Today 10 years cycling the world but Iraq keeps getting farther away

Today 10 years cycling the world but Iraq keeps getting farther away

Six days till my Turkish visa runs out I'm rushing to the border to Iraq Good morning guys, Merhaba. I'm at the entrance of the building of my warm shower hostel last night, Burcin. I was really grateful he had me here last night because I took a shower, washed my clothes and the shower was so good. And because he lives so south of the city of Gaziantep, which is very hilly, I plotted a route to the border with Iraq. This is the border from Gaziantep south and then it's hundreds of kilometers along the border with Syria. From Gaziantep on, we are on the east part of Turkey so it starts to have that Middle East flavor I think today the first part is mostly up and down, but going down. We love going down. Pistachio trees, some pistachios, some cherries, mostly pistachios, olive trees. Oh man, I'm starting to be physically and mentally drained as soon as I cross the border I need to find an opportunity to chill four or five days because at least two three days becausel since I left Istanbul that I'm pushing and pushing now so now I started to feel very tired 20 today it's 10 years I'm on the road 10 years I started this project of course there was the year and a bit pause for the pandemic but yeah it's 10 years that I'm doing this project and I mean it's a round number it's not in that that I'm gonna celebrate or anything there is nothing it's an arbitrary number but it gives the scale of this endless journey we're at 95 000 kilometers and change oh it's Oh it's getting windy and of course it's not tailwind I think they are drying aubergines salam alaikum they remove the core they probably use to fill them to make some local dish I'll have to ask some of my Turkish friends and down there I see something orange my wild guess it's their peppers those are dry ones you can see they are very dry this is the final product aubergines and peppers dried I can eat something because it's my birthday on the road This is a sort of a Etliekmek, it's like a flat bread with some tomato peppers and a little bit of meat It's quite spicy and that's sheep meat with tomatoes and parsley I'm treating myself because yeah it's 10 years on the road, why not? A Coke That's the best So the meat bread, the kebab, one can of Coke and one Ayran, I have to say premium homemade Ayran in a glass bottle I paid 250 lira which is 5 euro 20 at today's exchange because it's changing rapidly in Turkey, you never know The pistachio, you've seen it in Spain, now I'll open it, now it's open and this is when it's still closed, fully closed When it ripens it opens naturally, but for the moment still closed I don't know how many kilometers of pistachios are over here Kilometers and kilometers of pistachios Today is very hot, but very dry, very very dry, so this is how you cope with 43 degrees Celsius. 43 degrees is not a lot, it's okay. When it's dry like this and every now and then you find one of these houses to hydrate yourself, you can wet all your clothes and then keep going 43 degrees, now it's gonna be above 40s for a while, I think. Early 40s, it's okay. It's late 40s, that's a problem. That's a Sudan, south of Egypt territory and that's quite hard, but early 40s you can cope. Now it'd be better if I had more time and I could take a few hours off, especially between two and four or yeah between two and five would be ideal, but I don't have this luxury and I keep going. Now I think I crossed the river on that bridge and I'm not sure if that black thing you see in the middle of the field it's a wall and that's the boder between Turkey and Syria so that village you see over there it should be Syria. Of course it's not possible to cross over the bridge, it's only for military people. Now is a major detour because the first bridge is in like maybe like 30 kilometers, I I don't know, 25 kilometers detour till the first bridge. It is what it is, and now we have up and down these hills, it's gonna be fun By the way there are no pistachios on the trees because they've been harvested already I saw a guy harvesting them For a criminal like me Because I have no time they made me lose one fucking hour One fucking hour the gendarmerie, one hour gendarmerie, you took one hour of my fucking life Crossing the river, hopefully I don't cause an accident Left Birycek and the river, Birycek is behind there And yeah one hour to sunset keep going, another setback, every day there is something but I'm getting used now every day there is a problem, today the police and the 20 kilometer detour now I rerouted, I plot out another route from here hopefully I don't have to reroute again but I'm 450 kilometers now from the border and yeah ideally I would be 50 kilometers less but what can you do? Going down a little bit I will load up on water at this mosque it could be the last mosque for today. The sun is setting, the last little push, twilight zone I'm still pedaling, I tried to push these 70 kilometers more, really pissed me off and now I'll go down after that maybe, there is one hill after the other, one hill after the other it's not going down, I mean two meters and then immediately up another hill and after that there will be another one. Good morning people, it's another cemetery campsite oh last night was eventful, I kept going, I did 135 kilometers, kept going till I arrived here and here started a bit of trouble, not trouble but I sat on the footpath to have some food and then some kids arrived and they were sort of harassing me so I decided okay I'm gonna leave, they were not leaving, I decided to leave and now the road ends here and from here I start a sandy track that goes to the border of Syria that is just on the other side of this hill. Anyway one guy ran after me with a tractor and then also the mukhtar, the guy in charge of security of the village came with a motorbike and they told me to come back, it was on the wrong road, the usual things you know, and then they offered me a place to stay at the mosque, they were like there's a room you can sleep in and we have a reunion for two hours and then you can sleep there and I was like but it's nine o'clock so you'll be there until 11 and and then at 4. 30 there is a prayer call and I'm in the village and there's the kids and I'm not gonna sleep, I really need to sleep, ciao, the kid is back so yeah then I asked if I could camp here in the cemetery, they said yes and they gave me water they offered some food but I refused because I had already had food and then yeah they also offered me like a place to to get a shower to to wash myself but also I refused because I really wanted to sleep, I caused a bit of commotion in the community what's your name? Sarwan, who are you? Hassan, very good, thank you so much for the hospitality at 6:50am I have the escort out of the village, nobody's up but this little guy is let's go, another day in the pistachio trees, nobody offered me a pistachio though As-salamu alaykum This guy was well dressed Maybe it'ss Friday It is Friday Last night there was also a tank passing by the Cemetery while I was eating Yeah, it's heavily patrolled this border Even yesterday the police made me lose one hour Do I fucking look Syrian? Yesterday it was 44 Celsius but today The forecast is only 43 It should be a little better I'd say it was the first real hot day for me before it was late 30s but we were at higher elevation so it was a bit cooler now passing from 36, 37, to 44 it's a big jump and yesterday I didn't eat enough so basically the whole day I've eaten on;y the food that the when I stopped at the restaurant with the kebab then only liquids I did stop in a couple of shops and bought some juice Ayran but I didn't eat anything solid until until basically the sunset now you see the wall and that's Syria on the other side of the wall oh yeah big nice wall and Syria see there the wall maybe not as big beautiful wall like in the Mexican-American border but yeah it's a nice wall yes the wall is Turkish, see? they can actually enter there, so I really think Turkey built the wall Komoot wants me to ride against the wall, yeah fuck that, I might get shot before I arrive there look at this so I will continue on this route, this is already Syria, this is Syria, see the Arabic wordsl five days till my Turkish visa runs out so I'm cycling along the border with Syria so just in case I cannot reach Iraq I can get into Syria, let's see if I can reach Iraq before it's too late some tents there, let's keep going another bit I think the border is closed So the border is here, but it's closed It's closed and I cannot access this road I'll have to reroute Even this is sealed I don't know if I can go there mmm It's all barbed wire Komoot's route is inside no man's land but I can follow this one which is still next to the fucking border I was hoping this was paved but it's not It's sad news because it's gonna be 60 km longer This route is getting longer and longer Every day it gets like 50, 70, 80 km longer It's doing my head in Like, fucking hell I never get to fucking Iraq Despite not having a minute in a day Like yesterday I thought maybe I'll take 10-15 minutes to apply for a Kurdish e-visa I'm like, I don't have time I can't take this anymore, more than a month Highly militarized environment I'm gonna scream, I'm fucking screaming I would water the road for fuck's sake Look at this By the way, this is cotton Salam, ciao! Oh my God! Oh my God! Fucking hell Fucking hell Jesus Christ Jesus Christ Jesus fucking Christ, I can't catch a fucking break for fuck's sake for fuck's sake I can't get to this fucking Iraq Every fucking day every fucking day and the road gets longer and longer Today we get another fucking 50 kilometers 70 kilometers longer And another 4,000 meters of elevation gain for fuck's sake And I get stuck in mud and the police stop me and the front brake breaks and the chain doesn't and the bike computer and for fuck's sake Yeah right, in my balls I turn right, in fucking Syria I turn right I'm cursed, I'm fucking cursed, there's no other explanation for fuck's sake Right, the military send me back, I can not be on this road There's a military checkpoint there, I don't know if you can see it I'm taking another fucking reroute I wanna cry man, I really wanna cry Then the Mukhtar of this village kept harassing me Fuck you And Just leave me alone I go where the fuck I want I wanna go here, I go here I wanna go there, I go there And I wanna go there, I go there Fucking hell Now the route is even longer And much more hills paved road If you see me deviating from the paved road on my way to Iraq, please unsubscribe the channel because I'm an idiot This village is not much of Turkey, you know, they feel more like Syria I'm really disappointed, I can't leave this fucking country It's getting always 50 kilometers more every day, 70 kilometers longer and more elevation I can't get out of this fucking country and now I'm in the middle of nowhere 50 kilometers already and no water, no shops and at least another 60-70 Fuck, at least a little bit of cold water, a cold coke, something, a fucking drink It's 43 degrees I'm having a nightmare for fuck's sake Mapy and Komoot want me to go 4 kilometers that way Fucking hell, there's not even a cell coverage here It's a nightmare, it's a nightmare, it's a fucking nightmare And of course the road is flooded, of course the road is flooded, for fuck's sake What the fuck do I have to do? And I put road bike, road bike on Komoot, road bike on Mapy What the fuck do I have to do? Fucking hell, it's a swamp, it's a fucking swamp Two hours later I seriously was about to pass out, so I saw this shop, Ahmed, he invited me for cold water with ice But then, now it's gone, but he brought a plate with bread, olives, a bowl with tomatoes, a bowl with yogurt, and a bowl with cheese, and also a bowl with figs, and we had so much chai But the thing is, he owns this hardware store, but the yogurt and the cheese he made himself Because he has some cows in the back in the garden, so he made the cheese and the yogurt and they were very yummy Thank you so much, thank you very much And he also, he didn't want anything, so I gave him a postcard I already did 80 kilometers, but now I'm going on the main road and I'm gonna stick to the main road It's 3 o'clock, 10 to 3, I stayed almost one hour with Ahmed I was moment from a heat stroke, but it's all good now I've eaten, I've eaten a lot, and I'm hydrated, I think between tea and water, at least 3 liters of liquids Yogurt was also semi-liquid A101 on my right, and some ruins on my left Not good vibes from this town, I mean the people around this town, they've been lovely, but in the town… Cotton, cotton, cotton, cotton, cotton everywhere It's too humid You know, today was very difficult because it's like when you're enjoying the sauna, you're comfortable, sweating, it's hot But then an asshole comes into the sauna and puts some water on the coals And then all of a sudden you cannot take it anymore So that's how it feels with these fucking cotton fields and corn fields And water everywhere I seriously don't understand where they find all this water to farm, cotton in the desert Seriously, where? Less than 40 minutes to sunset, last push Look at this, a million nappies It's like 2-3 kilometers that I see nappies everywhere Like this fucking family had a lot of babies But, as I said many times the idiot's mother is always pregnant They're all nappies, all nappies And it's been like this for 3 kilometers Nappies, nappies, more nappies, more fucking nappies Also on the other side of the road Nappies, look, how many fucking babies do they have here? The nappies continue, everywhere, yeah? All nappies, all nappies, what you see? Left and right, look Nappies, nappies, nappies, nappies, nappies, nappies, nappies, nappies, nappies Where the fuck do they put all these fucking babies? Come on, that's enough population in the world How the fuck do you feed all these babies? Un-fucking-believable Nappies More nappies More, more, more nappies What the fuck? What the fuck is going on? Twilight zone I think I already passed 140 kilometers But I can do a few more Beautiful twilight zone Breaking bread with these people Very nice We finished eating we had this flat bread We had yogurt Yogurt Bacan kızartması Obergin Peppers Turşu It's tomatoes, there are some greens and meat And then yeah the pepper This is a homemade yogurt, homemade And uh homemade ayran Very cold with ice. Thank you very much

Cycling the world – Asia: 15 episode
My rush toward the Iraqi border continues as the days on my Turkish visa run out. Leaving my host in Gaziantep freshly showered and with clean clothes I ride south toward the Syrian border on a day that marks ten years on the road. Ten years and more than ninety five thousand kilometres. I celebrate with a kebab and ayran before pushing on through pistachio farms in forty three degree heat soaking myself in every fountain I find.
Near the Syrian border the road I planned is restricted to military access. The Jendarma detains me for an hour before redirecting me on a detour that adds more than fifty kilometres. With only six days left on my visa I ride deep into the night until a village leader offers me hospitality after children harass me in the cemetery.
The next day I ride along the wall that divides Turkey and Syria. Cotton fields flood the dirt road leaving me stuck in mud and then soldiers stop me again forcing yet another long reroute. Exhausted and under the threat of heat stroke I find shelter at a small home where a hardware shop owner rehydrates and feeds me. After a short break I ride into the night again and camp outside a family home that welcomes me as their guest. They tell me they feel Arab before Turkish. Iraq is still far but I keep pushing.

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