Yeniçiftlik to Sultankoy – 28th August
Distance: 17.5 km – Elevation +90 m -100 m
Weather: Sunny. Temperature: High 30 degrees
I left after breakfast around 8.30, Sometimes when walking and alone I sing, songs which seem to fit the mood or moment, and today as I walked with no set target or destination in mind the lyrics of the Chuck Berry song “ No particular place to go” came to mind and I started singing:
“No particular place to go
So we parked way out on the Kokomo
The night was young and the moon was gold
So we both decided to take a stroll
Can you image the way I felt
I couldn’t unfasten her safety belt”
It was market day and the town was coming to life with stall holders arriving and setting up their stalls. About an hour into my journey, I called into a filling station to buy food for a later lunch, and I met two young men in a van who wanted to know what I was doing, where was I going. I am asked this so many times now that I have a permanent translation on Google translate explaining it all, and they were very interested and invited me to eat with them. I explained I had only recently eaten breakfast, they nodded and gave me a wonderful happy smile as they drove away, I guess to their day’s work. It is extraordinary how smiles can be so inspirational.
The wind of the past few days was now a gentle cooling breeze, so walking was much easier. I could have taken an inland route today but decided to keep to the coastline and was rewarded with some beautiful views. I dropped down to the beach on one occasion and found a tea bar run by a lovely family who refused to accept payment for my glass of tea. Tea in Turkish is çay pronounced ch as in changed and ay as i, thus ch – ì, and it is tasty and very refreshing.
I stopped in a filling station near Kamaradere for a sandwich and soft drink, at which moment a minibus arrived with seven passengers, they all got out and ìmmediately lit a cigarette, whilst standing right next to the petrol pump! The forecourt staff totally ignored them.
In the early afternoon I came to the small community of Sultankoy where I decided to stop in a small hotel right on the beach. The hotel owner who checked me in spoke perfect English so I was able to answer his questions without the usual aid of Google. He asked about the reception I had received from the Turkish people, and particularly from the police, since my arrival in Turkey. I told him “I was yet to meet any Turkish police and as I walked today everyone was so friendly, the road workers waved and raised their hats, lorry drivers waved and tooted their horns, and even the dogs in this part of Turkey were friendly” and continuing I told him “ at this moment I feel Turkey has welcomed me with open arms”.
The hotel was comfortable and had a very good restaurant with an open terrace next to the beach, where I was able to dine looking out across the Sea of Marmara as the waves hit the shore. After supper I took a stroll along the beach in bare feet paddling in the sea and watched as the sun sank below the distant horizon.
