Leaving Sinop meant it was a ‘Big-jump’ day, and a long day in the saddle. Initially I was panning to ride as much of the coast road as I could, but looking at my maps I worked out that there is no single road that follows the coast and that it would be an overly long ride if I followed the coast. I wasn’t sure about a campsite at the other end and didn’t want to get there late and then struggle to find one that was open – so I decided to take the easy route
Even though I left at 7.30am I still had the hot afternoon to contend with so I was relieved when I finally got to Istanbul. Before heading to the campsite I had a ride around the city centre, rode over a couple of bridges several times and then played chicken with the yellow taxi drivers – which was good fun.
After having a ride around the city I headed north to find my campsite. Located about 25km to the north of Istanbul the campsite is just outside the village of Rumelifeneri, with the Black Sea to the north and the Bosporus to the east. Camp Rumelifeneri Karavan Kampı is really quiet and peaceful, though a bit expensive at 20eu a night. Its mostly static caravans, with a small area for touring vans and an even smaller area for tents. I tried to bargain him down a bit but he said no, either pay or hit the road, and as it was late in the day I decided to pay. There are few campsites in this part of Turkey, and although I was sure there was another campsite a few Km’s up the road, I’d lost the will to live after a long hot day in the saddle and couldn’t face looking for another campsite. It was a very long day, riding over 720kms.
Whilst here I spent a day in Istanbul. I was going to visit some of the sights, but unfortunately they were rather expensive, especially the Topkapi palace, so I decided to ride around the city, admire the views, walk through a few streets and also have some Turkish food instead. There are two minor annoyances about the tourist attractions in Istanbul. The first is that there are two prices to visit an attraction: The Turkish price and the Non-Turkish price. I’ve seen that all over Turkey and understand the logic and agree with it as the price difference goes towards maintaining the attraction, but the difference in price weren’t as big as they were in Istanbul. Secondly, there were several large cruise ships in the harbour, and at each attraction there was always a massive queue, which I assume was mostly the cruise passengers. It seems that wherever there are cruise ships, the costs are always higher. I’m not sure if I’ll go back to Istanbul, well, not during summer, anyway.
I’ve also managed to catch up on my video editing and also wash ALL my clothes, spending a whole day in a pair of boxers and my flip flops while all my clothes were drying on a makeshift washing line. It’s a good job the campsite is empty as I wouldn’t want to give any old ladies a heart attack…
