I didn’t know how long border formalities may take, so my first day in Turkey was a short ride to Doğubeyazıt. There was quite an overt security presence in eastern Turkey. Armoured vehicles and water cannon were parked prominently in the centre of towns. Armoured police vehicles passed me from time-to-time going along the main road. For many miles from the border a tall security type fence was being built along the E80. At first I thought the fence might be to separate the Kurdish area of Turkey from Transport links to the west of the country. However, further along the fence was being constructed on the north side of the road. There were some well defended security posts along the way.
I headed to Erzurum which was the last town with the very noticeable security presence, then via Bayburt to the Black Sea coast at Trabzon and along the coast to Samsun. There were a couple of tunnels heading across the mountains to Bayburt and along the coast. All were adequately lit and ventilated and could be cycled without a problem. The worst thing about tunnels is the sound. Out in the open you can tell if a vehicle is slowing down or moving over by hearing. In the tunnels the sound echoes around and it just sounds like they are coming up very fast behind. I rode this towards the end of September when the traffic was quite light. On the way to Giresun I cracked a wheel rim. I noticed a large storm drain ahead and moved out in good time. An artic lorry then came really close, there was no other traffic around and he could easily have straddled the lanes. I was forced to move over and the rear wheel dropped into one of the gaps between the bars which went with the carriageway rather than across as normal. The back wheel dropped in a long way with quite a thump. About 40% of the spoke holes had stress cracks. The tandem reinforcement rings on the Rohloff did their job and the hub was fine. The wheel made it in this state to Istanbul which was nearly 1000 km. This was obviously not a great day, the receptionist from the hotel in Giresun was very friendly and showed me round town and recommended some places to eat. Whilst giving the bike a quick once over in Ünye I noticed that the threaded screw that holds the leather of the Brooks saddle tight had suffered metal fatigue and had cracked about half the way through. That evening I was able to get a long threaded bolt of about the same diameter and two nuts to make a slightly crude replacement. The hotel was ideal for repairs as it had a large shady yard out the back. From Samsun I headed back inland to the Bolu and on to Istanbul.
Large queue of lorries to and from Bulgaria. Does note bode well for Brexit.