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.