Akpinar to Seyitgazi – 19th September
Distance: 30.2 km – Elevation +240 m -230 m
Weather: Sunny. Temperature: High 29 degrees
I enjoyed my time in Eskişehir and last night as I had done previous nights I took a stroll along the river Porsuk to my favourite restaurant and sat watching as the city came to life. It is a university city so it is mostly students that frequent the cafes and restaurants at this time of day. I will miss Eskişehir.
I slept well and rose early so that I could put fresh dressings on the wounds of the fall. The left side of my face was now a deep purple and the stitches above the eye were holding well. The cut on my left arm was taking longer to heal than normal so I treated it with a liberal coating of antibiotic cream and although my shoulder was painful when mounting my backpack, it was comfortable once on and there was thankfully no pain when walking.
It was a bright sunny morning as I left the hotel after a good breakfast at around 8 am. There was going to be a two hour wait for the bus so I took a taxi to Akipinar to re-commence my day’s walk from where I had finished yesterday. I took to the main road again, which despite being the main route to Seyitgazi, the road was very quiet. I guessed most vehicles heading for Konya were using the motorway. Shortly after leaving Akipinar, I came to the second of Eskişehir’s urban forests, Kent Ormanı 2.
Today’s walk would take me through one of the agricultural plains in this Central Anatolian part of Turkey, and the landscape opened up with vast plains on either side of the road, it is wheat growing country. It was an almost perfectly straight road to Seyitgazi and there were several places where I was able to stop beneath the shade of trees to rest and take sustenance from the food snacks I had purchased in the city before leaving. I passed by the small villages of Sarayören and Taşlıkköy where I was able to purchase bottled water from a roadside filling station. Near the villages, I met a few local people, all inquisitive about my journey, and the driver of one car pulled over to give me a bottle of water.
About 3 kilometres from Seyitgazi I left the main road to follow country roads, through fertile farming areas where crops being grown changed the browns and yellows of the wide-open plains, to a verdant green. I was heading for Santral Park, a campsite that also hired wooden cabins for the night. It is a large complex and seemed to be deserted when I arrived, the main reception house was deserted and I could find no one has I walked through the grounds. I was on my way out as I passed the swimming pool and heard voices, it was the owner of the complex who was undertaking repairs to the pool. He told me it was unusual to have visitors at this time of year and I was the only visitor that day but he was happy to open up one of the cabins for me to stay. The cabin had all mod cons and the owner asked if I wanted to eat and twenty minutes later a 3-course meal arrived which was included in the £16 price of the cabin. Despite a chilly night, the cabin was warm and snug
