I dug out the tool kit from the bottom of my pannier and took the tyre apart. I managed the repair fast and without a hitch. In the meantime I developed an audience of about 5 adults and 10 children all around me, who were watching what I was doing with great interest.

After 10 we were on our way and started our 40th and last day in Turkey.

In the next town we prepared some „buffalo wings”, aka precooked, spicy chicken bits in the park.Our last Turkish town was Hopa. Zita and I have already discussed before we got to the town that we must drink one more Turkish tea before we leave the country.

We found the appropriate place for this by the table of a family restaurant, where we drank with enjoyment the sweet drink from the little tulip glasses for the last time.

You must come to Turkey, by bike, hitch hiking or any other way… They have excellent roads, everybody is very nice and friendly, so much so, that with our Hungarian heads on, it is unthinkable! Turkey is a really good place!

We celebrated our 3000th km and after that we had only a few kilometres to the Georgian border.

On this section the countryside looked just like it does in fashionable Western European holiday resorts. Except there were no crowds, hardly any traffic and the road was twice the width.

We would like to thank every Turkish helper, host, accommodation provider all those myriad of things that we received. We will never forget Turkish hospitality and will  carry its praise into the big wide world!;)

We managed to start early out of Trabzon.

We have arrived in Rise around midday. Rise is the city of tea, as this area produces all the tea for Turkey. Considering the number of Turks we have seen so far drinking tea at all times in all places, they must produce a large amount of it in these parts.

About 10km after Rise finally we found a bathing beach. Zita was promised a swim, so we stopped and went down to the beach.

It was evening by the time we left the beach.

The sun set after a tunnel, we stopped the bikes and ran across the road to see the whole of the golden stripe on the sea, that the setting sun painted on it.

About half an hour after sunset we found our overnight place. Underneath a mosque we found a room they dry tea in. This was underneath the terrace in front of the mosque.  We saw some people above us on the terrace, so we ran up and asked permission to camp there.

Permission given, they sat us down at their table and put a couple of plates in front of us. We got some lovely csorba and a very hot and spicy vegetable stew. The latter could only be eaten with a lot of water, bread and yoghurt, it was so hot. All this time life went on around us, the imam’s children were playing inside thet mosque on the carpet, we sat round the table and told them our story.

By this time I could use quite a lot of useful Turkish, saying where we come from, how long it took, how many kilometres and that this is our honeymoon round the globe.