Wild camping

Well, today it was time to say goodbye to Istanbul.

Checked out of the hotel room, packed up the motorcycle, and off I went into the 'horrible traffic'. But it wasn't so bad actually. I only had to drive 4 km on the European side and then I arrived at one of the many ferries that would take me to the Asian side. Everything went very smoothly.

And on the Asian side, the traffic wasn't so 'horrible' anymore, it was relatively calm. The climate was also different on this side. It wasn't as hot and humid. The morning freshness lasted longer here. Maybe it's because there were many trees, parks, and greenery along the route I was riding.

I passed by nice houses and small neighborhoods, just like the ones you find in Hamburg.

I quickly left the city behind, unlike what I'm used to, where you have to go through seemingly endless industrial and commercial areas before reaching the forest. I let myself drift towards the Black Sea coast. Along the way, I passed beautiful landscapes that reminded me of Tuscany. This is not how I imagined Turkey, but it's like this too.

From the road, I suddenly saw huge smoke clouds. At first, I thought it was a forest fire, but I was wrong. It was charcoal burners working to produce charcoal. Poor guys, working in the scorching sun at 28 degrees.

I had planned to pitch my tent somewhere on the beach, but that was out of the question. In this area, the coast is mostly steep cliffs. Where there was a beach, there were also holiday resorts.

So I searched in my app IOverlander to find a place to park. There should be a great spot just 2 km away. And it was. A bit more challenging to reach, but beautifully located (see photos).