The sun determines our days. If it shines, we can easily endure the altitude, headwind and aching legs. But if it hides behind the clouds, our sweat mixes with the cold, our nose runs and our feet and hands go numb. Today we want to make it to Göksun, the next bigger town in this high valley, and look for a place to stay with a shower. After thirty sweaty kilometers through hilly terrain and remote villages and surprising ruins from Roman times, we reach the main road, where we expect some more civilization. We thought wrong. Far and wide there is no store and therefore no lunch picnic for us. At a gas station we save ourselves from the cold into the heated back room and may cook us there without many words a noodle soup. The young gas station attendant speaks some Turkish, but can only read Arabic, and so my cell phone translates our request into Arabic for the first time! Meanwhile, the weather continues to deteriorate and the headwind is joined by rain. We are not fit today. The 1200 meters of altitude and over eighty kilometers of the previous day we do not put away so easily and after a cold rain ride in the headwind we do not feel well either. Göksun is still a good forty kilometers away and it is hopeless to make this distance under these conditions still in daylight.
We finally wrap ourselves up in all our rain gear anyway and drive to the next hamlet in the hope of finding at least some food there and possibly a sheltered place to spend the night.
I approach the only person who can be found outside in the unfriendly weather and not ten minutes later we are sitting in the warm, dry sleeping and living room of the young couple Bedri and Zehra. It does not take long and the 25-year-old Zehra puts two bowls of Mantli in front of us – Turkish mini ravioli – and it is clear: we are welcome and may of course spend the night here. What luck! Thanks to our cell phones, the communication works wonderfully and soon Louie visits Bedri’s 40 sheep in the nearby stable at regular intervals to feed them with all kinds of things, to admire them and to look after them. During this time I have the opportunity to talk to the lively Zehra. Zehra is still five months married already pregnant with their first child and the two of them found out the day before that it will be a boy. The excitement about us two exotic beings is of course great and already we are announced in photos in the respective family chats Instagram and Facebook. Soon Zehra gets a call from her mother-in-law, who of course wants to know everything in detail. Among other things, it is reported: “Simone rides a bike all the time and weighs only 40 kilograms!”
To our great joy, the two of them offer us a warm shower. Gratefully we accept. Now, two hours later, we realize that this offer is by no means a simple matter: In a simple room, a fire has been lit especially for our warm shower in order to heat the water in the boiler. With a bit of a guilty conscience, we enjoy the luxury of the warm water and are impressed by the functional simplicity of life here.
After the wedding, Bedri had to take out a loan to make the purchases for the new household. As is common in rural areas of Turkey, Zehra is a full-time “Ev-kadin-ni”:housewife. Bedri works with machines. To cover the living expenses incurred, 5000 Lira per month is necessary, the two believe. However, the fixed minimum wage is only 2800 liras a month. The Turkish economy is in a bad way, Bedri adds, and we talk about the currency conversion. We are shocked to see that the Turkish lira has lost over 20% of its value against the euro in the last four weeks alone. A disaster for the country and suddenly we can explain the absurdly rising gasoline prices. From 7 Lira per liter, they have risen in recent weeks to up to 9 Lira per liter. For us foreigners this exchange rate loss means advantages. The consequences for the locals, on the other hand, are harsh. The price of bread has doubled. Everything is getting more expensive. Travel abroad becomes unaffordable. Foreign loans of companies become unsustainable, the consequences affect workers, suppliers, raw material prices etc. etc.
Later in the evening, they surprise us with a wonderful evening program: Zehra dishes up popcorn and other goodies and we watch a Netflix movie together with English subtitles. Warm, clean, popcorn and trash movie- we are in heaven!
After a fantastic breakfast, they reluctantly let us both go the next day. Four lives that have touched each other so coincidentally and are now drifting apart again. We wish the two and a half only the best and will not forget them so quickly!
With fresh legs we pedal directly to the big city (Karaman-)marash. Here we allow ourselves three nights in a hotel to really have “office time” for once. We need time to process all the impressions of the past days and weeks, to stretch our tired legs, to wash our clothes, to make phone calls and for once just to do “nothing”. Also, once again some route planning is on the agenda. A day’s ride on the main road brings us to Gaziantep. From now on we drive parallel to the Syrian border towards the east and dive once again into a completely new world.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)