39. Trucking in Turkey

By Dennis

Yambol to Edirne. 114km. 17.6 km/hr

Our hotels breakfast was not available until 10am so we headed to the local supermarket for its 8am opening to find 30-40 people waiting to get in. I left Don with the bikes and joined the crowd when the doors opened and was surprised that most of them made a dash for the fruit and veggie section which had a very limited selection of produce – no bananas and yoghurt for breakfast today.

From Yambol to the Turkish border was mostly on really quiet country roads but when we rejoined the highway for the final stretch to the border, we quickly ran into lots of truck traffic. 7km away from the border the trucks were stopped, dead stopped, with the drivers out of their vehicles sitting on chairs or doing truck maintenance. Fortunately they had pulled onto the shoulder allowing us to pass, while dodging into the gaps between trucks to avoid the few oncoming cars and trucks coming out of Turkey into Bulgaria. It was a big border crossing with 4 checkpoints that took about an hour to get through – the customs and immigration personnel were amused to process a couple of cyclists!

We followed a new highway with super wide, smooth shoulders all the way to Edirne. What a transition from the previous countries -mosques with Imans calling to prayer 6 times a day, modern shops everywhere and the smell of roasting meat from donair stands permeating the air.

Despite dozens of phone shops we were unable to purchase a new sim card because of system problems caused by communications a 5.4 earthquake a day before.

Edirne to Corlu 129km. 22.6 km/hr

A long, hot day on the highway but at least it was an excellent road with smooth surfaces, a 3 metre wide shoulders and a good tailwind. We stopped in Corlu and picked up sim cards, but because of ongoing system problems due to the earthquake it took 1.5 hours. It was difficult to be without a phone for a day as we are dependent on them for navigation and accomodation.

When you go from Eastern Europe to Turkey it is like a light switch being thrown.  The other countries we have been through change a bit from each other, Turkey changes dramatically:

• There are metal detectors in the big supermarkets.
• Beer, when you can find it, costs more than at home.
• There is much more of a police presence, both in the towns and on the highway.
• Crosswalks are dangerous.  Even the locals don’t cross until it is clear.
• There are no church bells, just calls to prayer 6 times a day (although some sources say 5)
• There are so many stores selling delicious sweet things. I think a profession as a dentist would be great!
• People are twenty pounds heavier than Canadians on average
• Red lights for cars are optional
• Men are in every cafe drinking tea, not coffee
• Half the women dressed traditionally, the other half western
• There are shoulders on the highway!

But the biggest thing is the mass of humanity walking through the center of towns, with tiny streets in all directions selling everything imaginable. It is hard to believe who buys all this stuff and how the vendors make a living, as we have seen few people in the shops.

This was our penultimate riding day. Tomorrow Istanbul!

Corlu to Istanbul 78km 16.2 km/hr

The early morning start for our last riding day was delayed by a flat tire on my bike, the first either of us have had. Overall we have been lucky – we are both using Schwalbe Marathon tires, and although heavier than conventional tires, they are very durable.

About 60km away from Istanbul Central the traffic started picking up significantly and got to the point where we got off the highway and searched side roads even though they were much slower and longer. We were both very conservative in our last day of riding, not wanting an incident on our final day with the crazy Turkish drivers.

We arrived at our hotel in Buyukcekmece late in the afternoon, hot and tired but glad to to be here. Buyukcekmece is a district of Istanbul, still 35km from Central but this is as far as we are riding – there is no way we are going to ride through traffic again like today, we will take a taxi to the Airbnb for our stay near Taksim Square.

Total distance ridden: 3497 km.