28 May, Salihli to Ödemiş, 17km @ 6.5kph + 36km
bus ride
Otel Helvaci 80TL
(breakfast included) (negotiated down from 100TL)
Today
we bit off considerably more than we could chew and by 10:00, four long hours
after leaving our hotel, we had travelled only 17km and I was (sorry, no
elegant way to say this) vomiting over a public squat loo in the tiny mountainside
village of Allahdiyen. Charl too was feeling nauseous. Neither from anything
imbibed, but from pushing ourselves beyond our limits. We had cycled 8km and
then turned south into the mountains that run east from Izmir on the coast; and
there had pushed our stubborn bikes up 9km of hairpin bends, each twist and
climb affording us more spectacular views of the valley we had just left; none,
in other words, making any real progress distance-wise. Outside Allahdiyen, we
saw an improbable sign advertising a hotel, and turned into the single village
street, hoping... But the sign advertised a hotel back in Salihli, just 7km
away via an even narrower and steeper road than that we had just travelled. So
... we took a bus to Ödemiş ...
Between Salihli and Ödemiş
Between Salihli and Ödemiş
Between Salihli and Ödemiş
Allahdiyen
Allahdiyen