Black Sea Day 14: Sinop Adventures

Warning: There will be rain

We woke up in the park in downtown Sinop and went out to use the nearby restroom. When I was coming back to the tent, a man who works for the municipality noticed us and let us know that he needed to turn the irrigation system on. It was really nice to get a heads-up! We quickly moved our tent and belongings. I would’ve thought the sprinklers would just be on automatic timers. Instead, we’ve come across a few systems that seem to be managed manually by an individual.

We had plenty of warning to move our stuff before the sprinklers came on. This doesn’t always happen!

Leaving Sinop Center

After a leisurely breakfast and coffee in the park, we packed up and headed out for a day of cycling. Selim had an idea to try to camp near a nature reserve on our route, Sarıkum Göleti. There was a lake there that looked like a beautiful spot to visit.

Fruit stand on our way out of Sinop. Fresh figs, pears, plums, grapes, and more.

Impressive kedi (cat) evi (home) on the outskirts of Sinop

The Day’s Ride

The ride was fairly easy on this particular day. There was not much of note aside from some beautiful views and cattle. I remember that the path was rather sparse in regards to grocery stores and food shops so we planned to stop at an A101 we had mapped out ahead of time. We stocked up for the next couple of meals as we didn’t plan on finding a shop before our camp site.

Cycling along the coast heading in the direction of Sarıkum Göleti

Buying some groceries for lunch at A101. Better to be safe than sorry, never know when an Ayran is going to fall from the shelves. Once I dropped a 1 L container of Ayran on the floor that spilled all over. The staff was not pleased.

Our Camp Spot

Right before we reached the nature reserve, I spotted a fountain and restroom. The fountain was connected to small cement pools that we later learned was for the grazing cattle. There was a Turkish family stopped there on their road trip that greeted us and gave us some delicious grapes. Their license plate was from Germany so Selim spoke a bit of German with the man. We were only planning to rest there but then it seemed like a genius idea to camp there. Water, restroom, a shady spot: what else could we need? We discussed whether we should seek out a better view potentially near the lake or be grateful for what we had. We decided we probably wouldn’t find water if we continued so we stayed.

Set up camp pretty early at a rest stop next to a farm. There was a bathroom and a fountain (çesme). Here, the bathrooms are often labeled with WC (wash closet).

Enjoying some nuts and dried fruit. I enjoy dates as a snack though Selim is much pickier as he comes from the land of dates.

Köy Yumurta

For some reason, I was still tired so I took another nap. Selim, thinking of his next meal, went searching for eggs. When I woke up, there was a huge bucket of eggs next to the tent. I assumed that someone had brought them to him after seeing us camped there. Turns out, eggs don’t just fall from the sky like that. Thanks for hunting, Selim!