So I’ve been planning to do a #gravel ride from Berlin to Budapest (or Vienna) this May, but after 5 days of partially offroad #bikepacking in Hungary I have some doubts whether I want another week of Eastern European Offroads :D Any suggestions for a long gravel or cyclepath-only, mostly nature route not too far from Berlin or Budapest? (Also somewhere not too hot:) #cycling#touring
After a nice but very long cycling day with lots of altimeter in addition, we reached Fethiye. Our plan was to book ferry tickets for early next morning and search a campspot near the port. The officer at the port told us the ferry was canceled because of bad weather. Oh, with this situation we didn't calculated. And we couldn't see bad weather on our wetherforcast website... The next possible ferry was sceduled for 3 days later.
We felt a bit disapointed, because we passed some nice places without stopping, but ok...
The two days we had to wait for the ferry we stayed in a hostel room. The two days the air was full of the sahara dust, it was super foggy and had zero visibility. But ok... we took these day to make laundry by hand and to relax a lot... #cycling#bikepacking#traveling#travellife#restdays#break#turkey#fethiye#saharadust
We came to Kas exactly when they closed all streets because of the famous roadcycling race through Turkey. Lucky us 😅 so we came to the ancient amphytheater when a group of teenager held a huge flag of Turkey for the media helicopter. Actually the theater is so nice. Its in a very good shape and look that view! While searching for a campspot we cycled on and on and on. everywhere it was too steep or too densely populated or directly next to the busy road... finally we found a nice, hiden, flat spot surrounded by nature.
We left Çıralı with its beautiful beach and the ancient site of 'Olympos' behind us and enjoyed a great day of cycling off the main road. Several kilometers before reaching the coastal town of Finike, we battled against the very strong headwind. It was no longer fun to ride, so we decided to look for a campsite. The weather forecast indicated that a terrible rain and thunderstorm will approach the next morning. Therefore, we searched for a sheltered campsite to avoid getting soaked... Yes, we found a roof under which we could set up the tent. The night was peaceful, the wind even stopped. And in the morning when we woke up, we thought the weather forecast had been overly dramatic... But suddenly it started to rain and then the storm began... coming directly from the sea, straight towards our small tent! OMG! The roof was no longer helping, the rain was coming horizontally. We feared that the storm would damage the tent, so we took it down while the rain soaked us...
After about two hours enduring the storm, the wind suddenly shifted and 10 minutes later the dark rain clouds were swept away. The sky was once again bright blue, the sun was shining as if nothing had happened. Only the wind continued to blow like crazy. We took our time, dried the tent, sleeping mat and the wet stuff on the deserted playground...
The coastal region after Antalya was not only full of operating hotels and resorts, but also many empty and completely rundown facilities. The same situation existed with plantations and greenhouses, on one side there were many new, modern ones, and on the other side dilapidated nostalgic glass greenhouses... - and a stranded submarine?! - 😂
Tainan resident Mark Tovell has written a guide to cycling off the beaten track in Taiwan. According to this review in the Taipei Times, the book is "aimed directly at the class of traveler that unboxes their velo at the airport... and pedals directly towards the high hills."
On the road D400 we had to go through 4 tunnels. There was no possibility to go around 🤯
Who knows us a bit, cycling through a tunnel is the worst, we hate it!
Never before we've seen these buzzers 🖲️ to start the blinking lights around the 'attention, there are cyclists' sign. Actually, we dont know if this helps a lot, at daylight... But of course we pushed the buzzer! In the end of that day we found a campspot, not a magical, romantic nature surrounded spot, but ok...
The bay of Antalya with the mountains in the background reminded us so much of Lake Thun in Switzerland, where we grew up... 🤩
We had heard a lot from other cycle travelers about the coastal route from Antalya to Fethiye. So, we decided to spend some days on this road in the hope of finding nice nature, calm roads, beautiful ancient sites, and secret places to pitch our tent...
At a coffee stop not far from Antalya's city center, we met Rob, a charming cycling enthusiast senior from the UK. We chatted together before leaving the Turkish tourist hotspot behind us 😎
Antalya... time to take a hot shower, time to chill, time to make laundry, time to chat with other travelers in the backyard of the hostel, time to stroll without bicycle through the old town and time to realize a little bit how fast we've traveled since we are in Turkey...
The wild weather calmed down. In the evening, we found a campspot in a small bay on the deserted beach, next to cucumber greenhouses. The cucumber gardener saw us and immediately brought us a handful of freshly picked cucumbers 🥒 So friendly! (It was the last day of Eid al-Fitr, the celebration after ramadan). He confirmed that we can spend the night here without any worries. We had a very good night there. It was quiet, we felt completely safe and were able to sleep deeply 😴
After another day of cycling 🚵♀️ 🚵♂️ over the hills with amazing views over the coastline 🏞️ and through valleys and bays full of greenhouses, we had to settle for a less idyllic place to sleep. It was noisy, from the busy road nearby, and because of several guys, who had to speed through the park with their motorized vehicles 🛵 🚖 until the early morning hours... At least at one tent side the view to the sea was nice 😎
One day later we where lucky again!
In Anamur we pitched our tent at the end of the long city beach 🏖️ We stood there for totally 3 nights, went for a shower to the open beach-showers 🚿 and relaxed all day long in and around our tent ⛺️
What a view, and what an amazing campspot 😍 So lucky we found this place around 25km after the city Silifke, beside an abandoned quarry... There we slept sooo good 😴
We had no reason to hurry, so we enjoyed the whole Morning only with the sound of nature 🥰
Marc took the opportunity to bake glutenfree flatbread for a nice brunch 😋 #turkey#freecamping#glutenfree#glutenfreebaking#cycling#bikepacking#travellifestyle#travelphotography
The next morning at Mersin heavy rain surprised us. The sky over the sea was super dark black. The first bad weather wave we sat out in the tent, then, around midday, we decided to start cycling... Only some km later we where lucky to wait underneath a roof of a supermarket until the next cloudburst was over. To Erdemli, our destination for this day, we cycled mostly on the promenade directly along the coast or on the big road D400, totally easy 😎
At Erdemly we cooked dinner in the big and very clean city parc. We knew about the rainy night and pitched our tent, cheeky as we got, in front of a park office... 😇🏕️ #turkey#cycling#bikepacking#biketouring#cyclinglife#adventure#traveling#pedalandexplore#cyclingaroundtheworld#adventuretravel#exploringbybicycle#globetrottingonwheels#travelphotography
🚴♂️ Looking for recommendations for a #tubeless conversion: rims + tyres. The factory rims on the Cube NuRoad Pro FE 2022 are ...not that great. Requirements are:
tyres: 35-40mm for 70% asphalt, cobblestone, 30% gravel, forest tracks, tubeless, easy rolling, good puncture protection
rims: affordable, sturdy, doesn't have to be ultra-light
I'm thinking DT Swiss G540 with Schwalbe G One Allround? Any cons or other recommendations?
In Hakkari, we camped in the middle of the city park next to the big mosque, where they celebrated something related to Ramadan until late at night. We don't like to go to bed or close the tent zipper if there is still a lot going on outside. That's why we sat in the little picnic hut and waited. We could observe the people. Some couples and groups of 2-3 men walked their rounds along the park fence, some families had a picnic on the meadow, the smaller kids played on the slide and swing, others chased each other with water bottles (it was quite cold up there, surrounded by snowy mountain peaks), and we saw a group of teenagers chase, hit, and kick one of the boys quite rough. This was a really shocking moment. We talked a lot about this happening, trying to understand or at least find a reason to accept how 'kids' can be so aggressive and bad to each other. Some time later, they shook hands and went to the festivities in the mosque...
Our night was not the best, so it was not too difficult to get up super early the next morning. Our bus left at 7:00. The bicycles fit into the quite small bus, but then it was a Tetris game to put all the luggage of the other passengers on top. We crossed our fingers, hoping nothing got damaged on our bikes!
The bus ride was crazy. We first rode down into the narrow valley and then up over the next mountain peak covered in snow. The street was narrow and steep with thousands of switchbacks. Several military checkpoints with armed men controlled the passport of each passenger.
We felt really grateful to be sitting on the bus rather than pedaling on the street!
3 Wanderer / Bikepacker / Overnighter Ressourcen für euch:
Es gibt ähnliche Ebenen in Routenplanern wie z.B. Komoot. Und da gibt’s oft auch ein Foto oder eine kurze Beschreibung, sollte die Hütte / das Element (z.B. Trinkwasser) ein „Highlight“ sein.
Hier aber geht’s um Spezialseiten. Um gezielte Informationen und wirklich aussagekräftige Fotos aus einer Overnighter Perspektive.
Nr. 2: https://campwild.org/ Ziemlich ähnlich zur outdoor-karte. Vielleicht noch etwas umfangreicheres Frontend. Deutlicher Schwerpunkt Deutschland und Schweden (je über 3000 Einträge), aber mal 2 bis rd 1 Dutzend Einträge auch in anderen Ländern.
Coole Übersicht zu ganz ähnlichen Initiativen europa- und Weltweit: —> Projects
Eine französische Seite. Wie die beiden vorgenannten, aber auf eher Bergausflüge gemünzt. Hier finden sich auch Wasserstellen und alles, was sich als Shelter oder Overnighter anbietet. Bis zu verfallenen Schuppen. Schwerpunkt Frankreich und gesamter Alpenraum + Pyrenäen.
From the perfect emergency bivouac spot in the stone hut, the road led us down many meters in altitude. At one point, the canyon with the 'Nehil' river crossed paths with another canyon and its river 'Great Zab' (Kurdish: Zêy Badînan), an ~400-kilometer long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq.
At this crossing point we reached a military checkpoint with heavy armed men asking us the totally unexpected question: 'why are you here ?!' We thought for ourself: to move on, get out of this surveillanced region as fast as possible, but replied with the classic answer: 'we are cycling the world!' 🚴♀️🚴🌍
They let us through and we cycled on, glad the valley widened a bit, happy when we found a playground with beautiful blooming trees. There, we took a long midday break and enjoyed being the only 'guests' on the slide 😅
In the afternoon, we took the opportunity to hitchhike a small bus (we paid for the ride) to the mountain town Hakkari, where we bought bus tickets to Cizre for early the next morning.
Someone recently asked how I carry water on my tours with the #Brompton.
Sometimes I only use a pouch attached to the handlebars for a bottle of water (0.6 lt).
On longer tours I use the big Borroughs bag in the front. This provides two rather large bags which are easily accessible. Each of them can hold up to two bottles (2 times 0.6 + 0.5 lt)
In the back, I can carry another large bottle (1.5 liters).