The quietest walk we’ve had since our last trip !
Fine weather, an almost flat route, and once past the rather difficult industrial port area, a calm environment, fields...
But first we had to get past the industrial estate. For the first few hundred metres in this area, the lorries give off a cloud of dust that seems permanent. Then it calms down, the roads are better maintained and we arrive at the port with walls of containers waiting to be loaded.
I’m surprised to see that the Eurovélo 8 passes through here. In fact, they’ve made a section for Athens-Izmir with a few loops around Izmir...
After a few kilometres shared with cars and lorries, we cut across fields on a decent road. But suddenly you have to cross an irrigation canal on a small footbridge. A few years ago I might have thrown the bike over without hesitation. Now I hesitate to take off the panniers and pass the bike and the panniers, but behind me I see a path in poor condition, so I decide to look for an alternative.
A little further on I see a path - not marked on my map - that seems to run parallel to the one I should have taken. In fact, it looks like an old dried-up marsh where the fields are criss-crossed by paths. After a while I rejoined my track, without any major detours.
At least thirty kilometres before my destination, there’s a magnificent cycle path and I follow it until my track tells me to... ... get onto the dual carriageway and take a road in the middle of this traffic junction... I don’t fancy it and decide to continue on the gravel track, even though it seems to be taking me a long way off. In reality I’ve gone a few kilometres further, but I could have gone more directly. Anyway, I end up at the hotel, and I think I’ll stop here for two days before setting off again.