Güzelçamli to Güllübahçe

This morning we realised that our chosen route would take us over a ridge of hills that had been looming in the distance yesterday. We've only managed to get a basic large scale map of Turkey so far, with no contours or spot heights to help us when selectiong routes. Having already had to backtrack yesterday, we decided not to return 10km to the highway, and opted to tackle the hills instead. The scant information on our map showed our route would take 12km to cross the ridge, assuming half would be up and the rest down we set forth thinking we would be at the top in an hour, how wrong we were The road gradually deteriorated into a dirt track, and progress was slow going over the loose rocks and sand. There were more animal tracks than human and we spotted wild boar and snake prints in the sand. It soon became apparent that the road was not following a direct route. What had looked like a straight path instead wound its way up the hillside and then began to follow the line of the ridge of hills. We kept climbing bluff after bluff believing each one to be the way over the pass, only to find yet another false summit, and the road snaking off ahead of us. In the afternoon we were surprised to encounter a pair of German cyclists on the otherwise deserted road. They accompanied us for awhile until we reached the top of the road, and they headed back the way we'd come. We set off down hill thinking the worst was behind us, but soon came to a junction with a choice of four routes. After much deliberation we chose to go straight ahead, but after about a kilometer the path just vanished into nothing. Incredulous we returned to the crossroads and chose the next most likely route. This dropped off steeply before again turning into nothing leaving us to battle back up once more to the now familiar crossroads. We almost decided to retrace our steps completely before taking the plunge and following yet another path. We were soon rewarded with a view towards the plain we were heading to all day. We proceeded to race the sunset as we plunged down the hillside with tremendous vistas around each torturous bend in the path. We ended the day only a few km from where we started but nonetheless glad to have a roof over our haeds rather than sleeping in the woods.
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Total Distance Cycled : 5259m
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Daily Distance Cycled : 39km
Ascent : 1041m
Time Cycling : 5h 23
Journey Time : 9h
Average Speed : 8.8 km/h
Campsite : N 37°39'43.8" E 27°18'19.5"
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