Samsun, Turkey to Trabzon, Turkey – 205 miles (3,000 total)

Finally a real puncture!

It feels good to smash another thousand mile marker. Arriving in Trabzon in many ways marks one third of the trip as being complete. I’m exactly 3,000 miles into a roughly 9,000 mile trip and I’ve ridden through 40 of the 121 degrees of longitude that are the namesake of this blog. This is also where the real bureaucracy starts but I’ve hit the ground running by successfully getting an Iran visa, an application process more akin to a lottery.

Safranbolu, Turkey to Samsun, Turkey – 252 miles (2,795 total)

Damage on my front rack from back in an unlit tunnel in Serbia.

Another little leg of the journey done and I’m glad to of found out that my fitness hasn’t seemed to have suffered too much despite my 6 week break back in England. I rode just over 400km in four days through fairly tough terrain climbing two passes over 1100m. Not bad at all!