Our Hardest Days in the Taurus Mountains | Bike Touring Turkey Ep. 5

In episode four of the Bike Touring Tourquier series, we rode into the Taurus mountains following Ryan Wilson's route on the Radovist. Despite the exhausting climbs, dog scares, and several locals telling us we can't go the way we're planning, we decided to push deeper into the Taurus mountains. Little did we know just how many challenges we were about to face. To be completely transparent, I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now. That's coming up now in episode five. It rained and was quite windy last night, but we still got pretty decent sleeps. It is 5.30 ish AM. I'm curious if you bike tour a camp with somebody, if one of you is always the early riser because this guy is up and at him. Rolling up his stuff and I don't want to leave my warm little sleeping bag cocoon. All right, time to get out of this little cocoon and start getting ready. We are dressed and almost ready, but the wind and rain have picked up a little, so we're just going to sit it out a touch. See if it quiets down. That is some wind baby. We kill some time keeping warm and playing a game on Michael's phone before finally facing the elements. We waited it out a couple of hours. It's still really cold. I think it's about five degrees. So we got to get that tent packed up and get moving. Hopefully that warms us up a little. We begin our day at the point where we will depart the more traveled road. The point we've been warned doesn't exist. We love being on quiet car-free paths, but don't have much experience with roads as rough and eroded as this one. That looks like our way. An experienced mountain biker likely wouldn't even blink at the first stream that has wiped out our path. I don't know how we do this. But for us relative newbies to off-roading, crossing an icy stream on bikes heavily laden with our most important possessions feels rather intimidating. I made it. Oh my God. And it's only the start of the day. No problem. Made it past the tree. I took a little tumble coming down this mud path here. And our tires and bikes are just getting really like chunked up in mud and little rocks and stuff, but it's still a really nice road. Like it's nice to be on. Now we're on a bit of a farmer's road, less bear poop and stuff. So that's nice and we can hear some farmers off in the distance. Our second water crossing doesn't go quite as smoothly. Good job. With Michael ending up with one cold wet. No wet heat. By the time we've crossed our third one to be completely transparent, I am feeling a little overwhelmed right now. Um, we just had kind of like a scary dog encounter. Um, there was a shepherd and there were four dogs with like the big spiky collars. Um, and they're all kind of like growling and barking and getting really close. And Michael was up ahead and there's one dog at him. And then there's another dog that was like following me and growling at me. And there's two more to the side. And the shepherd was really good. He kept like, he was talking to them and like kept like trying to tell them to leave us alone. Um, but it was just really overwhelming right after falling off my bike on that big muddy trail. And then we just did our third river crossing. This time it was smaller river. So we got one of us on each side and we're able to kind of like pass the bikes over, but we've only made it like 10 kilometers. It's testing me more than I knew it could. You know, um, we knew it was going to be beautiful. We knew it was going to be hard. And um, it is more of both of those things than we could have anticipated. So just got to breathe. Anyway, I don't like being a downer, but I think it's important to show that there are ups and downs to bike touring. It is beautiful and special and magical. And it also really tests you and gives you really hard days. So this is the full picture. Okay. Hopefully I'll see you next in town, stuffing my face with food. But of course, first there must be one more river crossing. River crossing number four is complete. Toes are a little cold, but going to get them into some nice warm socks. We realized we're just moving too slowly to get to town, uh, without a bit of a pit stop. So we stopped to make some, uh, lunch and some coffee and on the menu today is going to be a backpacker's pantry, chana masala. Picked up some like freeze dried meals just for such instances where we wouldn't be able to make it between towns in time. So very happy to have that and very happy to take a little break and eat cause it is quite cold out here. Walking through streams in sandals in five degree weather is chilly work. So let's warm up. That is like exactly what I need. That caffeine and food is fueling us where we are re-energized. We just have to pause every once in a while to get the mud out of our bikes. It's getting sprayed everywhere, but feeling so much better with a little bit of fuel in us. And then our challenging day turns right around first by meeting a sweet couple and their friend from Alanya who offer us much information and support. Then when we get to town, a man stops us and insists we come inside. He and his family offer us home cooked food, endless chai and a warm bed for the night. Their generosity and hospitality move us more than we can say. We just had an amazing big breakfast and chai with the lovely family we were staying with, feeling really strong to power up the hill and it started hailing or snowing, but if it's snow, it's very hard snow. So I think it's hail. We're also really lucky we met our host because he let us know that the route we were planning to take, um, the road, a big long stretch of it is closed because of flooding and no cars or even bikes can get by. So we have to do a detour. Um, that'll be a bit of a longer way, but we're so grateful that he told us so we didn't get there and realize we had to turn back. We fight our way up the steep climb out of town. As we turn the corner around the mountain, we discover mother nature has a new test for us. Every turn around the mountaintop offers something new. At times the winds become so strong. We are unable to stay upright on our bikes with no opportunities for shelter. We dismount and push our way along the windy mountain passes. At others, we turn a corner and are mercifully shielded from the gusts and can relax and take in the beauty of having these roads all to ourselves, not a car person or creature in sight. So windy up here, but so cool. We're actually happy that other road was flooded because this road is so cool. I think we're at 1800 meters up here, so it is windy and finding some place to get out of the wind has been hard. But look at the cute little hidey hole we found. The family we stayed with last night give us this huge bag of homemade yufka. And as you know, we're already obsessed with the store bought yufka, but this is obviously way better. It is incredible and such a helpful snack and fuel on this hill. Really windy day. Suddenly the weather seems to be taking a turn for the worse as we're pelted with hail. It just started like hailing and snowing out of nowhere and by some miracle because we've been on like open roads all day, but by some miracle there's this little shelter, um, just off the road. It's like the only shelter we've seen today and it seems like it's maybe a place of prayer. I'm not sure, but just so grateful that it's here. We're still a little damp, but not too bad and the sun's starting to peak out a little bit. Still windy, but so grateful that we missed most of that rain hail snow combo. Let's get back on the road. After a final push along a windy stretch, we are relieved to begin descending. The shelter of the mountains and the lower elevation bring with them a welcome relief from the elements. Along with it comes the incredible sites of ancient fortresses and present day homes built into the cliff sides. My camera simply cannot capture the magnitude of riding past so much history. We decide to spend the night in a small hotel and warm up with some cunefe. The next morning we set off with a new plan rather than reconnecting to our mountain route. We decide to head towards the coast and meet up with a couple we had met from Alanya. We're passing all these beautiful trees, which don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure they're cherry blossoms is the flower on them. One of the really kind women we met the other day was explaining that at this altitude with the cold, not that many plants do well and some of the ones that do well are walnuts and cherries, which explains why the walnuts here are so delicious and there's cherry everything. There's cherry jam, cherry spread, cherry juice, which is all so delicious and tart and wonderful. So even though it isn't the season to eat the cherries, it's really nice to be biking by when all of these blossoms are in season. We need to have cherry jam when we're biking by so many cherry trees, you know? Homemade yufka and cherry jam. Not too shabby. After a long but smooth day of riding, it's time to find a home for the night. So we were on the lookout for our wild camp spot for the night. We kept seeing these patches of land that might work. And so finally we stopped and used Google translate and asked a man if we could camp anywhere. And he called somebody over and spoke English and then we asked him if we could camp anywhere and he was like, no, no, no, come. My place is right over there. So he still has to finish up work, but he said we can make some dinner on his patio and we're just cooking up something quickly. But yeah, just the generosity and kindness is just blowing us away and making us think of all the things we want to do to keep paying it forward. Cause we're feeling very, very lucky right now. The next morning we wave goodbye to our kind host and hit the road for Alanya. Though of course, a glass of chai is an order first. We pop into a roadside stop for some tea and fruit. For the first time in days, we are back in our warm weather attire. I'm still wearing a sweater for the downhills, but my leggings and thick socks are off. My down jacket is off. Oh, this feels delightful. Show off your warm weather attire. After many days of climbing, it is time to descend. We wind our way down the mountainsides until the Mediterranean comes into view. Before we know it, we've arrived in the city of Alanya. We settle in for a couple days of rest on the coast before setting off on the next stage of our adventure in Torquay. Where will we head next? Find out in the next video.