Bus
The past 10 days have been a really nice introduction to the Black Sea - we've had incredible weather, amazing scenery, and have made new friends - but we have realised that our plan to cycle the length of the coast during winter may be a bit over-ambitious. We are feeling pressure from the weather, terrain, shorter days, and our Turkish time limit.
If we continue as we are we should just about make it to Batumi in time, but the pressure will make it less enjoyable and our daily judgement calls as to whether it is safe to ride or which route to take could become compromised by our need to be making progress East.
So, to take away the pressure of time, and to keep as safe as we can, we've decided to jump on a bus to Samsun and skip the next week of cycling. This means we are going to miss some of the scenic places that we had hoped to visit along the route. From Samsun we will cycle the remaining ~600km of coast to Batumi with plenty of spare days to sit out bad weather.