turkey needed to hide their intercontinental ballistic missiles somewhere, there'd be plenty of spots.

Above Left: No, it's not 1km to the next dog. He's just around the corner.

Above Centre: Eventually I headed into a wide valley, that, unfortunately had a wide road in it.

Above Right: Rubbish rubbish, everywhere. Well, not everywhere, but it's not good.

Above: Interesting tiling style

I stopped in the town of Gemlik, went into the old shopping centre, and headed up the stairs to a type of diner. They're called a büfe, with the obvious English translation, even though I've noticed the word büfe also means shop here, or kiosk.

I feel like it's so safe here in Turkey that I was happy to leave my fully loaded bike parked right out the front of the shopping centre, unattended. Maybe that's dumb, I don't know, but no one touched it.

Above Centre: Lentil soup, salad, toasted white bread, and hot chips - which was the full extent of their veggie options in this very meat-heavy place.

Above Right: And then, there it was! I'd finally made it to the Sea of Marmara, that huge body of water that I intend to coast along for the next few days, heading roughly west along its southern banks. Where possible, at least.

Atatürk

I've mentioned Kemal Atatürk before, and told you that his picture appears all over the country. He's regarded as the founding father of modern Turkey, credited with creating a united, modern, secular and industrialised state out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. So far, pretty much everyone I've spoken to about him, both young and old, seem to respect him.

Above Left: Atatürk reminds me of my dad when he was younger.

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Atatürk's Turkish National Movement resisted the carving up of the empire amongst the Allied powers, and his army defeated forces sent by the Allies, enabling him to proclaim the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1922.

He was definitely a reformer. He made primary education free and compulsory for all, opening thousands of schools. Turkish women received equal civil and political rights under his rule. He initiated wide-reaching programs of political, economic and cultural reforms.

But his government also continued to carry out the already-existing programs of "Turkification," which aimed to create a homogenous, unified and secular nation. This, in effect, meant that all non-Turks were forced to adopt the Turkish language, their cultural practices were often made illegal, and they were excluded from any civil servant positions.

Many populations were forcibly displaced and either expelled from the country, or moved to other areas. It was complete state-sponsored discrimination. And much worse, of course.

Although Atatürk came to power after the Armenian genocide had been completed, his forces continued with the annexation of various pockets of Armenian control within Anatolia. Whilst in Turkey I tried to Google some info about the Armenian genocide, and, unsurprisingly, most non-Turkish websites on the subject wouldn't open.

Yeah, government control over the media is becoming more and more absolute here. President Erdoğan has arrested hundreds of journalists, closed or taken over dozens of media outlets, and prevented journalists and their families from travelling. It's estimated by some that Turkey currently accounts for about one third of all journalists imprisoned around the world.

That's a shocking statistic, considering that the country contains only around 1% of the world's population.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, enjoying some stunning views after climbing up some bloody steep hills.

Nice innit

Top Left: The small town of Altintaş, it's so beautiful.

Above Right: Eventually I made my way to a town called Mudanya, and it was time to stop for the day.

Above Left: You can actually catch a ferry from here to Istanbul, crossing the Sea of Marmara from its southeast corner to its northeast one, where the capital is situated.

It was super nice arriving at this time of day

Above Right: Yeah, they've got boxing machines here too.

Above: incredible to see the Sun lasting everyone's brains. It wasn't a coincidence.

I found a cheap hotel and went strolling. There was nowhere to camp. A hotel room here is about the same price as a hostel bed in southern Europe, so that's not too bad I guess.

Below Centre: My street.

Below Right: There's some amazing old wooden buildings still standing

Above Left: Raise your glass, O Beloved. First to your coming, then to your going. And when you reach the bottom, then to your coming again. And then to your past.....

Above: The moon, the bird, the sky, the sea.

What did I do to deserve such beauty?

Below Left: A simple dinner, of potato borek, and an unusually huge cup of Turkish coffee. Luckily my body is dead so I'll sleep anyway.

Below Centre: Every single one of them is good.

Below Right: Strolling home.

Hugging The Marmara

The next day I headed west along the coast. But the road didn't follow the coast coast but climbed up and down the hills next to it. It was tough on the chickenlegs but the views absolutely 1000% made up for it.

Below: Occasionally I'd make my way into small villages or towns like this one.

Above Left: I'm not sure if you can imagine the actual size of this beast, but she's just an example of the scale of the canine threat here. This one's obviously completely benign, but if you add this body size to a mad wolf's brain you can just imagine the result.

Actually, it's not as bad as I make it out to be. Most of the time. I think I'm getting used to it. I haven't been bitten. Yet.

Eventually I sadly had to leave the coast (temporarily), but it was delicious in the olive groves as I climbed, so I decided to sit on the green grass and contemplate life, and my bakery haul.

Above Left: What would you like? The simit (the sesame one) the potato bun, or the cheese bun? Oh sorry, I scoffed the cheese one in the time required to take the pic.

Below Left: More olives than a Tunisian banquet

Below Centre: Beware of the dog. As if I didn't know that.

Above Right: Eventually the road widened out, and I had a killer headwind. Things don't ever remain perfect forever do they.

Well, yes they do, but in their own uncompromising way.

Above Left: Another road, another lake. This one, by a strange coincidence, happens to be named after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Above Centre: Total Energy gas station poster

Above Right: This flag is huge. Does that mean that people will love the country more than if it had just been a regular sized flag?

Below Right: Poor dead owl

I eventually hit the town of Karacabey, and decided to stop for the night. I know I've got a lot of camping options coming up, but there's none here, so I got another cheap room.

Above Centre: Not all of this was for me, but I gutsed a lot of it. I was famished. Cacık (tzatziki - a cucumber yoghurt dip), chilli chick peas, pilav (rice), fried potatoes with hot chilli, and salad. I skipped on the dolma (stuffed vine leaves, as they're full of mince.

The town was quiet at dusk.

And then an amazing thing happened. Thousands of birds started flying through the sky, around and around, screeching and chirping and doing their amazing thing. It was beautiful to watch.

Below Centre: Yeah, you thought my puns were bad. That's a stereotypical Native American face to the left of the name, which was Tonto's nickname for the Lone Ranger, which I know because I used to watch the black and white American tv series back in the 1960s. What that name is actually doing here is completely beyond my brain capacity.

Below Right: The bakeries are amazing here.

Above Left: Kadayif is the Turkish version of the Greek kataifi, but actually originated here during the Ottoman times. It's divine. It's made from fine dough threads, with a filling of crushed almonds or walnuts and sugar syrup. Then it's baked and soaked in lemon sugar syrup.

Above Centre: The sparkly central roundabout

Above Right: And a full moon!

Back To The Coast

I headed out of town, and then rolled through the green fields and hills. I've been climbing my butt off in Turkey. Maybe I forgot to mention that. It's hard work, as generally it's not just gentle slopes but really steep and relentless climbs, especially on the back roads.

Below Left: Farmers use these three-wheeled transport vehicles here. They look exactly the same as the ones that are ubiquitous in China. Maybe they're made there.

Below Centre: I had to ride on that big highway in the distance for a bit, but not for too long.

Great generic roadside ceramics creations

Above Left: I got sick of being chased and finally lost my temper and shot this dog.

No, not really, I don't like their fangs but I'd never wish them dead. Just transformed into butterflies or something.

Above Centre: There's little feribots plying across the Marmara from Bandirma to Istanbul. They're not real of course, just bots.

Speaking of Bandirma, here I am suddenly.

Above Right: Eating lentil soup, rice and beans. When I get into a town I ask someone to direct me to a place that serves this type of food. They're always around somewhere. Or the borek/gözleme places - stuffed pastries or slices. There's always quite a few veg options in Turkey actually, it's not all döner kebap and köfte. As much as the Turks love their meat of course.

Above Left: This is my heaven. There's an awful lot of heaven around here.

I sat here overlooking the coast and contemplated my journey. That is, I blogged. It's a great pleasure of mine.

One of the many.

Above Right: Eventually I panted up the hills out of town.

I took some back roads to the coast again. I was looking for somewhere to pitch my tent, and came across a cool young couple on a motorbike and asked them for a good spot to camp.

They were so nice, they just told me to follow them, and took me a few kilometres around to the other side of the bay, to this spot.

We chatted for ages. They're super disillusioned with the government too, and all the corrupt officials and rigged electoral processes. They sounded quite down about it actually. Pretty much everyone talks politics around here, and people seem to be eternally worried about it.

It's interesting.

I came to Turkey for the first time about 25 years ago, and remember exactly the same thing.

I'm still genuinely empathetic to people's lot here however, as it must be so disempowering to feel like you have absolutely no way of changing the status quo.

Unlike in a functioning democracy, of course, where you think you'll change the status quo, and the newly elected party only ever tinkers around the edges of real and necessary reform.

We need a revolution kids.

Below Centre: But in the meantime I've got this.

There were a million dogs at the campsite, but once I chatted with them (and gave them some food) they were my friends and protectors. Quite handy actually.

Below Right: Especially this guy.

He loved this orange flavoured bun. Me too. We shared it. Sharing is caring.

The thing is, the dogs were so paranoid that any tiny little sound would set them off, and then there'd be a massive explosion of continuous barking for ages. It got tiring.

For example, unzipping my sleeping bag. Incessant barking. Sneezing. Incessant barking. Some animal appearing. Incessant barking. Absolutely no sound at all. Incessant barking.

Somehow I got used to it, and after a while slept through all their paranoia.

Not surprising, because cycling up these hills and in this wind kills your body and I'm ready for complete sleep death by the time I get horizontal.

To Biga

Yeah, it really was too biga day. Actually it was definitely the hardest day I've had riding in Turkey so far.

It started off pretty straightforwardly, as I slid along the coast for awhile.

Then came the ubiquitous super steep climbs away from the coast, but it was a back road, and the villages were so interesting, I loved it.

Above Right: The beautiful ancient village of Edincik.

Amazing wooden buildings. It's such a shame the economy is so stunted here. People don't have the money to renovate these beautiful old places, and they're just disintegrating before your eyes. So sad.

The buildings aren't unlike many wooden masterpieces you see in Europe, but there they've been consistently renovated and properly maintained.

Below Centre: I could guzzle all this local olive oil, no probs. It's delicious.

Below Left: Benign bear-wolf.

Below Centre: The only new wooden house I saw in the whole place.

Below Right: Lunch, including delicious dates.

Ok, now the tough bit.

As I climbed and climbed I hit incredibly strong winds, mostly hitting me either head on, from my left side or occasionally from my back left. It was hell, as the winds were really too strong to cycle in.

Been there done that (eg. China).

But I persevered nevertheless.

The wind was horrendous, but on top of that were occasional gusts that nearly threw me off the road.

And then one actually did.

A huge gust hit me from the back left and threw my bike and me right off the road. I was flung off my bike and tumbled down the hill for awhile, my bike didn't roll so much, as it was fully laden.

It was a total shitshow, but luckily I wasn't hurt.

Black Bewdy had the panniers to shield her. I had my bike helmet.

Below Centre: This is where my bike ended up. You get no idea of the drop here, but it was quite steep, and I rolled a few times, and ended up quite a way below my bike.

And unfortunately I just had to get up, be a woman, and carry on. Back into the hell wind, which lasted for the whole rest of the day. And it was strong.

It was one helluva difficult afternoon.

Above Left: The gusts were way stronger up on the ridges.

Above Right: Looks so benign doesn't it

Be,ow Left: Incredible how many mosque designs exist in the Islamic world

Below Right: Yes, I don't need the flag to tell me how windy it is.

Above Right: The lovely guys here bought me a couple of çays. We chatted, they were super nice, as usual.

I finally rolled into the medium-sized town of Biga.

I found a pansiyon (sort of dorm-ey guesthouse) to stay for the night. It looks way better from the outside.

It was pretty dodgy actually, and cheap (about €8 for my own room). Actually I was probably lucky, because no one else was in my room, it's quiet season here, still being winter'n'all.