Düzce to Kovancilar (day 4)

I thought today was going to be a boring day. I knew that I had to cover a lot of ground to try and make up the deficit of the train journey.

I left the hotel at 06:50 and headed back onto the motorway. I was thinking that I wouldn't have much to write about today but who wrong was I??

I was following the road towards Ankara and then headed east, I didn't go around the city as I thought I would. The road took me through farming country and I was surrounded by mountains on either side. The road was flowing, the bike was happy at about 110km/h and the sweepers just kept coming. Lovely fast flowing roads.

At this point it's just fluid breaks for me and the bike. After lunch I get back on the road and start going towards Erzincan. I look at the GPS and watch the countdown of km's to my destination. Can I get it to drop down to a reasonable number without tiring myself out?

I see some fruit vendors at the side of the road. I pull over at one place and an old woman comes out. She calls for her husband, he's asleep in the van, I start to pick out some apples. She calls again, no response from him. I get my apples and she weighs them. She tells me something in Turkish which I don't understand - I open my hand with my coins and she takes 1 Lira. I give her another but she refuses it. I insist and she reluctantly accepts it.

I drive on and decide it time for a pit stop. I get the bike onto the center stand and ask the guy to fill the tank. A man walks over to me with a cup of tea. He invites me over to sit down with him and another 2 customers.

I push on again after my little break. Get to Erzincan and stop for fuel. No petrol! Eek. Try the next petrol station. Sane again. He tells me there is petrol 5km ahead. I put the throttle into economy mode until I can find petrol. I find a station and they have petrol, saved. It means that I can continue riding at speed again.

I reach my turning point and the road is gravel to start with, over a brigde and then there's a military check point, unmanned but with a small armored vehicle there. I think nothing of it and press on. The road rises up into the hills, and then drops down into a little valley again.

I see spray paint on the back of road signs, CHP and PKK. Now I'm not feeling so keen about this area. I pass a man in military uniform and I can see some watch towers on the hills. I'm making progress on this road but when I see that I've got 175km until I turn off I don't think that I'm going to make it. Further more, I've got cows, stay dogs and little turtles to dodge.

I make it to my turning and daylight has gone. The stretch of road I was on had no lights and some of the drivers think that they don't need their headlights either!

I stop at a petrol station and ask for a hotel or pension in the area. I'm told there's a place 3 km down the road. Head back into town and I find a place. It's not the height of luxury but it has its own wet room so I can't complain.

What a day. Feel tired but I still feel like riding another couple of hundred km's.

Total distance: 1,057km.