I was now getting close to a major milestone - the city of Samsun. This would mean two things - first, I would reach the Black Sea coast, second, I was just over 500 kilometers away from Batumi and had seven days to go, so a very much doable task. But then, in the morning, I was not even on the coast...

Well, Google Timeline tells me it was past 8 am that I left the hotel, I have no recollection whatsoever how I dried my clothes or what I had for breakfast - these are buried in the ashes of history - is this the correct thing to write?

Anyhow, right after departure, came another summit, remember, the first ones were at 1,300 meters, then around 1,000, this was just a tiny one at just over 700 meters - the coast is getting close.

Last major summit

Now here I thought I would just roll down to the coast, wrong, it turned to quite a hilly ride, where the area could have been mistaking for the Wienerwald (the Viennese Forest) surrounding Vienna.

Wienerwald

After a while, I reached a tunnel, which was not the first one I had crossed, but the others were rather short. This one was four kilometers long and there was quite a lot of speeding traffic, with many lorries. Better safe than sorry, I thought, so I tried riding on the narrow "pavement", which was on the left side of the two-lane tunnel. The issue was that this was not meant for pedestrians, much less for bikers., so there were all kinds of hooks protruding out of the concrete and then there were reflective panels standing out of the wall. So I had to dodge the hooks, with not much room for maneuver, and be wary of the panels. I could not really ride, just push myself forward, morphing my bike into a sort of a roller - this was a taxing exercise. It too k almost an hour to make the crossing, me taking rests at the emergency exists, where there was more room.

I did manage to reach the large city of Samsun, yet another city built on large hills, and the road I was riding on circled around the city, up a steep hill, but the road leading the the center was even steeper. Somehow I just wanted to reach the coast and ride eastwards. so I pushed up the incline.

Hilly Samsun

Nearing the coast, I saw a large bakery/restaurant/pastry shop, here I stopped to have some delicious baklava, I had a craving for something sweet.

Unnecessary calories...

Reaching the coast (for the second time, the first one outside Istanbul) was a rather unceremonious event. There was quite heavy traffic in the east of the Samsun center, with traffic jams, roads merging into each other, at least there and then, I was quite happy to have ridden inland and not on the coast. Anyhow, now that D100 was behind me, I was now on D010, it leading me all the way to the Turkish-Georgian border, some 500 kilometers away.

On the outskirts of Samsun, I spotted a factory outlet and wanted to buy a new pair of gloves, as I had lost my left glove, apparently when I had a pit stop, returning to that spot would have been quite a challenge, given that there would be two mountains to cross. I had received it as a present and was of alpaca wool, so was a bit bumped about the loss. I went to a few stores, found a new pair for practically peanuts and when I left the store, I took my jacket off, as it was getting warmer. As I take it off, my left glove falls to the ground - it was stuck in the sleeve of the jacket - all good. I also bought a new waist bag, it was also a steal.

Riding on, I stopped for some real authentic food, the cutest little cat came to give me company, in return for a couple of bites. The owner of the small restaurant was not all too happy...I sent a photo to Sarah, my goddaughter, she pleaded that I take my four-paw-friend to Austria, but I guess I would have had some issues at the borders, of which there were plenty ahead of me.

When it started getting dark, I saw a campground right next to the sea. It was cold, but as we have seen in the winery in Bulgaria, my sleeping bag is a warm one, so I actually did play with the idea of camping out. Alas, the campground was closed, but there was a caretaker in a small hut. I managed to draw his attention, he told me they were indeed closed and that another campground would be further up the road.

I never did find that camping he referred to, but it now being pretty dark, I picked one of the many hotels in Ünye, called Hasan Bey. Not the most luxurious hotel, but it did the trick for the night. Somewhat frustrating is when I am packing my bags, someone stands behind me and watches - this is what the favorite task of the receptionist was, apparently him having nothing better to do, I tried ignoring him, then as politely as I could, I asked him if he could please not tail me. He was a bit hurt, but understood the message.

Another week has gone since I last washed and asked if they could wash my clothes. I made an list of my items and the quote I got was around USD 40, which was probably more than the total worth of the T-shirts, underwear and socks I wanted to get washed, so I thankfully declined.

The nice part of the stay was that my room was right next to the sea, I opened the window and listened to the sound of the sea, as I fell asleep.

I rode about 135 kilometers that day, with 600 meters of elevation gain, with roughly twice that amount of descent. Here is the map.