After yesterday's evening meal my stomach started to rebel - i guess i've swallowed too much of the water in the Hamam and catched the first diarrhea on this travel. I didn't get to sleep till 3am but finally got it under control with the help of charcoal tablets and 4l of Normhydral which helps to rehydrate the body and refills the sugar and electrolytes you loose.

Getting out of the tent in the middle of the night is cumbersome and i had get out quite often. At one point, 3 huskies where roaming outside of the tent. I was not surprised as i had met them early in the evening - they where very friendly dogs so i didn't mind. However, dogs are disgusting animals. I was getting out of the tent for the sole purpose of doing my "business" and dogs seem to eat about everything. You do the math. Yuck! After the restless night i packed up and started riding after noon, and didn't want to go very far to give my body time to recover. I even texted my girlfriend i would halt in the next village in the early afternoon. However, for many kilometers no village appeared, only smaller settlements and i needed at least a shop to buy some clean water for the night. The valley had narrowed down and i was going through a shadowy and deserted gorge, feeling quite lonely. Having passed the intersection to Mudurnu(Where the valley had opened up and was sunny again), the road started to rise towards the pass(Which i didn't intend to cross). There was a village on the left, but i had missed the street leading towards it earlier and i didn't get a second chance to get there(I later learned that it was actually a deserted village). After climbing for a few more kilometers i realized i would have to traverse the pass the same day - i tried to flag down lorries to ask them to pull me up, as i felt weak, but none of them slowed down. In the end, i managed to get across it on my own(1200m). The sun had already set and i was desperate to find some water and a place to sleep - luckily, after a short downhill a village appeared - yet another empty place though. I roamed through the village-streets, looking for someone to ask for water when i stumbled over group of young people sitting around a samovar, drinking cay. Turns out they where teachers, one of them living in the village, the others in Mudurnu. I ended up drinking cay with them and eventually they invited me to their flat in Mudurnu where i got fed, company, a warm shower and a bed(I left most of my bags and the bike in the house in the mountain village and we all went back to Mudurnu by car). Once again, serendipity had found me (Thanks @c3o for linking to this article, which neatly describes a natural law that has accompanied me all my life).