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A long ride through wonderful Anatolia

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20.11.2003 from Erzincan, Turkey - 4756km

Salam aleikum!

Suddenly, I realised that the car which crossed my way moments ago, started reversing at high speed. As the car was back again in front of me, I realised that the person behind the steering wheel looked terrified. With wild gesture he stepped out of his car. He told me that I should stop cycling immediately. It would be suicide to continue cycling alone under the current weather conditions. I tried to explain that I am fine and nothing would happen to me, but he would not listen. He said that I must at least come to his home and sleep at his place. The following day the weather would improve. But I decided to cycle on as I saw no problem with it, leaving behind the still terrified man... This happened on the second day of winter weather with low temperatures. I was cycling under heavy snow fall combined with quite some wind.

But now, one after the other... On the start in Ankara the weather was still sunny. I cycled on without my Turkmen visa. I waited for two weeks and at the end the responsable at the embassy just told my that my visa would be "closed"... meaning that it has been refused. But he immediately proposed to try again for a 5-day transit visa. This would take another 10 days at least, as everything has to be approved by Ashgabat (Turkmenistan). So that is why I decided to cycle on without all the necessary visas. I would need to take a bus back to Ankara at some time in the future, leaving behind my bicycle.

My route included quite a detour to the south. My aim was to visit Kappadockia, close to Kayseri. During the summer months, this place is very crowded with tourists but in November I had almost all the attractions to myself. Kappadockia is a volcanic region. The very soft rock allowed the carving of whole cities out of the rock. Natural spires, gorges and other rock formations were transformed into churches, houses, animal stalls and at latest into mosques. Over thousands of years a very fascinating landscape emerged. At the campspot at Goereme, I met Sophie and Jerome. Both are on a worldtour on scooters since 2001 (take a look for yourself at http://www.ifrance.com/globe-reporters). So I had a great company during the days in Kappadockia. Best wishes for your journey!

When I left the campspot, it started raining. On the first small mountain pass, the rain turned into snow... the first time on this bicycle tour! But I did not worry any further, as on the downhill it started raining again. Unfortunately, the camping became a battle with the mud. I was in a very flat plain and I could not find any reasonable place without a lot of mud. When I finally managed to fix my tent in the mud against the wind and by the time snow again, I could start relaxing in the dry interior of my tent. It was snowing during the whole night and quite some snow accumulate on my tent. The following day brought no change in weather conditions, except that the temperatures dropped again considerably. It probably was never warmer than 0 degree Celsius. During the cycling my back derailleur even got frozen. Luckily, only the higher speeds became temporarily useless through this. The people who saw me cycling with all the winter clothing could believe why I even considered being outside under these conditions, let alone cycling. But they were most scared about the icy nights. No problem with a good sleeping bag... just to get in and out was a bit painful.

During the following days, I had to continue cycling with my winter clothing, but the weather improved gradually. The route went from Kappadockia over many minor roads always towards northeast (continuously between 1100 and 2000m, one of the reason why it was a bit cold). After Pinarbasi, I decided to attempt a short cut over some field tracks. Just when I arrived at the first village and when I started taking a close look at my map, a soldier from the Jandarma (military police) ran towards me. He told me that I should come to see his commander. Then everything went very quickly. We put my bicycle in their military jeep and the commander invited me to warm up in the local school building. In the teachers' room I got presented to all the teachers. The atmosphere was very relaxed and everybody was joking around. The principal offered my to trade my bicycle for his car, while this stirred up protest from the sociology teacher, who already wanted to trade in his donkey. A very cute English teacher helped me translating, but she was hopelessly lost as at least five persons were talking to me at the same time Outside my bicycle was kept very safe. Two soldiers with automatic weapons stood guard, so I had no worries at all for any theft to occur.

Instead of cycling on, the commander insisted that I should come to their quarters and sleep there. So we drove 15km off my route and I was allowed to take a seat in the chief's office. Everything was handled with military discipline and I got a royal treatment. I was allowed to sleep in the room of the young officer Erkul. We had a long chat and used extensively my two-way dictionary English-Turkish.
On the next morning, I got promptly driven back to where I was "picked up" the day before. The weather was now excellent! Not a single cloud to be seen on the sky! The scenery was just magic! The problem was the the track was covered with snow during a week and it just all melted by today. This turned the surface in a very nasty mud. For the worst part (about 10km) it took me 4 hours to pass. The mud was so sticky that it immediately blocked all moving parts. For a couple of hundred meters, I saw no other solution than dragging the bicycle sidewards. Pushing was possible neither forwards nor backwards. Already after a couple of meters, I was completely exhausted. Going off road would have been much worse, carving off the mud would have helped only for one or two meters and carrying the bicycle including all the baggagae would not have been possible either. During the whole day, I have not seen a single vehicule passing on this stretch (probably for a very good reason!). Shortly before it was getting dark, I reached a small village and the road improved. Completely exhausted, I asked for water and startet looking for a place to put up my tent...

After some 150km, I reached the Firat Nehri (Euphrates) deep down in a gorge. Through an awesome landscape and after many thousand vertical meters, I finally reached Erzincan. In the town, I wanted to find a place to leave my bicycle somewhere, as I wanted to travel to Ankara to get my visa for Turkmenistan. Sometimes I can hardly believe how things are happening... In the city center of Erzincan, I first changed my rain pants for ordinary ones. By chance I did this in front of Ayhan's coiffeur salon. He waved me in and then it all started. Ayhan and one of his collegues abandonned the shop and showed me the way to a place that was supposed to be the tourist information. But it was rather the ministerium for culture. Anyway, I could at least explain in English what I would like to do. No problem! A person working at the place followed Ayhan, his collegue and me to pick up the bicycle. At the same time, they called already a bus agency to book a ticket to Ankara for me. Ayhan then showed me then where to buy the ticket. In the end, he even invited me to eat dinner with his family...

Before the bus left, I got a fresh haircut and my beard shaved for free! I was completely overwhelmed! Within four hours all my problems were solved and I was sitting in a overnight bus to Ankara, some 700km to the west.

In Ankara, I promptly got my visa for Turkmenistan and on the same day, I took another overnight bus back to Erzcincan. In the following days, I will continue to Erzurum back in to snow and then down towards Georgia. Hopefully the situation calms down over there!

Best wishes!
Daniel

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