I'm still not quite sure how I managed it but I had yer man JR up, breakfasted and on the bike with wheels turning just before half eight this Friday morning. There are those of you reading this who will recognise and indeed marvel at the magnitude of my achievement.
I'm not altogether sure that it was all my own work to be honest but I suspect that a large carrot by the name of Istanbul dangled metaphorically in front of himself was largely the reason for the abnormally early start.
From the outset Jochen has said that he wanted two clear days in Istanbul and when I pointed out last night at Ordu that we could be there on Saturday afternoon and stay until Tuesday morning there was no stopping him. We took 385 of the 555 miles out of the equation today and will head on into the big city tomorrow.
The police were hiving on the road today. We had a narrow escape at one speed trap as I used a line of trucks to hide myself from the view of the policeman waiting to stop me. They flagged Jochen down but sent him on his way immediately. We were flagged down twice more but again were waved on but told to go handy. We were only doing 95kph the first time and even slower the second at 85kph. Strangely enough though, after a forty-five minute lunch stop we never saw another speed check the rest of the day. Go figure as they say.
Regrettably tonight saw my first "food fail" of the trip so far. We went to a nice enough restaurant only to find that they only serve ishkender kebabs. From Wiki;* It is a kind of doner kebab prepared from thinly cut grilled lamb basted with hot tomato sauce over pieces of pita bread and generously slathered with melted sheep butter and yoghurt. Tomato sauce and boiling butter are sometimes poured over the dish, at the table.
Anyway, after a wait of thirty minutes I was still without dinner and was up from the table ready to leave to go elsewhere but was persuaded to give it another three or four minutes. Just as I was about to leave it arrived. What a disappointment. It had the consistency of mushy peas and none of the flavour. The pita bread was so soggy that it reminded me of feeding Farleys Rusks to Natasha as a baby many years ago. It was the sort of meal that will probably be served to me in thirty years time when I have no teeth and neither know nor care where I am nor what I am eating. It was dire. The only good thing about was that it only cost me £4.50. I will suffer the loss.
On a more positive note, I have known for quite a while now that we are a day ahead of schedule. Well when I say that, I mean we don't really have a schedule, just more of an idea of where we need to be and when, in order to stay kind of on track, especially this last week as we have an appointment to keep on Friday.
But I have a plan.................. Yes I know what happened the last time but this one might just work for us.
385 miles