Hills, Horns, Heat, Hellos and Hounds

Not a day went by where we didn’t have hills, horns blasting, blistering hot heat, constant hellos and hounds chasing us.  All in all it was tough going through Turkey, especially in the east.

The grades were really steep on the coast but lessened a bit as we headed inland.  However, the hills never stopped.  Everyday up and down and up and down and up and down.  I wondered many times if TCK (the Turkish road builders) made the correct decisions as to where they lay the asphalt because I am sure I saw flatter paths than the routes they have in place.  For example, on the Black Sea coast we had to climb a hill a bit inland but if they constructed the road right on the coast it would have been flat all the way through.  Just saying… then again I am no transport engineer. 

We obviously don’t mind support from passing drivers but the honking of the horn got real annoying really quick.  Especially the drivers who honked very loud right beside us.  It is deafening.  Most of the time it is for support or to show you they are cheering you on.  But seriously the noise brought on a lot of mental stress.

This time of year it is super hot in Turkey.  Temperatures rose above 40 degrees Celsius pretty much every day.  When climbing up hills the heat sometimes was just too much. 

As we progressed east we received more hellos.  This reminded a lot of what it was like in Vietnam when we cycled through there back in 2008.  When you are cycling for kilometers on end every day it takes a lot out of you to say hello back to everyone.  And most of the time it goes down like this: they yell hello, I say hello back or wave, and then they keep saying hello.  I think one hello should suffice.  Can’t keep saying hello back and forth.  Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  I think though they just wanted to try on the little English they know. 

I love dogs but the hounds here were extremely irritating.  These rural sheep dogs chased us and barked at us all the time.  Kind of worrisome at times as I read some are not vaccinated. 

In Ankara Trevor needed to get his front rim replaced as he didn’t have much confidence in it getting through the rest of the Middle East and the ‘Stans.  As such, we went to a bike shop in Ankara but needed to stay an extra day because the mechanic wasn’t in on the Monday we were there.  We ended up spending a chunk of the afternoon at this park where I watched a few movies on the netbook and later Trevor went off to explore possible camp spots.  Shortly after he left I was approached by this scrawny guy and he asks me my name and where I am from.  Then he starts asking me for food, drink and money.  I raise my voice at him because he is harassing me and I wanted him to leave.  I quickly pack up my netbook and toss it in my pannier bag.  Then he starts threatening to light his match on fire and blow up the bikes and all our possessions.  He gives me his ID and this card which was about his Islamic religion.  He kept speaking in Turkish but I kind of got the drift at what he was getting at.  Basically he wanted food, money and drink and for me to praise and worship Allah.  He kept insisting that I kiss the card or do something with it.  He would never leave me alone.  I then start moving the bikes out of the park to get on a busy road where things are out in the open and hopefully can get some help.  He spits on me and then threatens me again with the matches and also pretends to get his friends over who he says have knives and will stab me.  I get out of the park lugging both bikes one by one.  He then follows me out there and keeps insisting I praise and worship Allah.  By the way, if he was such a devout Muslim, I wonder why he was sipping on an orange pop before he approached me given it is Ramadan.  Sheesh.  Anyway, he then takes out a small two-by-four from his pants and acts if he may use it as a weapon.  I see a man smoking a cigarette at the building nearby and ask if he knows English and can help.  He kind of shrugs me off.  Then the dumbass harassing me goes to the man and shows him his religion card.  He then bums a smoke off him and returns to me only to threaten me again with the matches and I think cursed death upon me.  He finally goes back into the park and leaves me alone.  Then a man comes out of the building and asks me where I am from and where did I start the bicycle trip.  I answer and then tell him I am frustrated at the moment because I am being harassed and threatened by this guy.  He then asks where he is at and I tell him.  He walks off towards the park and I notice he has a gun in his back pocket.  So I assume he is security for the building.  He then returns with the dumbass and questions the both of us.  I didn’t understand what they were saying but I got the impression the dumbass was accusing me of taking his religion card or he was just telling him that he wanted to pray with me or something that clearly wasn’t true.  The security guy asks me if I want him to call the police and says if he does I would have to go with them.  I didn’t want to go to the police station as I don’t have much faith in them since nothing usually happens unless there is clear evidence… in this case it would be his word against mine and what would he get for doing what he did?  Maybe a slap on the wrist?  I don’t know but I don’t have much faith considering my previous experiences with foreign police.  So I said no.  Then he said okay, he must apologize and so the dumbass smiled like he got away with it and insisted on shaking my hand.  He was full of crap and obviously didn’t mean it.   But at the end of the day I just wanted him out of my sight.  He then scampered off like the worthless excuse for a human being that he is.  I then stood there waiting for Trevor to return from his long walk because I was worried the dumbass may go grab some reinforcements or a weapon and return to steal our stuff.  So I was on my feet anxious to get out of there.  Trevor finally returned and we got out of there.  Then later Trevor and I got into a major fight mainly because I was anxious to get a camp spot and I wasn’t feeling well.  He didn’t like the way I spoke to him so he ignored me and sat on this bench outside this other park we were at.  I kept yelling at him because I wanted to set up camp asap given my crappy day.  In hindsight I admit my nerves got the best of me and any little thing that annoyed me that day I got really pissed.  So it took until the next morning for us to be at peace with one another.

From Ankara we dipped south for a bit until we hit the D300 which we were on for most of the time.  A lot of semi desert landscapes.  My favourite spot probably was cycling along the north side of Lake Van because it was somewhat flat and calm.  Once Lake Van ended and we had to head north things got much worse.  We kept on passing stupid boys yelling ‘money money’ at us.  The area from Muradiye to Dogubayazit has a lot of poverty.  We had a few instances where we both got real pissed.  The first one occurred when we were zooming down this hill shortly after completing the 2600m pass.  A kid herding his few goats jumped out onto the road and pointed his stick at us trying to stop us and yelled ‘money money!’.  I had to swerve out of the way to avoid hitting him but also had to watch out for the oncoming truck.  Then later we were on a flat stretch and notice a teenage boy running up to the road.  When we see this we start booking it as they begin to throw things at us.  In this case they threw their herder sticks at us.  I assume they are trying to get us to crash and hopeful that they will get money from us.  They are complete idiots in my view.  The last incident (but believe me there were many just like this in this particular area) we were cycling into Dogubayazit and again we see a few boys sprinting to the side of the road and then all of a sudden we are dodging big rocks that are being thrown in our direction.  Again, what is with these little brats?  It is always boys and young males who are the idiots who perpetrate these acts.  Never would you see a female do such a thing here.  Then again, we never saw many females wandering about.  I feel safer when I see females out and about.  It was always males and boys dilly dallying about doing absolutely nothing with their lives but cause trouble for us.

We are pretty much done Turkey and are camped out just past Dogubayazit with a nice view of Mount Ararat.  We will enter Iran tomorrow.  

Trevor packing up at a water fountain as a cow looks on taking a piss.  By the way, I went back to drinking the water at the fountains as it wasn’t the water making my stomach feel like crap but the dough I was eating.  Stupid me, I remember my mom saying to me when I was younger not to eat the dough as it causes tummy troubles.  Well it did just that for me on numerous occasions.  So no more flour dough eating sessions for me. 

We met a few touring cyclists en route while climbing this treacherous hill.  One was a Swiss guy heading east with an open ended itinerary and the other was a French guy cycling with a German (who was still pedaling up the hill) who are also heading east.  Always great to meet fellow bicycle tourists.

I always enjoy finding new foods I like.  This one wasn’t exactly new though as I discovered the rose flavour in Singapore when introduced to bandung (which I can’t wait to have again, as well as an ice kacang).  Anyway, I have never seen rose jam on the shelf so I had to try it.  It was delicious so I kept picking this up whenever we hit up a Kipa, which is pretty much Tesco in Turkey. 

At the bike shop where Trevor got his new rim I was also in the market for a new tire but they didn’t have the Schwalbe Marathon.  We were directed to another bike shop called Gungorler Bisiklet and this one was much more welcoming, friendly and relaxed.  There we met Gurkan Genc who was super nice to us and took us out for lunch.  He cycled from Ankara to Japan in 2010/2011 so he gave us a couple of tips on the road ahead.  He is gearing up for his next adventure which is to cycle around the world touching all 7 continents for 7 years.  Also while at the bike shop I was interviewed by the other guy in the picture who manages a site of bicycle touring blogs and all things related.  He did a quick article on our trip and if you can read Turkish, you can view it here: http://www.bisiklethaber.com/2012/08/kanadali-hansen-kardesler-turkiyede/.

My Schwalbe Marathon tire had served me very well.  I remember the bicycle mechanic in London saying it wouldn’t get me out of England, well it got me to Ankara and I would have cycled on it further but as I said before it would most likely be difficult to get good parts in Iran and the ‘Stans.  As such, I played it safe and got a new Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire.  Feeling good about that.  Trevor is risking it and still is on his original tires.  So far they are holding up just fine. 

Gurkan gave us directions to a friend of his south of Ankara about 20km before a town called Kirsehir.  We cycled to Gol Restaurant where we met Serkan and his friend and had a delicious lunch by the lake.  He offered for us to spend the night at his residence but we wanted to cycle some more as it was early afternoon.  His friend then arranged with the police of Mucur, a town about 40km away, to find us a camp spot when we arrived and provide security overnight.  We definitely felt quite safe that night! 

In the region around the city of Malatya we saw many apricots drying on the side of the road.  Apparently this region is known for this delicious fruit.  We were given a few free handouts by a couple of generous farmers. 

Here is Trevor in Elazig on a hot day.  He saw some construction workers jump in and take a dip to cool down so he followed suit.  I regret not doing the same as he said it sure cooled him down for quite a while. 

This has got to be the biggest grasshopper I have ever seen.  Or at least I think it is a grasshopper.  Sure looks the part.  It landed on my tent while I was just about to go to sleep.  It took some time to get it off my tent only for it to return later.  I really don’t know what it was because it seems way too big to be classified as a grasshopper.  Maybe it was a cricket?  I don’t know. 

As we kept heading further east we were swarmed by boys who liked to stare at us.  They would park themselves quite close to us and just stare.  This got rather annoying so we had to pick our rest spots carefully.  Couldn’t always do that though, like when we made our Bim stops.  Bim was our go to supermarket through Turkey.  I consistently ate cornflakes with milk while Trevor usually had a daily ice cream float.  We will miss Bim as supermarkets make us happy. 

A patch of sunflowers.  Nice and yellow.

When Trevor isn’t cycling this is what he does.  Head down and looking at the GPS.  He likes his electronic devices.  

Here I am today in front of Mount Ararat, the highest peak in Turkey.