Road Bike Cycling in Northern Cyprus : Ride Twenty Two - No cars, secluded beaches, perfect roads

8 am and time to roll...I was up and riding pretty quick today, and as usual I didn't decide where I was going until I was on the bike. I decided to go where no 6'4" man on a Bianchi in a silly hat had ever gone before and boldly set off to discover what I hoped would be a new universe for me. It was.

The first stage of todays ride was the the last section of Mondays 109 mile ride only backwards. Straight along the southern coast of the Karpaz peninsula then inland and up and over the mountain pass I had descended at 51mph two days ago. The wind was with me until I made the left turn to head inland and start the climb. Here Cyclops woke up, noticed my devious plan to catch him unawares by riding while he was asleep, and instructed the wind to do all it could to stop me climbing. My Garmin told me that where I had reached 51mph the other day I was now climbing at 5.1mph, but I was climbing.

A simple climb really without the headwind, with it is a different matter, but as always here in Northern Cyprus when you reach the top it's all worth it!

The downhill was fast and long, with lovely views to my right of the northern coastline. At the end of the descent I turned right at the big roundabout. Here the two cars I had seen up until now, vanished. The road opened up to me, and me alone. NO CARS AT ALL.

The surface was perfect, with wide clean shoulders and spectacular views. The wind was with me here and the road just rolled along gently undulating as it hugged the coastline.

Looking to me left I passed bay after bay of small secluded deserted beaches. The sea here is blue like sapphire and I was tempted to strip off and go for a swim, only in my experience riding a bike covered in sand and salt after a dip in the sea is uncomfortable.

I passed the usual goat herds and rocky out crops. Here there are what look like caves up on the mountain faces, I had a good look around for Raquel Welch in her 2000 years BC Bikini but she never showed up, eaten by a dinosaur no doubt. Curse you Cyclops.

Goat herds here are often protected by dogs. Two of these took an instant dislike to me and I cruised silently along the main highway, the only vehicle they would have seen all day for sure. These two worried me as they were not barking yet running flat out towards me. Big dogs with at least 50% Alsatian in them, the rest Jack Russell or something equally embarrassing in the Canine world. One vanished, one took the high ground on the road embankment, racing along the top to out pace me. I knew it would attack as we reached the lower end of the embankment. I have seen this behaviour from dogs before in Kentucky USA so I was ready. It came at me snarling and launched at my left leg. I was already unclipped and kicked it in the ribs, it retreated, then came again. This time I squirted it full in the face with water from my bike bottles, this confused it totally. Clearly nobody else had offered it a cool drink at the peak of it's attack. I shouted aggressively at it and stopped to face it. Placing the bike between me and it we faced each other off in the middle of the traffic free main highway. Tumble weed rolled across the road as the theme from the good the bad and the ugly echoed around the high surrounding rocks. Clearly he wanted more water. Now this stretch of road is free of any markets and it was hot, so no way was I going to waste any more water on this jerk. Screaming wasn't working, so I went for plan C. Plan C involved standing perfectly still and staring the dam thing out. This worked which was lucky because I'd left my colt 45 in Kentucky.

Muttley retreated back to his goats and I rode on laughing having once again outwitted Cyclops.

The ride was easy here, just cruising along taking in the scenery without having to think about idiot drivers, perfect. There were small multi coloured birds flying low in front of my handlebars in a squadron like formation. I was reminded of how I had seen dolphins swimming through the bow wave of a Yacht on a Greek flotilla holiday many moons ago.

The climbs back over the mountains to the other side of the island here are IRO 10% gradients and extend for about a kilometre. However with a perfect road surface this was a lot easier than it may sound.

Up and over we cruised, well cruised may be an exaggeration, so let's agree on plodded. But we did Plod.

At the crest of the pass I looked down across the plain and a small village with it's white Mosque and it's houses with unfinished roofs as advised by tax advisers all over the island I guessed. Oh to be a roofer in Cyprus when that tax loophole gets closed!

I rolled up outside the first Market store I had seen all morning. Inside the cashier was feeding her baby and shouting at the short smelly Coca Cola delivery driver who had woken her baby up by shouting across the shop instead of walking up to her and speaking to her like an educated non peasant surely would. I bought a Pepsi to show solidarity with her cause and left.

The wind was now picking up and was coming at me from the south, a cross wind from my left hand side. I was once again down on the aero bars for long periods in some vain attempt to increase my speed and save my legs. But I was feeling strong.This wasn't a long ride by recent standards.

I rolled into the small fishing Port of Bogaz and took half an hour to just 'be' and listen to the sea and soak up the place before heading back along to Iskele and Caesar resort.