Turkey 2023. The second motorcycle trip.

Original link: https://bikepost.ru/blog/98908/Turtsija-2023-Motoputeshestvie-vtoroe.html

The first motorcycle trip through Turkey (2014) left such indelible impressions that a second one was only a matter of time. It turned out to be a big matter. Oh well. We warmed up the engines, we went.

The start was typical — 2000 km of flat boring terrain, damn VGD and the first government office, coffee in Mtskheta. Now things start. With a serpentine via Didgori I begin to get at least some pleasure from what’s happening. As expected — that’s always how it is for me here. A melon at the monument of the swords — mandatory; it’s not the Arc of Friendship, so just passing by isn’t proper. Paravani, Akhalkalaki, Aktash — finally. This time Turkey meets us with sunshine on the shores of Çıldır — bliss.

Straight away we head to Ani. A very atmospheric place, whose history is better to know in advance. And generally the whole region. Great Armenia, Kurdistan, all that.

Further toward Ararat. Not quite reaching Tuzludja, there are amazing mountains made of yellow and red clay. I remembered them well from last time, and I was really upset that I didn’t photograph them. We could not refuse ourselves a bit of off-road, exiting near a military base.

Because of the proximity to borders and tensions in national matters, there are many military/jandarma/police traffic checkpoints. And in general, after that we never managed to leave the main road until Tatvan. In the north of Lake Van it was okay, and in the west. In Muş you can do whatever you want. But to the northeast, east and south of the lake — blockposts at all exits. We also could not approach Ararat.

On about the third document check, we decided not to tempt fate and gave up the planned off-road to Little Ararat, admiring it from afar instead.

If you go south from Doğubeyazıt, there is a huge shield volcano to the right (I love such things, reminded me of Jombolok), border with Iran on the left. Atmospheric, but in its own way.

Next is Lake Van. A unique soda lake, owed its appearance to the Nemrut volcano. Really very soda, with all the consequences. By the way, exactly because nothing flows out of it. Ba-dam-tsss.

Then we ride toward Süphan, a four-thousand-meter volcano, to climb which we planned for the next day. There it is, on that other shore.

I read that the jandarma might require a permit for trekking. We chose a smaller road hoping to avoid such encounters, and passed calmly onto the slope. From the south you could see from satellite a road up to almost 3,000 m. The volcano itself in many places is made up of dunes of volcanic sand. The road is the same. We could only get up to 2,700. After throwing the loaded bikes three times, we decided this was a suitable place for a base camp.

On the ascent, at somewhere around 3,600, I started feeling really crushed, so going farther toward the caldera (3,900) was a dubious venture. All right, this will do.

And in general, this whole sandy exoticism quickly got old, and we decided to go down to the lake and look for a shower to swim (didn’t find one).

On the outskirts of Tatvan lies that same Nemrut — a very famous and revered place among Turks. Later in various parts of Turkey, we were asked many times if we have been there, so entering was worth it at least to answer yes. There is a road into the crater.

Then by small dirt roads to Erzurum. That mix of golden wheat fields and black lava fields among mountains of all the rainbow’s colors…

I didn’t even understand how I flew to Tekman. From there to Erzurum goes a brand new serpentine with a beautiful high pass.

Then straight to Pazarözü, and from there east to intersect D915. That stretch from Pazarözü to D915 is definitely in my top — 50 km of deserted serpentine through the Çoruh valley with the most powerful views… I’d ride it forever. The main difficulty is not forgetting to glance at the road once in a while.

From there we ride north, to Rize. I don’t know how that happened at all. The rule is not hard — no highways, no resort zones. But it happened. From the pass near Kilikaya there is the steepest view on the Solaklı Çay valley.

What prevented putting a tent somewhere on the pass, huh? Chilling there with tea and a beautiful view. But no, we decided to go down.

It washed us well there. Later I learned this was the “road of death.” I just didn’t understand whose. Twenty years of riding on Poliana, so lack of visibility in a cloud is normal for me (at least while the GPS works). As such, dirt roads are nothing special; locals drive them in passenger cars. From Rize (which is not obligatory to visit) we go back into the mountains, to İspir, then to Artvin. A very beautiful part of the Pontic Mountains.

We plan which side we might enter them next time.

From somewhere around Yusufeli to Artvin, the road goes through endless tunnels. Not great. Better to find a detour. From Artvin to Ardahan there are two roads. As later turned out, both are great. This time we go by the southern one.

That’s it. Summer ended. Time to return into autumn, drink tea, and plan the next journey.