Readers may recall that we left our heroes at a fancy hotel above Aydınköy, the beginning of their week in Ardanuç… As soon as Ferda and I arrived at the pansiyon, Hacer, Emek, and Görkem had cold beers and wine for us. In the afternoon we enjoyed the view from our balcony like this:
In the morning it might look more like this:
Continue readingFrom Narman we rode the main highway to Oltu where I thought there was a little bit to see. We found the castle,
an old medrese,
Continue readingIf you look quickly at a road map, you’ll see no direct roads west from Kars to Narman. The reason is, of course, the mountains — Allahuekber Mountains and the eponymous national park. Check more carefully, however, and it’s possible to string together village roads and unpaved mountain tracks. Sounds like a nice bicycle touring route, doesn’t it?
As a warmup, we started with about a day and a half of flat riding on the Kars Ovası (Kars Plains). The elevation (about 1900m) means that the temperature was pleasant even though it was the beginning of August.
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.
