After spending about three weeks in Ardanuç and Şavşat, Ferda and I moved quickly through Borçka, Murgul, and Arhavi. The riding was some of the hardest of the trip with long climbs and descents on muddy, rocky roads. Stream crossings added to the excitement. We did find some pavement, but the Muratlı-Borçka-Murgul highway is an industrial mess with reservoirs, dams, tunnels, construction, and lots of fast traffic. The long paved descent from Borçka’s Karagöl ought to be really fun, but the deep, hard-to-see gravel hidden around too many turns made it stressful.
The reward here is passing through Turkey’s most biodiverse region. We often rode through thick green forest with some trees so covered with vines and other vegetation that it was hard to see the trees themselves. This is temperate rain forest, specifically the Colchian rain forest. The long descent from Indaczvina Pass to Efeler, a steep road through thick forest, probably had spectacular views, but we did the whole thing in a cloud, usually with light rain. Locals complained, “çürüyoruz” (we’re literally rotting) after daily rain for over six weeks.
Here we’re climbing up the dry side from Lekoban Yaylası to Indaczvina Pass.
