Off to the beach!

See also two NEW posts below (Gobi & Beijing)...

The flight and check in at Beijing airport was remarkably smooth.
At the packaging desk the bikes got cardboard protection.

And it was no problem to get them on the plane. The flight was 10hours and we were treated very well. Two excellent meals and personal screens wıth plenty of movies, Audio books,TV etc to choose from - Turkish Airlines all the way!

We landed at 4.30am, put the bikes back together, packed up and waited for daylight and then set off at about 7am. Soon we reached the coast.

It is hot, the roads are busy, very busy. We really still feel the proximity of Istanbul - and are glad we did not cycle into the city which sounds mad with 20million residents spread over only half the size of London - aaahh!
Navigation was tricky, especially as we tried every opportunity to avoid the dual carriage way. We ended in dead ends a few times, one of them a massive industrial port - not sure how we managed that, must have been the lack of sleep!

But with the help of some extraordinarily friendly people who just approached us and helped, when we looked a bit lost we made it. In the evenıng we rolled ınto Silivri campsite (SouthEast of Istanbul) after 82km rather then the estımated 55km by google maps - oops. Since then it has been bliss - beach, swimming and wining and dining with Paul and Jane from Essex (UK) who are on a 7months camper van tour through Europe - Lovely!

We are slowly catching up on sleep and are getting used to the heat. Tomorrow we are setting off
towards the Greek border.

We are looking forward to pass through Macedonia and will try to cycle mostly in the mornings to avoid the big afternoon heat.