It seems this is a crater lake. Had I known that I would also have expected it to be cold and of course made an effort to leave earlier. It was 300k, no trouble I thought, well yes.....
The departure down the hill and onto the plain was dramatic. There is one thing about Turkey, the landscape is huge and dramatic.
I thought a couple of times I was in Arizona. The sun on the mountains the shadows, the colours are fantastic.
The villages on the hills. Not at all like anywhere else. These houses are all brown. A li8ttle way short of Batman ( yes I had to get that in, its real) is a place called Hassankeyf. Again houses built into the cliff faces and a very old town that had a very old bridge, which is a river who's name seems to be the Dicle Nehri that flows into Syria.
Clearly a place with a great deal of history and a fascinating place. Another fascination appeared a few miles down the road. I guess it would have been called a train once, a string of donkeys, perhaps a horse and a mule or two, giving the appearance of the family and their posessions. They were a very interesting group. I was busy looking at them and trying to get a picture and at the same time giving them a great deal of amusement, by my appearance.
So I was back on the road and it was good until I approached the last leg into the town of
Bitlis and Tevan. What I didn't know was that this was a gorge in which the road was being rebuilt and rising to about 1600m. So the road was rough and rougher, climbing into colder and colder, and the sun set at about 3.30 so getting darker and darker. It was an interesting ride.
The town was seemingly a very ordinary very cold very dark place. I was through it and onto the lake plateau and then it got properly cold, bone chilling cold. And it was pitch dark, the full moon was obscured, and did I mention cold ?
I was lucky to ride direct to the Otel where for 50ytl I got B + B with central heating. Great.
By now you can guess, spicy soup, salad, shish, with lots of bread and tea.
nzl04
The departure down the hill and onto the plain was dramatic. There is one thing about Turkey, the landscape is huge and dramatic.
I thought a couple of times I was in Arizona. The sun on the mountains the shadows, the colours are fantastic.
The villages on the hills. Not at all like anywhere else. These houses are all brown. A li8ttle way short of Batman ( yes I had to get that in, its real) is a place called Hassankeyf. Again houses built into the cliff faces and a very old town that had a very old bridge, which is a river who's name seems to be the Dicle Nehri that flows into Syria.
Clearly a place with a great deal of history and a fascinating place. Another fascination appeared a few miles down the road. I guess it would have been called a train once, a string of donkeys, perhaps a horse and a mule or two, giving the appearance of the family and their posessions. They were a very interesting group. I was busy looking at them and trying to get a picture and at the same time giving them a great deal of amusement, by my appearance.
So I was back on the road and it was good until I approached the last leg into the town of
Bitlis and Tevan. What I didn't know was that this was a gorge in which the road was being rebuilt and rising to about 1600m. So the road was rough and rougher, climbing into colder and colder, and the sun set at about 3.30 so getting darker and darker. It was an interesting ride.
The town was seemingly a very ordinary very cold very dark place. I was through it and onto the lake plateau and then it got properly cold, bone chilling cold. And it was pitch dark, the full moon was obscured, and did I mention cold ?
I was lucky to ride direct to the Otel where for 50ytl I got B + B with central heating. Great.
By now you can guess, spicy soup, salad, shish, with lots of bread and tea.
nzl04
