5357 km Erzurum

There we are Erzurum the "capital" of Eastern Turkey. Only about one week more and we will be moving into the slamic Republic of ran.

When we left Samsun last week we had no clue what to expect as far as the terrain was concerned. We expected some heavy duty climbing, but were pleasantly surprised that a lot of tunnels have been build by the Turks making the 325 km to Trabzon a lot easier the we expected. With the lack of some serious hills in the track that meant 3 days of cycling for us. t was quite a nice stroke with nice views on the Kara Deniz and quite a few nice little towns like Ordu, Giresun etc. One town deserves a special mention. On the 2nd day we were looking for a bicycle shop to do some small repairs on the bike. (Erik) needed some fenders. t's then that we met Enver in a town called Göreme. When we first met him his was playing an online poker tournament and we had to wait before he could help us. To be honest we expected a grumpy man, but when he was done we were pleasantly surprised. He was real enthusiastic that he met us and started to inspect the bike and offer solutions for our fender problem right away.

Like most of the times when we stop somewhere a crowd formed around the bike and we were introduced to basically the entire village. By the time the bikes were fully checked and our bellies were filled with countless liters of Turkish chai it was quite late already. Luckily Enver invited us to stay over at his place and we gladly excepted. But not before we had some delicious homegrown hazelnuts and some fine Whiskey-cola's. After all it was the last evening before the Ramazan started and the drinks have to be missed for almost a month. Later that night we spend some more ours browsing through all our pics and talking about the plans we had for our trip. n the morning we had a great Turkish breakfast. That usually consists of bread (always bread in Turkey no matter where or when), olives, honey, tea and some fresh vegetables like tomatoes and cucumber. To bad Enver could not join us himself because of the Ramazan, but he insisted we should have a good meal and reassured us it was ok for us to eat. t was a good start for an "easy day of cycling" On day 3 we only needed to cycle about 70km more to get to Trabzon and we arrived there after only 3 hours


Enver Tesekkür!!!!


When we left for Trabzon we had a bit of an awkward feeling. We know that we, as non-Muslims and sportsmen, are excluded from the Ramazan, but somehow it feels wrong to eat something when you know others have to work so hard, not to. Therefore we have basicly been eating and drinking in hiding the last days. We buy some food in a little market and then cycle out of town in search of a quite spot to eat. Or when its later on the day we just eat something in our hotel room. We also noticed that the moment the sun goes down, everything in Turkey comes to a complete standstill. All shops are closed and no car is to be seen on the road. When we were in Trabzon we were amazed to see that such a buzzing city can come to such an abrupt standstill! Everyone stops doing what they were doing and begins to enjoy there meal. About one hour later all shops open again and life continues as usual.

After Trabzon it was finally goodbye to the Kara Deniz and we started heading southwest. About 40km from Trabzon there is an old Monastery called Sumela famous in whole turkey that has been carved out of a rock mountain. According to several people we met it is a must see and we therefore headed out on our bicycles to the monastery. Not an easy task because monks have a habit of building those things in the most remote places possible ;) t was some serious climbing but in the end we managed to reach the monestary at an altitude of about 1100 meters. t was worth the trouble, we had a good look around and admired the paintings inside and just the sheer beaty of the place. On top of that we shot some nice pictures.

After that it was easy street back to the main road again the same way we went up there. the 20 km that had taken us over 3 hours to cover uphill were now passed within about 15-25 minutes and we were back on the main road again. We searched for a nice hotel in a place called Macku but found a room for 180 dollar to be a bit above budget... :) We decided to just move on up in the mountains and hope for the best.... We had to cycle for about an hour in the dark before we finally found a place were we could eat something. Luckily the traffic during this hour was very quite because as explained before everyone was probably eating :) We try and avoid cycling in the dark as much as possible but we had no choice that day. We bought some food at a local restaurant and asked if it was ok if we put our tent up in front. He offered us to sleep inside instead and we gladly excepted. nstead of 180 dollars we slept for free, so it turned out quite nicely in the end.

The next day we had some nice climbing to do again to the Zigana pass. A pass of 1820 meters high. We cleared it and ended up in the valley near Gümüshane around 1000 meters high. From there it has been a big gradual climb to Erzurum with 2 more nasty passes in it. The worst one was at 2384 meters high!! before we finally reached the Anatolian plateau. t was probably the most serious test on our legs so far, but yet again we prevailed ;)

And now we are in Erzurum, making sure of our last preparations to enter ran. We are trying to get some Rials because it will be impossible for us to get them out of atm's there. We've heard dollars are excepted and interchangeable as well so we will bring some of those as well. Off course always accompanied with the sentence "no am not an American!"

We are exited and curious about what ran will have to offer us. But we will also miss Turkey. Turkey has been an amazing experience that we won't forget!!

Now we feel we are ready for ran. One more week to the border and then another 1500-2000 (?) km to Esfahan. Our 2nd big milestone on this trip.

Take care everyone....

All the best Erik en Tjeerd


p.s. About the bikes, its about another 1500-2000 more to go in ran and we decided to leave the cassette and blades on as they are. We just have to pray all our stuff makes it to Bombay and if it doesn't we will just try and get there with some ranian parts

http://s197.photobucket.com/albums/aa310/erikopdefiets/05%20Safranbolu%20-%20Erzurum/