Tercan to Erzurum

Weather continues to be cold, hovering between 3C and 8C today, but I've made my stopping point of Erzurum. Erzurum is a town of around 360000 people in the North East of Turkey, with an altitude of around 1900 meters. This is where, all being well, I pick up my Iranian visa and sort out more Euros. Then it should be three days cycling to Doğubayazit which will be my final stopping point before the border. According to the forecasts the weather will be sunny from tomorrow but they've been wrong for days so I don't expect them to be right now. As you can see from the picture it's been grey skies and snowy peaks of late.


People continue to be great, although you need a strong bladder round here because of the amount of çai you're given. Go to buy a loaf of bread in the morning? Sit and drink three cups of tea with the baker. Stop for a tea at a service staion? Have three on the house. And a bit of cake. Bit nippy out? The tailor and Pirelli dealer in town (yes, as in Pirelli tyres, made for an interesting shop that did) will invite you in, pour tea down your throat and show you how pockets are made for trousers, as in the photo below. One interesting thing (interesting to me that is, you may not find it so but if that's case go get your own blog!): sugar in tea. I'm moving out of sugar cube territory and into the sugar rock zone. Instead of dissolving it in your tea you put the sugar in your mouth and drink the tea through it. I gather this is the Iranian style, and whilst not everybody is doing it the further east I go the more prevalent it becomes. Talking of which I haven't been able to get The Kinks Have A Cuppa Tea out of my head for weeks! Hope the link works, youtube is banned in Turkey so I can't check.


And finally, where would my blog be without a down? The dogs are getting more worrisome as I get further east and back onto high plains sheep country. Mind, they also guard the cattle. Had a couple of minor incidents today, one when I on a downhill (heh heh, so long sucker!) and in the other the shepherd was around to call them back. Just hope I don't wake up to three of the sods ripping into my tent in the middle of the night.

Erzincan to Tercan

After yesterdays cold weather I was interested to see what the day would bring. My next major stop is Erzurum where I have to spend at least a day picking up my visa for Iran, but Erzincan it's around 200km which is too far to cycle in mountains in one day. When I set off the thermometer was readıng a balmy 17c! Fantastic! However, when I got the bike on the road and away from the warm building it had been leaning against it soon dropped below 10c, with a biting wind. Ah. On the plus side it was a tail wind so I fairly sailed along.

The first 40 miles of the day were along a beautiful valley carved by quite a large river. Fantastic cycling even if it did occasionally threathen to rain. Unfortunately I didn't get any good photos that really captured the place but I put the one below to give you an idea.

Now, whilst I have the kit to camp overnight in tempratures down to -5c comfortably I also have the start of a snuffling nose and tight chest so discretion being the better part of valour I'm in a hotel at the half way point of this leg. It is good to know that if I need to I can camp but it's better to stop in a cheap and comfy room!

Final 90km to Erzurum tomorrow, I'm hoping it's as beautiful as today. Got around 1500 feet of height to gain which isn't too much and the forecast is for sun. Fingers crossed!

End of the holiday within the holiday and back on the road

Well, my holiday from cycling is over. I spent a week on the Med coast of Turkey with Helen relaxing (and very relaxing it was too!), mostly just lying on the beach. I've got some nice photos to post but they will have to wait until I get to somewhere I can upload them. Before this interlude I wasn't too keen to get off the bike, when I finished I wasn't too keen to get back on! One thing worth mentioning is bumping into Oliver and Ernst, who I'd last seen a god month back on the Black Sea coast. These were two of the three in the van who directed Rob and me to a good beach then cooked us dinner... came across them again in Kas which was surprising but very pleasant. Helen and I went round with a couple of beers and we had a god catch up. In the time I'd been swannıng around Turkey they'd been down the Syria and back.

I spent my last day in Antalya trying to get some euros together. One of the many things Helen delivered was the Lonely Planet guide for Iran which indicates that due to international sanctions ATM cards don't work in Iran so cash is king. All well and good but it meant trying to get €1000 together. Alas, my Ezurum where I've got to stop for a day to pick up my Iranian visa. Matters weren't helped by the pound losing 5 or 10 percent in value last week. Damn you British economy!

This was followed by an overnight bus back to the small town of Imranli where I'd left my bike. I had a valium to help me sleep and boy did it do the job! Out like a light for most of the journey and bright eyed for my 8AM arrival. I had been thinking about staying for a night but decided to go pretty much straight out as it was a nice day. Hmm. Bright eyed perhaps but not bushy tailed... to be fair there was a hell of a climb up yet another mountain pass but by three in the afternon I was done for. I should have pushed on and found a campsite but I don't like to camp until it's getting towards night particularly when there's no cover from the road. Still, as luck would have it there was a motel and that did it for me!


Up and away this morning. Alas, the weather has turned somewhat which was a bit of a shock. Started off nicely enough, around 12C and soon warmed a couple of degrees. Then came the mornings climb, a pass at 2200 meters. As I climbed, twisting and turning up through the mountains I could the mist swirling around the mountain tops. Would it envelop me? It was difficult to tell at the time as each peak hid the next. Of course, in the end, it did. I watched the tempreture fall below 10... time for the fleecy top! Then it diped further and the drizzle started. Off with the fleecy top and on with the waterproof. The temprature continued to fall as I went higher, bottoming out at 3C. I was in shorts and wearing cycling gloves... my hands felt like blocks of ice, even more so when the downhill started as even with the breaks on I was hitting 40mph. Mind you, I didn't realy notice my hands at the time as my forehead felt like it was being hacked open by a chunk of frozen melon.

I made it to the town of Erzincan, some 1000 meters lower by which point the temprature was a balmy 10C! Decided it was time for another hotel and a spot of shopping. I'm now the proud owner of a new pair of gloves, a wooly hat and extra warm socks. And lots of chocolate. They should help me through the next ten days or so I've got in the mountains before I descend to the plains again in Iran. In'shallah.

On the buses, Turkish style

After my hitting one bad storm I was a little apprehensive about the weather in the region I was in as I absolutely had to be in Antalya to meet Helen on Thursday. As I cycled the next day another heavy storm brewed up after lunch time forcing me to do another manic run towards a place by the name of Imranli (pop. 4000) some 40km short of where I'd being planning to camp that evening. I just reached the town petrol station as the rain started lashing down and sat and watched the weather over several glasses of çai. Talking to people at the petrol station I found out there was a hotel in town and deciding that discretion being the better part of valour it was the point to hang up my cycling shoes for a bit and set off for my holiday. Well, I say ''hang up my cycling shoes'' but in fact since my sandals walked out on me (or were taken by a stray dog) the shoes and a pair of flip flops are all I have in the way of footwear so that was just a metaphor.

I spent the evening in Imranli where I took a tour round the town, a nice little place. I was invited into a game of toss the walnut at the coin on the village square and generally had people nudging each other and saying ''turıst!'' as I bimbled past. They seemed to be under the impession I was the advanced guard of a possible wave of mass tourism not realising all that would unleash on them for good and ill. Of course, I'm not. I'm just some nut on a bike but they weren't to know that.

I arranged to park my bike at the hotel for a few days and the owner sorted out a direct bus ticket to Antalya for the following day which was a pleasant surprise as I'd anticipated a dolmus (local minibus) ride followed by a couple of coaches.

Come the next day I was back at the petrol station waiting for my bus to Antalya. Departing at 15:30 it due to arrive at 06:00 the next day. Mmm, fun! Actually yes, there is an element of fun here. Long distance bus travel in Turkey has a certain allure and feel to it that I've not really encountered elsewhere so I wasn't too put out at having to do this journey.

As we set off at first I felt a degree of sadness seeing the hard won miles slipping away but as night fell different emotions took over. I'd spent a few evenings wild camping near main roads, indeed, the self same roads I was now on. Previously I'd heard the buses roaring by like giant unknown creatures of the night but now I was on one, part of one.

The buses in Turkey stop every two to three hours so people can get off for a few minutes, grab a çai or some food, go to the toilet and chain smoke. Mostly though they just gulp down hot sweet tea and suck ciggies like they're going out of fashion. As the night draws on and we get closer towards the big population centers and more sleep deprieved the service stations take on ever more fantastical in appearance. Even later in the night, at a stop where I was woken at 2 AM somewhere towards the coast, the service staion was a vertiable mirage in neon, selling food, çai, clothes, piles of various nuts and roasted pulses and seeds, childrens toys, books, turkish delight and just about anything else a traveller could want. It was at this stop that I realised I was no longer the only tourist around as sleepy passengers tumbled from the busses pulling in, people muttering late night words of German and English as they gasped at their fags, feet clad in sandals. And then time comes to leave, to sleep for another two hours maybe. We all look round to check that our fellow passengers are on board and we're off.


We hit Antalya on time and I had one last cup of tea with the gent who'd been sitting next to me, pictured above in Antalya with cig and çai in hand. For the first time in 14 hours and countless stops I manage to get him a çai rather than the other way round! Yes! That makes it around 12:1 in his favour. . Of course, he still managed to get one last round in for me...

Saved from the storms near Sivas

I was getting my last lap of cycing in before diverting south for a few days on an Otobus to meet Helen, my girlfriend, in Antalya. I decided to try and make either Erzincan or Erzerum before setting off on my ''holiday''. Erzerum would be a push but Erzincam was do-able with a days safety margin if I made 120km a day. 120km is well within my range barring mishaps even given the climbs involved... Eastern Turkey gets very moutainous and to get to Erzincan I had to cross two passes at around the 2200 meters level.

This meant when I hit a light shower in the town of Sivas after doing 80km that day I only briefly considered stopping in a comfy hotel there before choosing instead to try to push on to some lakes 50km away with the intention of making camp there. By the tıme I got to the outskirts of Sivas I had a good tailwind. Nice! A little while later, when I'd climbed a steep climb and was a bit further out, I looked back. Ah. It didn't look good. Not good at all. I could see the rain pouring down on Sivas. I was tempted to turn back but the headwind was going to make it difficult and whatever happened I was going to get soaked. I decided to run with the wind and went for it. Made it some 30km by which point the sky to my right looked like the photo below. Actually, the photo does not do it justice. One section of the sky was pitch black except when the lightening ripped through it. Cursing myself for a fool for not stopping earlier I redoubled my pace and started to look for somewhere to hole up.

As I passed through a small village of some 30 houses the wind veered and the storm hit. Suddenly small bushes and dirt were flying across the road and the rain began. I stopped and asked two farmers scurrying back from the fields if if was OK to camp by the trees there. Yes, it was OK they mimed but wouldn't I rather come back to a solid house? Well, yes as it happens!

We scooted the bike back to one of the houses and put it in the barn under the house as the rain began to lash down with a vengence. I was whisked up from the underfloor heating that the cattle provided for the living quarters and deposited in the main room of the house which trebbled as living room, dining room and bedroom for uncle and gran. The last of the çay (black turkish tea) was brewed up for me although the family who all dodged in and out had none as it was Ramazan (Turkish Ramadan). The family consisted of gran (aged 80), uncle (55) and two brothers (in their late 20s), pictured below. There was also the young cousin, who did drink the çay but then he was a cheeky sod who took great delight in ringing one of the brothers phones until it was picked up to be answered at which point he rang off.

So çay was drunk as the rain bounced off the building then some small pears and apples produced followed by a yoghurt soup placed for me on the table. We tried to communicate but my Turkish was as good as their English so it was miming all round. After an hour or so the rain started to ease off but I was now their guest and they wouldn't dream of letting me leave. Instead, when the rain finally stopped they took me for a tour of the village. Small, traditional and very very rustic would be one way of describing it.

As evening drew on the static filled TV was put on with the Ramazan Special. A ticker on the screen marked off the places where dusk had officially fallen as the fast breaking meal was laid out by gran. I was resigned to eating meat at this point as no way could I, or would I, explain about being vegetarian. Dinner was a yoghurt cucumber and onion dish, a very thin lentil soup and ratatouille like vegetables and rice, all served with plenty of bread. So as it turned out there was no meat anyway. I don't think this is anything to do with Muslim tradition, instead it's more to do with the dirt poor farmer tradition of not having enough money to buy meat regularly. Having said that someone had been sent out whilst I was being prominaded to borrow more tea (must have been borrowed as there wasn't a shop in a five mile radius) as this was all accompanied by copius amounts of tea. Desert was a sweet a little like baklava except bread was used instead of pastry and there were no nuts or such like in it.

After dinner we sat and communicated with varying degrees of success. Most effective was showing each other photos which is how I learned of the brothers dead father, their military service (on brother was a commando who fought against the PKK for example) and a myriad of other details. They got to see my bike in various locations and some nudibranchs. Go figure. About nine o'clock I was shown to my bed for the evening. Not sure whose it was (possibly the cousin who'd been sent off) but it was in the brothers room, and comfy it was too compared to my tent.

I was soon fast asleep. But not for long... it's Ramazan!!! Two AM and time to get up for breakfast! Uhhhhhhh... OK. First, more çay of course! Then food of bread fried in butter, crumbly white cheese, cold apricots stewed without sugar and lastly a small bit of processed meat that I politely turned down with the excuse that I was full. Which I was as every time I stopped eating gran would sharply reprimand me and shove another piece of bread in my hand. Chain smoking commenced as the countdown to dawn drew near then it was time for bed again.

I awoke at eight and was going to go on my way but first the only other person awake, one of the brothers insisted I have breakfast and çay of course. More bread with jam, fresh yoghurt from their cows, butter (likewise) jam and olives. This was served in the general main room with gran and uncle still asleep.

You know, my prose does not do this hospitality justice and I'm still deeply touched by it. People like this have got a damn sight more common humanity than 99% of Europeans or Americans and that defintely includes me. We who've got so much are so scared of being ripped off or taken for a ride or just using up our valuable time that we see to forget the important things ike hospitality. See. Told you my prose wasn't up to it.

Cappadocia

I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in Goreme, Cappadocia, sheltering from a sudden downpour. For those of you who don't know of Cappadocia it's a beautiful region in centre of Turkey famous for the natural "fairy chimenys" made by the erosion of a soft volcanic rock (called tuff) which has a layer of harder material on top. Mankind has also been digging into this rock for thousands of years to make whole underground cities in places.

I was heading out on the bike to visit one of these cities but got a text through about bike spares and nipped into the aforementioned internet place thus neatly missing the downpour you might be able to see in the picture above!

I should be leaving Cappadocia tomorrow and heading to the East for the next three days after which I'll be (hopefully) finding somewhere to leave the bike whilst I backtrack to meet up with Helen for a few days on the coast. After that it should be a quick exit from Turkey and on to Iran. One thing that is getting to be a concern is the dogs here: not strays but sheep dogs bred to be aggressive and independent. The further east I'm going the bigger and more vicious they're getting. I've had two packs of them now, one just marking territory the other going for the full chase. Luckily there was a hill to scoot down that time. I'm also using a "dog dazer" which is an utlrasonic device designed to discourage dogs. It seems to get them to back off about a meter, which may just be enough. I need to pick up a stick or cudgel when I hit the road tomorrow really. On the bright side I've not encountered any Kangal sheep dogs yet, they've got the worst reputation of the lot!

After the mountains the steppes.

Spent a day going from Cankiri to Hatusha, the ancient capital of the Hittites. The landscape is now a stunning combination of lunar like valleys and rolling plains of wheat stubble bounded by hills all coloured in more shades of kahki and brown than one might imagine possible with the very occasional belt of green marking the course of a stream. Villages roll by infrequently, with many of the buildings still made of mud bricks.

Kastamonu to Cankiri: mountain range 2

Over the second set of mountains today with the highest pass at 1875 meters. I was fair puffed when I reached the top! Funny thing happened on the way. Hit a long stretch of road in a valley, pictured above. Looking at it I could "see" it was a downhill and yet even with a mild tail wind I was struggling to make a decent speed. Checked the altimeter and it said I was still climbing... and looking at it the stream over the road was gurgling back down the way I'd come. Still looked like a downhill though and l just couldn't shake the illusion! Glad to hit a proper gradient after a while just so I knew which way was up again!

Inebelo to Kastamonu: mountain range 1

Got two mountain ranges to cross now. This stretch saw me go from sea level to a first pass at 995 meters. I don't know if you're the sort to go the gym but if you are imagine a two and a half hour spinning session with no easy bits. Take away the music, add scenary. On second thoughts that doesn't even come close! This was followed by a long downhill then a couple of 1250 meter passes. Buzzing? You bet! Spent the night in a wonderful hotel in an Ottoman era house... but that's a whole other story that needs a keyboard to tell

A word on the Black Sea coast line...

After I made my last blog post I felt that maybe I was sounding a bit too whiney about the coast here. The thought occured that whist it is very hard work with constant ascents and descents at the same time you're rewarded with the most spectacular scenary! I'd post some photos but alas they're all on my camera and the internet cafe I'm in has no easy way to upload them.

Soon after I had this last thought we got into sections of road works... there had been a few before, where the surfaces had had new pebbles added which turns them into scary slidey places where the edge of the road is liable to skid out from under you, particularly on a fast descent. This was different though. This was tarry sticky road works. Just bitumen and little stones, pinging against the legs and frame. Camped up for the night on an almost flat field that had a view to die for. But then it was 250 meters up the cliffs above the coast. Couldn't fail to have a good view really.

The next day we set off in the hope that the road would soon improve. Some hope. After a few miles of this we came to a section where the tar had been laid without any grit at all. That's right, just a surface of tar. This was just plain dangerous. Emrys, the Australian who's cycling home with bike and trailer, came off in one patch. I skidded to a halt and took a chunk out of shin. My rear breaks stopped working until I stopped and cleaned them down with cooking meths. All not very good, although one heartning thing was passing the tar truck which also seemed to have skidded off and was missing a front wheel. Not much tar after that.

We limped towards the next place with a petrol station some 30 km distant (a good 3 hours of travel), bought a couple of liters of petrol and went and camped on the municipal beach come harbour, using the petrol to clean ourselves up slightly. It was whilst here that we were invited to a Ramazan meal just down the beach with the provinial governer who was handing a promotion out the head of the Jandarms (police). Thankfully the meal was short and to the point!

It took two hours the next day to return a semblence of normality to the bike after which I said goodbye to Rob and Emrys and headed on my way. I'm turning inland tomorrow, which undoubtedly will bring challenges anew. Like a 1500 meter mountain pass in the morning.