E-GRAVEL 136 YAŞINDAKİ ATASININ İZİNDE

We took a pleasant tour for the monthly “Carraro with Turkey's Best and Colors” section we do for Cyclist Türkiye Magazine. We followed in the footsteps of Thomas Stevens, who holds the title of “the first person to travel the world by bicycle.”

We continued from Ayrhan to Beypazari. We searched for the inn described by Stevens. We saw the descendants of the lovers from Ankara who came to the inn 136 years ago and sang saz, çalan türkü to him.  

From Beypazari, we went to Ayaş, from there we stopped by the one-time İstanos, which is now called  Sincan / Yenikent. From there we reached the historical city of Ankara at the foot of the castle.

136 years ago, on the morning of August 18, the governor of the time, Sırrı Pasha, and Mayor Süleyman Efendi’sent Thomas Stevens’off from Ankara’with about a thousand people, and we sent him off from the capital of the Republic’

If you ask me, this is a collectible issue. Don't miss it while it's on your bookshelves...

 

Post: Aydan Çelik

Photo: Samed Kunaç

The British adventurer set off from San Francisco in April 1884 from across the United States and arrived in Japan at the end of 1886. He traveled back to San Francisco by steamer from Yokohama, Japan.

Stevens entered Ottoman territory in the summer of 1885, and in July, his wheels touched Istanbul. (Speaking of wheels, let's not forget "lç". Stevens had traveled the world on a Penny-farthing bicycle with a huge front wheel and a back wheel almost as big. (Also called the Ordinary or Big Wheel - which I think we can translate into Türkçe’e’ as "big wheel" - this object had a 50 in. wheel, about 130 cm.)

Having stayed in Istanbul throughout July, he had left the city on the morning of August 10 and traveled by ferry to Izmit. There he saw a "Bone-shaker", a bicycle of the "bone-shaker" type, brought to the city 18 years earlier by a Frenchman who was translating for him.

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We followed Stevens’s one-week journey from Izmit to Ankara’ 

While he was riding an antique bicycle that only enthusiasts now ride, we were riding a state-of-the-art electric gravel bike. 

While Stevens was using an object with problematic ergonomics in an Anatolian geography where the roads had not yet been fully built, we had an engine support that turned 25% slopes into a road, which we activated when we needed it.

We traveled from Izmit to Sapanca just like he did. He was amazed, we renewed that admiration. We paid our respects to this wonderful göle, which was in danger of drying up for a while.

Then we drove to Geyve. We stopped at Alifuatpaşa, which was still a village before Stevens, but later named after Ali Fuat Cebesoy, one of the most important commanders of the War of Independence. Those days coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Sakarya, which decided the fate of Turkey in a big way. Stevens could not öve öve finished the Sakarya Valley. We left with the same feelings. 

After traveling from Geyve to Taraklı, we reached Taraklı. We stayed one night in Taraklı, a charming settlement with its traditional architecture. From there we traveled to Göynük’k’which was then called "Torbalı”"

We continued on to Uluhan from this beautiful town built in a narrow valley. We looked for the legendary inn that gave Uluhan, then called Köstebek, its name. There was no inn. The land on which it was built was now a soccer field. 

Fromluhan we continued to Nallıhan and then to Çayırhan&rsquo. We were overwhelmed by the colorful mountains that Stevens’ likened to a rainbow. We looked for birds in the bird sanctuary in Ayrhan, but we couldn't see any.