2014 Biking Turkey Daily Snippet

1 September, Perşembe to Fatsa, 37km
Hotel Goksu 100TL (breakfast included) (down from 120TL)

Our best day yet on the Black Sea coast. After Ordu, travelling west, the main coastal highway, the 010, continues straight instead of following the coast. This leaves a peninsula unscathed by its four lanes and fast-moving traffic. We opted yesterday to take the old coast road to Perşembe on the peninsula, and to continue around the peninsula today, picking up the 010 again just before Fatsa. The narrow, quieter old road climbs and drops through lush green hills and small villages clustered where rivers flow into the sea and offers two tourist sites. At the north end of the peninsula is an almost white stretch of beach billed as Turkey’s best Black Sea beach. It does not compare to Cape Town’s lovely beaches and the Seychelles it is not, but it made for a pleasant stop and swim on a hot day. West of the beach is the site of a Greek-era chapel where sailors prayed for safe passage to Jason and his Argonauts. Here we lunched at a rustic place overlooking the clear sea and the cormorants and seagulls sunbathing on the rocks. We had made a later start than planned due to two more broken spokes and with our two lengthy stops on the peninsula did not make it to Ünye as hoped, deciding to call it a day in Fatsa where we have just dined on excellent spaghetti bolognaise.