Half time

Stage 10; Şirnak to Şanlıurfa
Day 1: 102.3km
Day 2: 85.6km
Day 3: 106.5km
Day 4: 104.7km

What a difference 1000m makes; now it's no longer hyperthermia I must be wary of, but sunburn! The temperature gradient has also made one other important contribution to the way I conduct operations; it is now possible to camp.

There is a huge advantage to camping whilst cycle touring. No longer am I burdened with a necessity to reach certain destinations during daylight hours; whenever I see a nice place to camp, I can just pull into the side of the road and set up shop. Unfortunately, there just seems to be a distinct lack of nice places!

Steep mountains gave way to steep hills before Şirnak. These gave way to rolling hills which morphed into a low gradient limestone plateau-esque countryside before a final descent onto plains. Plains became hillocks and I finally find myself in Şanlıurfa. Sounds like there would be a never-ending supply of fantastic camping grounds, but this would be wrong!

An absence of surface water everywhere left me filling up from petrol stations, and the limestone areas came complete with (funnily enough) stones. On the other hand, the flat and fertile plains had every available ınch of land taken up with agriculture. Still, when an adequate place had been cleared of sharp pointed rocks, it was nice to sit next to a small fire, gaze up at the stars and power my torch!

My final campsite was indeed next to a river and although the coast was clear when I arrived, it transpired that my chosen area was the thoroughfare for returning sheep, complete with shepherds. Although I successfully managed to refuse offers of accommodation, I caved easily once food came on the agenda, and found myself back at one of their houses, surrounded by 15 children from 3 different families as they laughed at my attempts to put a mıxture of eggs, potatoes, green herbs and chilis into some bread. The wife of my host was so disgusted at my lack of sandwich-making abilities that she insisted on doing it for me, and the moment the end of one piece of bread had disappeared into my mouth, another was already in the making.

The cycling itself had good days and bad days. The road was abysmal in places and the wind against me for long sections. I've been forced of the road god-know how many times and even witnessed the rear rıght wheel of a car lift of the ground as it skidded 90 degrees in front of me. The man had been attempting to overtake a car that was attempting to overtake me, with the result being 2 wheels in the gravel, a squealing of breaks, black marks on the road, and a car that was almost flipped. The other car (the one that had been overtaking me) merely continued on its chosen path, while the driver of car that had conducted a risky manoeuver at high speeds did what all people do when they're safe in the knowledge they are in the wrong; they try to blame someone else. Gesticulating at the verge and with an irritated tone to his voice I got the impression I was being ticked off for not having the courtesy to struggle through the gravel. I simply repeated my well worn phrase: 'no turkish, no kurdish' (I haven't even learned these in their respective languages - but look how far that got me in Iran), and gave an award-winning smile before he sped off into the distance.

Total distance thus far: 3605km! It means I've passed the landmark figure of 3520km which is the halfway point between Delhi and Dublin (as the crow flies). It's all downhill from here!!!

First green field I've seen since 28th December!<

One of the many sandwiches















SSDD...it was closed. Supposedly the prophed Abreham threw himself/was thrown from the walls of this castle(I don't think I'm making that up, but I could well be!)