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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 47 – 20th September 2018
ODO 5488km Location Karabakac – just over the pass Weather 7-25 Up at 5am before sunset. On the road with the overnight lorry drivers and nobody else. Seeing the sunrise. The earth turning imperceptibly yet methodically like my wheel. It’s a real surprise to see someone coming the other way with a loaded bike. Today…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 46 – 19th September 2018
ODO 5338 Location Ezisiye Weather 15-28 In turkey the earth takes on colours I’ve never seen. The earth rises thousands of metres between purple and black to the neon blue of the sky. Starting a deep grey on the morning with grizzly clouds licking the summits. Opening up onto ochers from life and death. The…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 45 – 18th September 2018
ODO 5228km Location Past Erzincan off the highway Weather 5-30 a contrast from mountain to valley What is it with men shouting out of vans trying to scare me? The people I meet and the cars on the road have been growing progressively more and more friendly as I head east. Yet there is still…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 44 – 17th September 2018
ODO 5078km Location Up a mountain near Kasaplar Weather 11-26 gusty headwind As I broke through the 5000km mark the mountains began. Just as they did with approaching Istanbul. Small undulations in the road. 20m up. 20m down. Then they grew to sweeping mountain climbs as the wind picked up to resist and buffer my…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 43 – 16th September 2018
ODO 4942km Location Sivas Weather 5-26 I slept beautifully thanks to a new set of earplugs I bought to drown out the snores of the hostel room in Göreme. Waking a little before sunrise to pack up quickly and head back onto the Sunday highway. Quieter than the day before. 100km rolled by before lunch…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 42 – 15th September 2018
ODO 4819km Location Saniglan Weather 15-26 Tailwind At the Cappadocia hostel I met a guy called Len who’s currently living in Mumbai and works for a company that owns some of those new top level domain names. Like .sucks and .limousine (his company owns more reputable ones than that but you get the picture). Technology…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 41 – 13th September 2018
ODO 4675km Location Göreme Weather 11-29 Windy! I was looking forward to flying in a balloon. As a kid I would be riding a scooter down the lane or playing with toy planes in the garden on a Sunday afternoon you’d become aware of a chatter coming from above. Looking up to the sound of…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 40 – 12th September 2018
ODO 4569km Location 10km short of Askaray Weather 8-25 Clear and bright. It happened. Rolling out of my muddy campsite in a field exhausted from a bad damp night I noticed my bike was riding badly. I could feel every bump on the muddy trail. There it was. My first puncture of the whole trip.…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 39 – 11th September 2018
ODO 4450km Location A remote Turkish Plateau Weather 11-22 Avoiding showers As the day before I began the day with a climb and decent onto another plateau basin. This time, cold from my morning pre sunrise routine, I put on a playlist my friend Flick has made me for my trip. The small speaker of…
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Ben Around the World Diary – Day 38 – 10th September 2018
ODO 4314km Location Bagkonak Weather 15-25 Strong head wind I spent another day following the winding D330 highway as I picked across the plateaus and turned south to skirt the banks of a deep blue lake. The banks sitting at 1000m above sea level themselves. The road climbing and descending gradually with the features of…