We are now approaching the end of our time in Turkey. Sitting here waiting for my poorly knee to heal before we can cross the border into Iran I'm not sure I've fully processed my Turkey experiences but if I don't do it now it will never happen and the chances are my memories would be adulterated by my Iranian experiences to be.
We have been travelling through Turkey now for about 2 months. Through lush valley's teaming with crops, bazaars with people hawking everything from antiques to leeches, endless landscapes of warm stubbled wheat fields, over so many hills and mountains some stunningly beautiful others seemingly just punishment. We have travelled along the black sea coast*, through Cappadocia's unreal landscapes of volcanic dust and caves, along empty roads through tiny villages, as well as crazed four lane carriageways into İstanbul** and by ferry across Lake Van. I have fallen in love with beautiful timbered Ottoman houses and the mosques in old towns. We have experienced Ramadan in a Muslim country as well as the sweet munching fest that follows, drank more cups of çay than I care to remember and eaten more baklava than my teeth care to remember.
*as a cyclist I would advise others against this, it is punishingly, unsatisfyingly hilly. We heard of one cyclist who became so disheartened he put his bike on the bus others just agreed it was a kak experience, Turkey has so much more to offer.
** I would advise people not to do this either, its terrifying.
Turkey has left me with mixed feelings from absolutely loving it to good grief what are they doing??? As an environmentalist I will never get over the way the Turks are literally trashing their land. From the moment we entered we saw rivers so polluted they ran brown with sewage and waste. There are huge monocultures of cereals stretching mile after mile over every possible piece of land which could be farmed. These and anything not planted are grazed relentlessly by goats, sheep and cows (including the islands which divide the lanes on the dual carriage ways). I will not deny that these are beautiful lands but with everything turned over to agriculture where does the wildlife go? I didn't see too much evidence (the roadkill was definitely of the domesticated animal variety with the occasional squashed frog or hedgehog).
Litter is discarded everywhere, on the approaches to almost every village and town people dump their rubbish. There are no bins in most towns so we ended up carrying our camp waste for miles to the nearest bin (probably to have someone dump it on the outskirts of the town for us). This is so disheartening considering how easily it could be prevented. Recycling? In İstanbul people do come and collect your cans and bottles as they can make money from it but that's it as far as I can see.
But there again I loved it, loved it, loved it. Despite the seemingly endless stream of plastic bottles, cans and disposable nappies at the sides of the roads I have also found Turkey breathtakingly beautiful. The landscape is warm, textured, rich in colours. So expansive with magnificent mountains of rock of the most unbelievable shades, layered over millennia. The landscapes through which we have ridden are so picturesque and vast at times I wanted to reach out and stroke the sumptuous curves of rolling hills or just roll around in it all (in reality this would have been quite a prickly experience).
The mountain area between Cappadocia and Malatya, ignored in the guidebooks, made for truly stunning cycling. It was certainly hilly and remote but the beauty of the scenery, the generally good and quiet road conditions as well as lovely (if bemused) people living here made it one of my favourite parts of the trip. Cappadocia as I have mentioned before is so unreal and beautiful. Combined with staying on a fantastic campsite (Kaya Camping if you ever fancy going) with lots of lovely people made for a great break with ample scrambling through caves (though I did endure the worst hangover of the trip here, I'm blaming the Germans).
People have been immensely hospitable here in a way which is virtually (and sadly) unheard of in Britain. Throughout the harvesting season people have been coming from the fields giving us more food at times than we could eat. At times when we have been about to pay for things in markets the vendor has refused our money. We have been invited to drink so much tea I would be needing rehabilitation if we had accepted and we have been invited to peoples homes to share food or simply shelter for the night during storms and just in passing. The generousity and offers of assistance have been amazing though at times as a woman I have been sidelined in favour of James e.g. asking men for directions and having them describe the route to James...Hey I'm the one with the map man! I might not know how to use it but he doesn't even have one!
As we have moved into the Kurdish area of Turkey we have taken to asking people to camp in their gardens for safety reasons (to explain the Turkish army have been bombing the PKK in Iraq, the PKK are retaliating by shooting the army in Turkey, the army told us not to rough camp or their patrols might shoot us! Just stop shooting each other man! Its also generally not too safe for women so knocking on peoples doors and camping outside family homes seemed like the best idea). Anyway every single one of these families has offered to take us in for the night, feeding us and generally caring for us the way you would a guest. At times we have offered money for food (refused) and so I have taken to being official family portrait photographer as a way of thanking them and posting them to families who have access to mail (not all do). The Kurds have been hugely hospitable and apart from some of the children who run down the road shouting 'money, money' at us and trying to pinch stuff off our bikes as a dangerous game of tag (this is why I am now laid up in Doğubeyazit with a bad knee) it has been a thoroughly rewarding ride.
In conclusion Turkey has been a land of highs, lows and vivid contradictions but overwhelmingly I will leave it with a hearty GÜZEL!*
x
*which roughly translates as just about every fantasticly, superb positive word you can think of.
The big green bike ride
Not if I do it by bike! Some time ago I was having a debate about travelling the world, I wanted to go but wasn't prepared to fly for environmental reasons and so the big green bike ride was born. I've upgraded my bike, ditched my belongings, learned cycle maintenance, I even met a crazy man who wanted to go with me and so we're off. What follows is my diary of the highs and lows and sincerely hoping that punctures are my only trouble... I know I can fix those.
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