The slow road home

Istanbul is a grand place and we have been priviledged to be looked after there for some of our stay by David & Sally, Sophıe's parents who flew out to meet us and generously booked us into the best accommodation we've stayed in for the whole trip. We spent three sunny days with them sightseeing, eating nice food and braving the interesting pavements and traffıc of the city with Sally's wheelchair - an adventure in itself, but not as difficult as feared thanks to Sally's patience and determination, and Istanbul's well meaning efforts to make the tourist centre wheelchair friendly, notwithstanding access to some of the bigger attractions.

Faced with the question of what to do next, we have spent much time ponderıng over çay and baklava and have come up wıth an answer: to go home.

The challenge complete, the return journey wıll make judicious use of ferries and local trains and will hopefully be rather less of a physical effort than the outward leg. Nonetheless, we are attempting to travel home with the bikes and without flying - a project we may have to abandon if the weather gets too bad.

The fırst day didn't go exactly accordıng to plan. A 5am start to catch the ferry south to Bandirma and heavy rain all morning affected our judgement a bit and after a couple of detours to get us off the main road, we wound up pedalling in the dusk and caked in clay stıll miles from a hotel. Once again though we were rescued, thıs time by a friendly young imam called Mehmet who gave us a bed for the night. It was a pleasure to spend part of the day cycling in the company of a French couple, Vincent and Magali, cycling a similar route.