(THIS BLOG WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN SENT ON THE LAST DAY IN TURKEY BUT INTERNET ACCESS WAS NOT POSSIBLE. I HAVE NOW LEFT TURKEY, CROSSED IRAN AND AM IN PAKISTAN. INTERNET ACCESS IS STILL A PROBLEM BUT GETTING BETTER SO BLOGS SHOULD BE APPEARING QUICKLY FROM NOW ON, I HOPE. IT IS THE 1 JUNE TODAY AND OFF-LINE BLOGGS ARE READY TO BE POSTED ON-LINE WHEN I GET THE CHANCE).
As we left A.S.I. I gave the girls one rose each as I had been given five roses.
On a warm sunny day we left A.S.I. and headed on highways D360/E199 and D965 for Mt. Nemrut, the first stop on the way to Lake Van. We were now in the north east part of Turkey and getting close to the Iranian border. Today was the first day I saw a signpost which indicated the way to Iran.
Getting more noticeable as we travelled was the type of road construction, in this case miles and miles of block weave road for main roads and in the smaller towns and villages. Perhaps it is cheaper to build them this way as there are plenty of quarries, cement works and gravel pits around that blocks are easier to find than road making machines. Labour may be cheaper this way too! There must be billions of pounds being spent on road works throughout the country as old roads are being ripped up and replaced with dual carriageways by the hundreds of kilometres. A lot of the problem here with the roads is the washing away of large sections during the winter due to the high mountains and quantities of springs (water) that can be seen everywhere. The authorities do not bother to repair sections in some places but build a completely new road on the other side of the valley and in some cases bypass the section completely.
Parking anywhere is chaotic as the Turks park in any space, free or not. And if they block the road it does not seem to matter. They make good use of the horns here as well.
There is a good business in honey in the area as huge blocks of hives can be seen about the place. Perhaps it is un-usual to see a squashed hedgehog here but for some reason I did not expect to see one. We stopped once for a tortoise to be removed from the road! The tin roofs were not to be seen today, they were of tiles, and in some of the villages, dirt. Hills about the road during the days travel had snow on the peaks with snow over 2 metres deep in drifts on the side of the road where the sun could not get at them.
We stopped for over two hours for food to be prepared for the evening meal when it was very hot, but a dry heat. We were to be at Mt. Nemrut late in the day and ready to walk up to the peak to see the sun set over the ruins. I actually bent two of the 8 inch nails trying to knock them into the ground when putting up my tent.
Sunset at the ruins was to be 1940 hours so off some of us climbed to the top at 2822 metres (8400 feet). The top of the peak was man made by King Antiochus in 63 to 38 BC as a monument to himself. He thought he was as good as the god Zeus! It is the largest man made mound in the world being 6 metres high and 7.5 acres round. It is possible the mound is actually the tomb of Antiochus but no-one knows for certain. The eastern side has six decapitated seated statues in-front of which are detached heads. The heads depicted, left to right, Antiochus 1, Fortuna (Symbol of the Commagne Kingdom), Zeus, Appollo and Hercules. It was not a brilliant sunset but photographs were taken with the promise to go back at sunrise in the morning.
During the night the weather did not get better and I did not go to the top again. Some of the others did and they did say that it was not worth the effort. Some tourists started to arrive at 0300 hours (which woke me up) for a 0530 hours sunrise and they were bitterly disappointed. Some were quite elderly and we were told that it was a two day trip in each direction to see the ruins.
We left the mountain at 0700 hours heading for Dogubeyazit and on the way had to cross Lake Van on a small ferry.
During the day we followed the side of the lake and where ever there was a stream or river there was piles and piles of plastic bags and bottles caught in the trees on the side showing the height of the flood water at various times of the year. Truck loads of plastic were dumped everywhere and reading the guide books it seems that the government is not able to do anything about this.
On arrival we camped on the side of Lake Van. The lake is 4,000 square kilometres, 200 metres in depth in parts and is at a height of 1750 metres above sea level. The odd thing about the lake is that there is no known outlet and the level is only controlled by evaporation thus making the water very hard.
I was on the cook group this evening and did not have time to put up my tentbefore the end of the meal and the washing up.It was dark when everyth I decided to sleep t the side of the fire.ing was finished but as it was a warm and dry night I decided to sleep at the side of the fire. About midnight I was woken by rain on my face and was wet trying to put up my tent between the showers. In the end I crawled under the truck and wrapped myself in the plastic ground sheet. The storm continued for ages and I ended up soaking and cold. It rained through breakfast as well and made everyone miserable.
Leaving Lake Van at 0640 hours I was able to hang up the wet sleeping things at the back (inside) of the truck. The weather was cold, wet and horrible even when we drove through Ercis, where an earthquake had done tremendous damage to the town one year ago.The roads were terrible, houses were still in ruins and there were dismountable homes still in use. Off the road there were iles of lava from the eruption. Many of the road signs, even the small ones, were operated solar panels which looked to be very effective and a simple answer to having power on roads in the middle of no-where.
The so called camping area (Murat Camping) was either a rubbish tip or a construction site so Derek and myself decided to book a room at £3 each for the night. The room is aright, the shower is freezing and the toilet does not stink too much. For £3 I cannot expect too much and that included paying for the four beds that were in the room as the owner would not let us pay for just two beds. Our illustrious leader made sure that she and her item took the first of four rooms that were available. Because of the state of the so called public toilets we told the others that they could use the one in our room if they wished, which some did. At 1820 metres above sea level (5400 feet) and looking out over the town now where the clouds are overhead it looks as if it will be cold and wet tonight.
Tomorrow morning we will leave the ‘camping site’ and go to the border with Iran.
I have decided not to post any blogs about Iran until we leave the country in-case anything I write may offend someone here.
I wrote the above on the understanding that there would be access to wifi at our last stop in Turkey as told by our illustrious leader. This blog could have then been sent to let people know I would be out of contact for two weeks or so, but it was not to be. I did try and send emails from the local town but the internet cafes there had machines that did not work, machines with a Turkish keyboard which are horrible things to use as even when a machine was available it cut out every so often or was so slow that I only managed one email in fifteen minutes, and that was only three lines! It would have been impossible to send blogs from here.
As we left A.S.I. I gave the girls one rose each as I had been given five roses.
On a warm sunny day we left A.S.I. and headed on highways D360/E199 and D965 for Mt. Nemrut, the first stop on the way to Lake Van. We were now in the north east part of Turkey and getting close to the Iranian border. Today was the first day I saw a signpost which indicated the way to Iran.
Getting more noticeable as we travelled was the type of road construction, in this case miles and miles of block weave road for main roads and in the smaller towns and villages. Perhaps it is cheaper to build them this way as there are plenty of quarries, cement works and gravel pits around that blocks are easier to find than road making machines. Labour may be cheaper this way too! There must be billions of pounds being spent on road works throughout the country as old roads are being ripped up and replaced with dual carriageways by the hundreds of kilometres. A lot of the problem here with the roads is the washing away of large sections during the winter due to the high mountains and quantities of springs (water) that can be seen everywhere. The authorities do not bother to repair sections in some places but build a completely new road on the other side of the valley and in some cases bypass the section completely.
Parking anywhere is chaotic as the Turks park in any space, free or not. And if they block the road it does not seem to matter. They make good use of the horns here as well.
There is a good business in honey in the area as huge blocks of hives can be seen about the place. Perhaps it is un-usual to see a squashed hedgehog here but for some reason I did not expect to see one. We stopped once for a tortoise to be removed from the road! The tin roofs were not to be seen today, they were of tiles, and in some of the villages, dirt. Hills about the road during the days travel had snow on the peaks with snow over 2 metres deep in drifts on the side of the road where the sun could not get at them.
We stopped for over two hours for food to be prepared for the evening meal when it was very hot, but a dry heat. We were to be at Mt. Nemrut late in the day and ready to walk up to the peak to see the sun set over the ruins. I actually bent two of the 8 inch nails trying to knock them into the ground when putting up my tent.
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| View from the top of the mountain |
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| View from the top of the mountain |
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| A Local House |
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| A Local House
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| Snow on the mountain |
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| My rocky tent held down with stones as I could not get the pegs (nails) into the ground |
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| A general view of the site |
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| Views of the heads |
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During the night the weather did not get better and I did not go to the top again. Some of the others did and they did say that it was not worth the effort. Some tourists started to arrive at 0300 hours (which woke me up) for a 0530 hours sunrise and they were bitterly disappointed. Some were quite elderly and we were told that it was a two day trip in each direction to see the ruins.
We left the mountain at 0700 hours heading for Dogubeyazit and on the way had to cross Lake Van on a small ferry.
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| The local ferry |
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| Fishing to feed the cat (the fish was too small to take home) |
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| A ferry passenger |
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| A nomad encampment |
On arrival we camped on the side of Lake Van. The lake is 4,000 square kilometres, 200 metres in depth in parts and is at a height of 1750 metres above sea level. The odd thing about the lake is that there is no known outlet and the level is only controlled by evaporation thus making the water very hard.
I was on the cook group this evening and did not have time to put up my tentbefore the end of the meal and the washing up.It was dark when everyth I decided to sleep t the side of the fire.ing was finished but as it was a warm and dry night I decided to sleep at the side of the fire. About midnight I was woken by rain on my face and was wet trying to put up my tent between the showers. In the end I crawled under the truck and wrapped myself in the plastic ground sheet. The storm continued for ages and I ended up soaking and cold. It rained through breakfast as well and made everyone miserable.
Leaving Lake Van at 0640 hours I was able to hang up the wet sleeping things at the back (inside) of the truck. The weather was cold, wet and horrible even when we drove through Ercis, where an earthquake had done tremendous damage to the town one year ago.The roads were terrible, houses were still in ruins and there were dismountable homes still in use. Off the road there were iles of lava from the eruption. Many of the road signs, even the small ones, were operated solar panels which looked to be very effective and a simple answer to having power on roads in the middle of no-where.
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| Cows visiting our camp, and the donkey below |
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| Views from the campsite |
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We were stopped once at a military checkpoint and after our passports were checked we were allowed to enter Dogubeyazit. The whole area is a military zone with plenty of soldiers to be seen in the street and tanks with armoured vehicles in places about the town. From here is is supposed to be possible to see Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark is believed to be. Not today though, not with with the weather here.
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The so called camping area (Murat Camping) was either a rubbish tip or a construction site so Derek and myself decided to book a room at £3 each for the night. The room is aright, the shower is freezing and the toilet does not stink too much. For £3 I cannot expect too much and that included paying for the four beds that were in the room as the owner would not let us pay for just two beds. Our illustrious leader made sure that she and her item took the first of four rooms that were available. Because of the state of the so called public toilets we told the others that they could use the one in our room if they wished, which some did. At 1820 metres above sea level (5400 feet) and looking out over the town now where the clouds are overhead it looks as if it will be cold and wet tonight.
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| Castle on the hill |
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| Campsite! Rubbish tip more likely! |
Tomorrow morning we will leave the ‘camping site’ and go to the border with Iran.
I have decided not to post any blogs about Iran until we leave the country in-case anything I write may offend someone here.
I wrote the above on the understanding that there would be access to wifi at our last stop in Turkey as told by our illustrious leader. This blog could have then been sent to let people know I would be out of contact for two weeks or so, but it was not to be. I did try and send emails from the local town but the internet cafes there had machines that did not work, machines with a Turkish keyboard which are horrible things to use as even when a machine was available it cut out every so often or was so slow that I only managed one email in fifteen minutes, and that was only three lines! It would have been impossible to send blogs from here.
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