It took Ferda and me 26 hours to get (by bus) from Antalya to Kars. Emek and Görkem drove from Muğla, and Hacer took the bus from Mersin. We were the last of our group of five to arrive. I had been to Kars (the province (il)) twice before, but I had never been to the city of Kars. I was quite looking forward to it. For good reason, it turns out.
Akşehir, Sultandağı, Çay — we spent a couple days skirting the north edge of the Sultan Dağları (mountains) on tractor roads. These cities are connected with a busy, fast road, the major highway connecting Konya and Afyonkarahisar. We had to cross it a few times, but except for short stretches before and after Çay, we managed to avoid riding on it.
Ferda and Yasemin came by bus to Yalvaç to join Ahmet and me. The four of us pedaled together for a few days. They were hungry when they arrived, and Ahmet and I had just finished a good lunch at Ahmet Usta Pideci so we got some takeaway from the same place and delivered it to the bus station for the new riders.
We started off on rolling farmland south and east from Yalvaç, terrain quite different from the first two weeks of this tour.
Continue readingContinuing where we left off at Kuzukulağı Yaylası, Ahmet and I headed down to the Köprü Çayı (again). With the villages of Yanık, Fındık, Samanlık, İbişler, Pınargözü, and Karacahisar one after another in the pretty river valley, we were optimistic we’d find a breakfast place.
As I hoped, I really did manage to restart the route that was unexpectedly cut short above Köprülü Kanyon. I had a short break in Antalya, and then Ahmet arranged a ride for us to Çaltepe so we could start our riding where I had turned around some 10 days earlier.
We spent the night at a pansiyon that Ahmet likes in Çaltepe (Erdinç Pansiyon), and he took me that afternoon (by bicycle) to a fun nearby swimming hole.
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