By Ahmet Abdulaziz….
39 years old Abdulhalim AKÇAY is is on his tour of Turkey on his bicycle. He started off his tour on 28th November 2018. He is visiting 81 provinces and 800 districts in a period of 2 years.
CyprusScene is following him through his daily postings in Facebook. Here is his journey from 13th to 18th March 2019.
105th day (13/03/2019)
106th day (14/03/2019)
107th day (15/03/2019)
108th day (16/03/2019)
109th day (17/03/2019)
He had reached the TORBA village in Bodrum region, a day earlier.
He had a long rest in TORBA, from 13th to 17th March. It was the first time during this tour that he had decided to rest for such a long period of time. However, he wanted to take a complete rest, while enjoying the beauty of the region.
Torba is a seaside village near Bodrum in the Mugla Province. Torba is located approximately 6km northeast of the resort town, Bodrum. The hillsides are clad in olive groves and pine forests.
During this period for one day he decided to go on foot, and give a complete rest to his bicycle too. His bicycle was also in need of a complete service. Since this village is by the side of the sea, there is no shortage of natural beauty. The people were friendly and helpful. Wherever he went, people thought he was a foreign tourist, but later on accepted him between themselves, after knowing that he is a Turk, and not a foreign tourist.
One day he went to the city centre to buy an additional disc for his computer, as the previous one was almost full.
He had an interview with the Bodrum News, which was published recently.
He went to the Bodrum Castle, which was undergoing repair. Since Bodrum is one of the major tourist attractions of Turkey, so most of the buildings and places of tourist interest were going through repair and maintenance work during this lean period.
Ultimately, he decided to re-continue his tour on 18th March 2019, which was 110th day since he started off from Istanbul on 28th November 2018. He had covered approximately 4,200 kilometres so far, and had visited 8 provinces and 91 districts.
110th day (18/03/2019)
He started off from TORBA village towards Bodrum, early in the morning, but one of the tyres of his bicycle burst, upsetting his program. It was the second time that the tyre had burst in an overall distance of 4,200 kilometres. He continued his tour, towards main Bodrum city, after getting the tyre repaired. The roads were not too good, and he found cycling very difficult and tiring.
The distance from Torba to Bodrum was not too long, yet he did not enjoy cycling on that road.
However the scenery was beautiful and that was one big plus point for him. On his way he stopped a few times, to enjoy the beauty and take photographs.
By evening he decided to fix his tent on the beach. The weather was fine, and he loved spending the night there.
