Four days in Kapadokya

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Bryan Keith

I completed another month of Turkish lessons.  I passed the two-day five-part test and can now continue on to the B level classes!  Woo hoo.  Whether I’ll actually do that remains to be seen.  Instead of sticking around for the next course I took off just after my exam for a long weekend in Kapadokya (Cappadocia) with Ferda.

A few weeks ago I compared Vardzia in Georgia with Kapadokya.  That comparison was giving way too much kudos to Vardzia.  Vardzia is one underground city set in a pretty canyon.  Kapadokya covers a large area which includes over 200 underground cities (perhaps 10 of which are open to tourists), hundreds of churches carved out of the rocks, and countless valleys full of sculpted rock pinnacles the likes of which I’ve only seen elsewhere in Utah.

Being December we kept an eye on the Kapadokya weather the week before leaving Antalya.  In our four days in Kapadokya it went from short sleeve weather to snow.

DSCN1361 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Antalya again, Turkish again

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Bryan Keith

Back in Erzurum, back in Hopa, back in Akhaltsikhe, back in Borçka, back in Bayburt, back in Ankara, back in Antalya.  I feel like I’m doing circles.  I do intend to start bicycle touring again.  Soon.  Maybe.  For now I’m stuck again in Antalya, studying Turkish.  Again.

Antalya apparently has a magic magnetic attraction.  “Cennet” (heaven) is how the Turks describe it, but foreigners know it too.  Antalya is the world’s third most visited city counting by international tourist arrivals.  Whoa, was I surprised to learn that!  It’s certainly the smallest city on the top 10 list.

DSCN1262 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Trekking in Yenice, Karabük — more fall colors

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Bryan Keith

east_turkey by bryandkeith on flickr

There you have it.  Four months of touring on one compact map.  I’ll call this chapter of my tour The Pontic Alps Explorer.  From Erzurum to Bayburt (with detours).  Haha, I really did start this tour in Erzurum after taking a train from Ankara with Sage, and I really did end this tour in Bayburt from where I took a bus back to Ankara.  And at one point during this serpentine adventure I actually pedalled directly from Erzurum to Bayburt in about a day and a half!

So if you want to know how to turn 10 hours of cycling into four months of touring, study this map (above).

A break from the bike seemed like a good idea (even though really I’m quite good at taking breaks).  Sabiha and I spent five days trekking in the Yenice-Eskipazar, Karabük forest.  As with the Tbilisi-Borçka ride it was a fall color extravaganza.

For the first half of the trek we joined a group from İstanbul.  They had hired a local guide to lead us on an unmarked route north from Eğriova Eskipazar Gölet to İncebacaklar.  Certainly it would have been difficult to follow the route on our own but not impossible.  It tended to follow paths and old currently-impassable-by-vehicle roads.  With a 1:25000 scale map (supposedly available, but where?) and a compass I think I could have led this route with only a few more wrong turns than the guide made!

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It’s too late for the Çoruh

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Bryan Keith

A slow, rotten death that I had the opportunity to experience firsthand.  A mistake and disaster on the scale of Glen Canyon.  It’s over 200km from Muratlı to İspir and just about all of it is or will be flooded.  This is Turkey’s Çoruh River Project that I’ve mentioned previously in this space.  Even though it’s now largely an industrial zone, I was still overwhelmed by the grandeur, magnitude, and beauty of the long, steep, twisting Çoruh River Canyon.  One section (site of the 4th large dam counting from the bottom) goes on steep, dark, and narrow for many kms — reminiscent of Granite Gorge in the Grand Canyon.  I’m not sure if this project has its David Brower equivalent, but many people will die wishing it never happened.

There used to be a wild river in a wild canyon by bryandkeith on flickr
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Fall colors, the military again, and rain: a return to Borçka

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Bryan Keith

I left Tbilisi on election day.  The build-up had been somewhat exciting with marches assembling almost daily in the streets below Kris and Kristen’s 11th floor apartment.  It was a polarized campaign, and happily the Georgians pulled it off fairly well from what I’ve been able to understand.  The ruling party’s out.  The billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, head of the Georgian Dream coalition, will likely be the next prime minister.  I couldn’t get a photo of him so you’ll have to settle for one of his house:

Bidzina Ivanishvilis house by bryandkeith on flickr
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