June 02, 2013 Groymak, Bitlis, Turkey

Malatya to Mus

by Daniela , published on June 17, 2013

distance: 492.68km
duration: 80h 53min

Man fühlt sich in der Türkei sehr willkommen aber ich empfinde ihre Freundlichkeit oft als zu übertrieben. Es fällt mir schwer die Menschen richtig einschätzen zu können. Sie sind sehr nett uns gegenüber und der Gast wird hier auf Händen getragen. Dem Taxifahrer war es sehr unangenehm als ich das Gepäck vom Flughafen aus dem Auto ausladen half, denn als Gast und auch als Frau sollte man dies nicht tun. Unsere Gastgeber in Malatya behandelten uns wie ihre Familie. Es wurde für uns gekocht und jeder Wunsch wurde erfüllt. Für mich ist es schwer diese so große Gastfreundlichkeit anzunehmen. Doch diese Freundschaft ist hier selbstverständlich, obwohl man sich gar nicht gut kennt.

Die Bevölkerung ist sichtlich sehr arm und der Lebensstandard sehr gering. Es vergeht aber trotzdem kein Tag an dem man nicht zu einem Cay oder Essen eingeladen wird. Fast kaum jemand spricht Englisch aber es bemüht sich jeder, sich mit uns zu verständigen.

This sweet old turkish couple invited us to Cay, homemade paneer(Cheese), tomatoes and cucumber

Am Land lebt noch jeder von der Landwirtschaft und daher trifft man beim Radfahren sehr viele Bauern. Wenn es uns zeitlich passt, nehmen wir gerne Einladungen an und setzen uns zu ihnen. Man wird verwöhnt mit gutem Cay, dazu eine Jause mit Tomaten, Gurken, Jungzwiebel, Käse, Brot - und natürlich alles vom eigenen Anbau.

Einen Tag Pause am Hazar Golu.

Wir suchen uns Schlafplätze die entfernt und versteckt sind, doch es gibt keinen Campingplatz an dem uns nicht ein Hirte mit seiner Schaf- oder Ziegenherde besuchen kommt. Die Menschen sind kaum scheu, sie gehen direkt auf dich zu und versuchen mit Händen und Füßen zu kommunizieren. Die Hirten sind sehr nette Menschen und machen auf mich einen besonders ruhigen und zufriedenen Eindruck. Sie verstehen unsere Art zu Reisen und wir sind ihnen mit unserem Zelt nie im Weg. Es gibt hier mit dem Wildcampen keine Probleme. Unsere Campingplätze sind jeden Tag unterschiedlich und die Natur verändert sich von Tag zu Tag. Man weiß nie was sich hinter dem nächsten Berg verbirgt.

Das Radfahren ist sehr anstrengend, wir fahren ab dem ersten Tag nur aufwärts aber dafür sind wir mit traumhaften Landschaften beglückt worden. Wir sind durchschnittlich auf 1800 Höhenmeter was mir sehr gut gefällt, nur die Nächte sind sehr kalt. In Gözeli auf einer traumhaften Anhöhe habe ich mit meiner Daunenjacke geschlafen. Untertags fahren wir bei 30 Grad und in der Nacht kühlt es auf 10 Grad ab. Diese Schwankungen machen uns ein wenig fertig. 

Die Abfahrt auf 1300 Höhenmeter war dann dementsprechend toll.

Für unsere Pause fanden wir einenn tollen Platz am See, Hazar Gölü. Wir hatten Glück Sonntag abends den See zu erreichen, denn am Wochenende lieben es die Türken am See zu picknicken.Wir machten einen Tag ungestört Rast direkt am Seeufer.

Die Bergstrassen werden in der Türkei wenn möglich ohne Serpentinen gebaut und so sind die Steigungen oft fast unerklimmbar. Es ist manchmal deprimierend wie wenig Kilometer wir pro Tag bei diesen Steigungen schaffen.

Nach den anstrengenden Bergen war ich schon sehr gespannt auf die Hochebene bei Mus. Leider mussten wir feststellen, dass Mus keine so schöne Stadt ist bzw. für unseren Geschmack zu Neu ist. Wir blieben nur eine Nacht. Back to the road genossen wir die tolle Ebene. Wir hatten eine nette Mittagsbegegnung mit einem LKW Fahrer, der uns sehr gut bekochte.

LKW Fahrer kocht uns auf der Strasse das Gericht Menemen.

Nach zwei Tagen erreichten wir schon Tatvan und ich war froh wieder Berge zu sehen.

 

Die Straßen leben von den Männer die auf den Hockern Cay trinken. Mich stört es wenig, dass ich darunter die einzige Frau bin. Trotz eigenartiger oft schüchternen Blicke genieße ich meinen Cay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 01, 2013 Mush, Muş, Turkey

The Beyhan aberration

by Christian , published on June 18, 2013

distance: 359.58km
duration: 52h 16min

"Haha, 90% probability of rain - the weather report was pretty much bullshit, wasn't it?"

The evening before we had left the Kavurma(A roadside eatery, named after the namesake dish they serve) in a rush, as a storm was looming and the first raindrops had started to fall. By pure luck we had found a pretty perfect camping spot shortly after - a flat piece of short grass between apricot trees - quiet and secluded. We managed to setup the tent just in time before the rain started pouring. Nothing is more cosy than lying in a warm sleeping bag in a tent when it's raining cats and dogs and there's a howling wind outside(Given you know what your tent is worth).

The next day was as sunny and nice as can be, a cloudless blue sky allover. According to the weather report we had checked online at night, it should have been heavy rainfalls.

Alas - two hours later - we had just finished packing up - we had to rush to put on our raingear - the weather had turned and another wave of heavy wind and pouring rain had catched up. 90% probability of rain - quite right, against all odds. We where waiting out the worst under an apricot tree before we started, Daniela couldn't find the raincovers for her shoes and was swearing under her breath about her wet socks.

Another 4 hours later we where sweating uphill under a clear sky - we had taken the first chance to leave the heavily trafficed D300. However, for some tranquillity we also had a very steep climb of 400m up to the village of Gözeli. The following night brought freezing temperatures around 10°C, Merino long johns and a longsleeve buried in the last corner of my bags found some use.

Hazar Gölü(Lake Hazar) was a welcome spot to take a day off from cycling after the first four days. The beauty of the place was only tarnished by all the rubbish thoughtlessly left by turkish families after taking a picnic under the trees at the shore of the lake.

Breakfast invitation near Hazar Golu

In the early morning we where surrounded by a large herd of goats

 

We entered Palu with empty stomaches and the naive faith that it would be just another stop on our continuous line we had plotted through the mountain-ranges. Our target for the day was Beyhan, from where we would continue for 2 days on a secluded mountain road to Genç.

After a very stressful stop at Palu's main square(Lots of pesky young boys surrounding our bikes while we where eating and getting groceries), we headed out for the 30km to Beyhan.

Great food for just 7 Lira

Going flat along the river Murat for the first 20km we where passed by dozens of mini-busses("Taksi") and Trucks who greeted us friendly by honking, some of them stopped to ask us where we go(Beyhan and Genç!) and if we need help and to give us cookies. There where also a peculiar(!) amount of pickup-trucks(Mostly expensive Toyota Hilux).

The last 10km to Beyhan consisted of a very very though and long climb in blazing afternoon heat. On the last 1km before Beyhan yet another lorry stopped to ask where we where headed.

We where already soaked in sweat at this point, but it was just the start of a long uphill battle

I told him what i had told everyone else - we where planning to go sleep near Beyhan and to continue to Genç the next morning. This time however, the answer from the driver was not what i expected - his english was not very good, but he made clear that the road to Genç was closed - there was a big construction going down, apparantly some huge dam-project.

Huge dam construction site near Beyhan

There was no way we would be able to go to Genç via Beyhan - the driver was very nice and he even called the engineer responsible for the section, who confirmed they where working on excavation of the surrounding mountains and the road to Genç was blocked respectively destroyed. Duh! Suprising news! That was also the reason for the unusual high number of expensive pickup-trucks - employees of the company building the dam, visiting the construction-site.

Note the snow on the mountaintops

What where we going to do at five in the afternoon, after an exhausting 30km ride? There was no way we would be going back to Palu the same day. We thanked the driver for the important information and continued on our way up the last ascend before Beyhan. Another pickup-truck stopped, the driver repeating the bad news. A young villager on a scooter approached us too, inviting us to his home. In broken english he explained there where dangerous bears and wolves in the area and sleeping in a cadir(tent) would be far too dangerous. He appeared a bit crazy in his appearance and the silly stories he told - so we where happy when yet another man took care of us.

Ekrem, a calm taxi driver invited us to his home, where his wife took care of our empty stomaches(Great Melemel/Menemen again).

Ekrem and his family who hosted us in their sweet home for a night
 

Communication was difficult, but we still managed to exchange some information. We even found out he had passed by 5 times with his bus this day, going back and forth along the road we where slowly struggling along. We all shared a good laugh about the fact that everyone knew the road was closed, but nobody had told us :-)

Back to Palu the next day was a lazy venture - we shared a tea with two lonely soldiers in their mountaintop checkpoint and chatted for quite some time in german with a turk who had lived in Germany for many years and who had come back to his hometown as the living and work conditions where better in Turkey.

This handsome guy is a hunter, he confirmed there are bears in the mountains around Beyhan

Two soldiers who commanded a desolate checkpoint invited us to Cay and chat

Chatty guy who had live in Germany for many years and returned back to Turkey.

We had planned to spend the night in our tent near the town - but the security guard of a nearby power plant invited us to sleep in his small guardshouse(He warned us that the youth of Palu was growing and consuming dangerous marijuana plants where we had chosen to spend the night, and we where more safe in the power plant compound).

There is a train connection from Palu to Muş via Genç - as the final entry date for our Iran-visa was looming ahead we took the plunge and zipped of 170km by train in a mere 6 hours.

Waiting for our train in Palu

A man on the train told us these waggons had been bombed by the PKK. In fact, a lot of the people we met talked about PKK attacks and there where a lot of heavily armed Jandarma(Police) checkpoints in the area.