Day 87 (Turkey): Diyarbakir - Kozluk

daily distance: 135km
total distance: 5738km
riding time: 8h

I got up early to beat the heat, or at least gave it a shot. I was on the bike before 7am and it seems that I had failed miserably. It was already brutally warm when I crossed the Tigris valley to make my way to the other side.

It was supposed to be flat … Well, it turned out that the whole day was more like 1823m in altitude. It was massive. I got my first 80km in before 1am and took a long break in an internet cafe in Silvan. Until then, it was nothing but a constant up and down affair …

Once out of there I just enjoyed the ride in the no longer sweltering afternoon sun (well, it was still over 30C in the shade). But the area was simply beautiful and despite not really wanting to be out for that long, I eventually arrived in Kozluk. People ask me why I am riding later than 6pm – my answer is that for me those hours are some of the best of the day. The colors are vibrant, temperatures are much better and traffic is not as heavy most of the time.

Kozluk is a strange place and the first where I felt unwelcome. That goes for the part of town which lies at the highway. Given the distance and that it was close to nightfall, I opted for a hotel or would have to find a place pronto. Some people said no, there was no hotel. Others said there was. Turns out it was a teacher’s hotel again and it involved a 200m climb to the higher part of Kozluk - which greeted me much more warmly than the lower one. I was accompanied by a guy on a motorcycle who led the way in the now dark town, set things up in the teacher’s hotel (sort of at least) and showed me the essentials - a little supermarket, a restaurant and an internet cafe as I needed to coordinate things for the visa application that’s ahead.

The teacher’s hotel also had a TV which broadcast the Turkey - Croatia match. I was dead tired after the long day, but I was going to sleep in the TV room, so I watched the match with three teachers, whose emotional rollercoaster was massive. After the nail biter that was the penalty shootout I was curious to see whether there would be a lot of cars on the street. Not so many, maybe 3 or 4 made the rounds honking. This confirmed what people had said over dinner to me - that most were actually rooting for Croatia to win.