24 July, Hasankeyf
Has Bahçe 100TL (breakfast included)
Today I swam in the Tigris. “Swam” is
perhaps misleading. I got into the water, rolled onto my belly, wrapped my arms
around a handy rock and allowed my feet to float downstream with the current.
And there I lay in the shadow of the cliff, in water lukewarm, thinking now and
then of the thousands of years of history recorded along this waterway, but
mainly chatting to Charl sitting on the bank and a young American woman we met in
Antalya and bumped into again here at our motel. And there I lay in the shadow
of the cliff, body cool despite the heat of the day, all tensions floating away
with the current... Charl and I have cycled 2,878km since arriving in Turkey,
making this our longest trip to date. Our previous record was 2,537km in South
Africa in 2001. We cycled from Beitbridge to Cape Point raising some money for
the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund in the process. My parents were our
excellent support team (thank you mom and dad), so we did not have the added
weight and worry of the panniers we are carrying now, and we were both younger
and both weighed considerably less!
Hasankeyf and Tigris River
Hasankeyf and Tigris River