July 4- Fruit fruit fruit

The gas station owner gave us some tea and buns for breakfast.
It was a hard morning, constant up hill for miles. Luckily the air was still cool. Felt weak today and exhausted by the hills. I craved fruit like crazy! I was on the lookout for a lonely fruit tree sticking out of the shrubs beside the road but there was none in sight. I prayed that we would get some fruit today.
Despite our tiredness, the ride was beautiful, the landscape arid and somewhat mountainous. Yay mountains, long time no see. Having lived my entire live in places that had mountains right outside the door or at least within view, I really miss them when there aren't any around. After several hours of climbing we finally dropped down into a lush, agricultural valley by Lake Egirdir. Just outside Senirkent, I suddenly spotted a Mulberry tree that was loaded with fruit from top to bottom. Loaded! We stopped and ate mulberries until we could eat no more. There was so much fruit on this tree you could hardly tell we had snacked on it. I quickly filled one of our half litre jars with more berries for later. Next to the mulberry tree was a little red plum tree sticking out of the road side hedge offering us a few delicious plums. THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS WONDERFUL GIFT...A BELLY FULL OF MULBERRIES!!
Across the street where our bikes were parked, some people were harvesting sour cherries. When they saw us they brought us a handful to take with us. They were so refreshingly tart. THANK YOU!
Soon we were surrounded by orchards. Many acres of apricot, apple, cherrie and peache trees were planted in this fertile valley. Suddenly I spotted a large unmanaged apricot apricot tree right next to the road. It was loaded with fat apricots, many of which had already dropped to the ground. I quickly filled a bag with these juicy treats and then headed after James who was already out of sight. I found him just around the corner by a little shed in an orchard. Perfect lunch spot, quiet and shaded. Wonderful! We sat down and feasted on the apricots I had just picked. No need to conserve them because the tree was just up the road and we can just get more later. Half hour later the farmer and his friend showed up to drop off a ladder. We hoped he would not mind us sitting on the front step of his shed. Luckily he seemed quite pleased to see us, boiled some water so make us some coffee, picked us a handful of apricots from his trees and then told us to just help ourselves. He also showed us where the cherry trees are. They had already been harvested but he said we can look around take any cherries that got missed. He also called his niece who is studying English in Istanbul. I had a nice chat with her. Then he wished us a good day and left us to enjoy the ongoing fruit feast. We also filled two bags with apricots and cherries for the next two days.
In the evening we rode a bit further towards Yalvaç. The road followed Lake Egirdir for a while. The scenery reminded me very much of the Okanagan Valley; orchards, dry hills and a big blue lake. Had some slight home sickness waft over me that evening. Except for the lack of sage in the air it smelled just like home and looked almost that way too.
We ended up camping in a post harvest apricot orchard above the lake. On every tree a few apricots got missed so our dinner consisted of two distinctly different, very tasty apricot varieties with tahini drizzled over them. I am sure you can guess what our breakfast was next morning.

THAT EVENING I WAS IN AWE OF HOW GOD HAD NOT ONLY JUST GIVEN US A HANDFUL OF FRUIT TO NIBBLE ON BUT LAID OUT AN ABUNDANCE OF FRUIT IN FRONT OF US A 100 TIMES LARGER THAN WE COULD POSSIBLY CONSUME! THANK YOU LORD FOR THIS REMINDER THAT YOU CAN PROVIDE US WITH WHATEVER WE NEED AND SO MUCH MORE. THANK YOU ALSO FOR THE HARDER TIMES THAT SHOW US HOW INCAPABLE, WEAK AND VULNERABLE WE ARE ON OUR OWN AND THAT WE CAN ONLY RELY ON YOU FOR ALL OUR SUSTENANCE AND PROTECTION.