Day 48 – Loutros to Kesan – 97km 584m

Time to talk Turkey

We had a highlight early on. As the sun poked over the hillside on a bright but chilly morning we turned onto the Via Egnatia, an ancient trade route between Istanbul and the Albanian coast that runs all the way across northern Greece.

The Romans paved it, although there wasn’t much evidence of that now. The lemony light of morning glinted off yellowed grasses as we followed the ancient track, quite literally the road to Istanbul.

After a spectacular bakery stop for breakfast we climbed gently up to the Greek-Turkish border. We’d noted an increase in police and military presence in the area before we even arrived.

Even on this Sunday morning it was busy, trucks parked everywhere awaiting customs clearance and a queue of cars longer than I’d seen at any of my 15 previous borders.

As we crossed the river that divides these two proud nations men stood with automatic weaponry at each end.

At the Turkish side there was an ostentatiously grand feel, high forecourt coverings and a conspicuously shiny shopping centre.

After the border we rode into the small town of Ipsala for an early lunch. It was a chance to get back on the burek, this time accompanied by Turkish tea.

Instead of heading to our destination of Kesan by the highway we decided to take a long U shaped detour south, past some lakes.

In the end they turned out to be reservoirs to irrigate true surrounding arable countryside.

Here was the Turkey which few tourists like us see. We hit the dirt tracks to travel along wide irrigation channels and eventually through little farming villages, men in cafes watching us pass by.

We rarely stopped for long but travelling in this way does at least allow to get some feel for the place. The rolling fields of harvested cereal crops and sugar beet were strangely quite East Anglian in nature.

Tonight we’re in Kesan, a small town which we’ll take a look around the centre of. Tomorrow it’s a shortish hop down to the coast and the Sea of Marmara.