Day 9 : Yenişarbademli to Beyşehir

Breakfast was under the supervision of Atatürk, who is omnipresent here.

Today was the way back to civilization, to the city of Beyşehir at Lake Beyşehir. I knew where I would sleep, what a luxury! It's the first time, that I actually make use of Warmshowers while travelling. Warmshowers is couch surfing under cyclists. I hosted a few cyclists over the last years, but I've never been a guest myself. Tonight I was going to sleep at Mustafa's... that's what I thought.

The first half of the route was gorgeous and quiet, along Lake Beyşehir. 

But approaching a city means more traffic. Only once in a while I could escape the busy road via a detour over a small village. 

The 65 km felt rather easy, my body gets used to cycling everyday. After 4000m of altitude over the last 250 kilometer, my condition is definitely improving.

Arriving in Beyşehir, it was time for a break. Instead of çai, I chose Turkish coffee. Actually it's not much more than one or two sips... half of the cup is finely ground coffee.

Woken up by the coffee, I met Mustafa, my host for tonight. Mustafa is promoting cycling and trekking in this area and organises amongst other things a bike festival around Lake Beyşehir each year. He's seen many cyclists come and go, and everyone of them has to pose with the jersey of his organization:

Uncommonly for Warmshowers, he does not host the guests at his home, but provides a hotelroom. So I had the pleasure to enjoy a luxury stay tonight, including breakfast:

After a nice and warm shower, I  headed back to the city. There was something to do at the mosque, which prevented me from having a look at the inside.

And to finish the day, the town's landmark: