Est Türkiye - Passes Challenge

After two days in beautiful Capadocia, we set a new goal: cross the eastern part of Turkey and reach the city of Erzurum.

At the beginning, we hadn’t planned it this way. We wanted to go through the lake of Van, in the southern part. Unfortunately, we realized too late that if we wanted to continue to Iran further on, then the last city on “our way” where we could collect the visa was Erzurum.

We had 700km ahead of us to get to this mountainous city. Approximately 8 days of cycling, ups and downs the 2000m passes. By chance, the expressways in Turkey always have an enormous one-meter emergency line: perfect for us!

These eight days we pedaled a lot, waking up almost every day at 4.30 am, because like almost every day in Turkey, we had 1000m of positive elevation with a pass to climb. It was definitely the mountain part. The passes had to be done as early as possible in the day, otherwise the heat would be unbearable.

On the first night, in the suburbs of Kayseri city, we were invited to the garden of a lovely Turkish family, where we shared a traditional barbecue: mangal! From their terrasse there was a magnificent view on Mount Erciyes, where we imagined ourselves skiing one day. We promised to come back for winter season!

Next 4 nights in a row we did wild camping. All 4 nights near a lake. The four bivouac spots were perfectly separated from each other with a cycling distance ranging from 70-100 km and with an ideal place for a tent. We were very lucky to find these lagoon lakes with a turquoise water in the middle of desert landscapes. (Thanks to the maps.me app of course) No touristic at all, we were alone. Beautiful.

Another bless on the road was the Couchsurfing we found in the city of Shivas, on our way to Erzurum. Hassan - young Turkish train-driver, welcomed us very warmly at his place, offering us laundry.

When finally reaching Erzurum we were knackered. We needed to treat ourselves with a little bit of comfort. We took a hotel for two nights with a kings-traditional-turkish breakfast included and we even went to the cinema, because we found one American movie in English! We were like children on holidays. Eating junky food and enjoying every second of being in the city and some time off without our bicycles. We left Erzurum for the last 330km of cycling on the road in Turkey in direction of Mount Ararat, before reaching the border of Iran.

First night after leaving Erzurum, we found ourselves near the highway with not a lot of opportunities for a tent spot.

Luckily there was this tiny farmer village where one family let us to sleep in their garden. It’s always amusing how people are a bit embarrassed and looking at us awkwardly when we ask to put up a tent (especially when our Turkish speaking is very poor and their English is even worst…).

The farmer of this family used to work in France so he spoke few words of French and he couldn’t be more happier to host us. At the end, whole family gathered to say hello and they prepare traditional food for us, bringing us very comfy armchair that they put out in the garden!

Further on the road, we were accepted by the only existing Warmshower: Forkan (again, young turkish who hosted a bunch of cyclists already) We made a huge barbecue with him and his friends.

It turned out that they were all Kurdish people, the nation living in three countries Irak, Syria and Turkey with very strong cultural believes. We were listening traditional Kurdish music and drinking Turkish Rakija.

We stayed two nights at his place to take a good rest and be ready for the last straight line of 100km before reaching Dogubayazit, last city in Turkey!

Finally appeared to our eyes, the majestic snow-capped sleeping volcano. The highest peak in Turkey: Mount Ararat, with an elevation of 5,137m.

Seeing this mountain had a special meaning for us. It meant that we did it. We crossed entire Turkey only with the strength of our legs, by bicycle. Even though it wasn’t always easy, we are in the last big city before the Iran’s border (39km left).

The summit being so symbolic for us, we couldn't resist to the idea of trying to climb it, to mark the end of our traverse of Turkey. And of course, we wanted to try to look for the Noah’s Ark by ourselves.😉

Thanks to some people met via Instagram, we got a contact to a nice guide: Cuma, who offered us a very good deal with accommodation before and after the ascension. It was a sign that we had to try to go up. We decided to make ourselves this gift. We left our bicycles at his place and went for 4 days of ascension!

Taking a group expedition was a new experience for us. It’s definitely not our style, because normally in the Alps, we never take any guide and most of the time we are alone or trying to look for the less busy route. Here, it’s more than a business. It’s their heritage. Taking a local guide to go up seemed to be compulsory so we didn’t event have a choice.

We spend three nights in the mountains. The atmosphere at camp base was very joyful. A bunch of people from around the world and all the people reunited for one goal: trying to get to the summit of Mount Ararat. We spent a particularly long time with a group of the Slovens who climbed the summit with us. We haven't laughed so much for a long time. We had some good traditional Turkish dinner with among the lentille soup and obviously a lot of çay.

Unfortunately, there were countless amount of litters everywhere. Very disappointing. We were told that there were all from Iranian people and that they don’t respect anything… We decided to make a good action and pick up some rubbish in the camps and on the way, making people met on the way aware. Hoping to have given a good example. Try to respect the Mother Nature and always leave the place cleaner than before.

Very happy to reach the summit of Mount Ararat, we went down the 3000m in one day to sleep at Cuma’s place.

Here we are now, back in the city of Dogubayazit writing this post, drinking deserved Cappuccino with huge muscles pain for the previous day of rest before entering Iran!

Some anecdotes from Turkey:

During our Turkey crossing we have never been verified our passports (even to check if we haven’t exceed 3months stay). Police were always more into taking photos with us or offering çay or Coca Cola…

Every time we went for a coffee/çay break Roxy was always the only women around. We have never even seen a single women at cafes. This is strictly a male environment and apparently that it has been around for centuries…

Imagine 10 tables of old Turkish men, all starring in our direction with written on their faces “why is she taking a tee here?!” Or maybe they don’t care because we are “tourists” and we are not subject to the same rules. It will stay a mystery for us.

In every Turkish toilet we went, there was always a soap and never found a toilet paper though! Squat toilet have been proven as being much healthier and more hygienic than the sitting ones. Nevertheless, still doesn’t seem comfy enough for our European asses.