18 July, Veranşehir to Kiziltepe, 73km
Dunaysir Hotel 120TL (breakfast included) (negotiated down from 140TL)
Our day was done and dusted by 13:00. A good
thing as this is around the time our Lomotil wears off! Yes, we both have the
trots. Yay. For the last two days we have been cycling the plains of ancient
Mesopotamia, with the Syrian border just a few kms to the south. Today we saw a
recently killed donkey, bloody and very dead, obstructing still the two-lane
D400. Roadkill is distressingly close when you travel by bike. I can cope with
the numerous small brown birds and splat-flat hedgehogs and occasional snake.
Even one dead jackal and one dead owl, not much damaged, were bearable. Harder
though to see are dead puppies and cats, horribly mangled. When I first catch
sight of these, I try to plot a course that keeps me safe from thundering
trucks yet enables me to steer past the dead using peripheral vision only. We
are finding the dogs of the “wild east” more aggressive than they were in the
west, though their owners call them off as soon as they see we are being
targeted.
Between Veranşehir and Kiziltepe
Between Veranşehir and Kiziltepe