Archives pour la catégorie Non classé

Week 16 continue – Welcome to Iran!

July 15th – 48kms, 800+, Astarqan
July 16th – 83kms, 1400+, Tabriz
July 17th – Tabriz
July 18th to 21st – Tehran

When entering Iran, we had many things in our mind. Shall we always use trousers, even to pedal? Are we going to be able to cycle without a long sleeve shirt? And Larissa, can she take off her voil from time to time, because it’s so hot during this sunny month of July? The answer for those questions was all the same – no.

Legs, head and arms covered for Larissa.

As you probably know, in Iran you can not use your credit card and withdraw money. So, it’s necessary to carry all the money for your stay in the country. But how much shall you carry? And is it safe to travel with that much money (specially alone with bicycles)?

After crossing the border, our first need was to change money. It has to be done through the black market, as you can have more than 3 times the official rate for iranian rials. And how to count this money, by the way? One dollar was equal to 122.000 rials. 10 dollars are equal to 1 million 220 thousand rials. People also say “toman”, when they “take off” the last zero (to make the numbers smaller, but toman are not officially recognized). So,1 dollar is equal to 122.000 rials or 12.200 tomans. It means as well that it can be quite confusing. Obviously for tourists, but for locals as well. Are we talking in rial? Or in toman? As a tourist, you usually never know when it is a rial or a toman, so it’s always good to make it really clear before entering in a taxi or buying something – meaning having it written. After few minutes, we changed our money and became millionaires : even quicker than the Balkany!

BTW, is Iran a safe country to travel? Just before we entered this new place, Trump was in a bellicose mood, threatening to bomb Iran. The situation was tense, and our relatives were rather worried about this. We read a lot, talked to other travellers, exchange with locals and decided that it should be ok. Funny thing is that the Iranian – overall speaking – were not at all aware about the situation. Now we can tell you, it was more than ok. Let’s say that Iran looked much safer for us than Strasbourg during the last Christmas market…

We changed our money. “Welcome to Iran!” Bought a sim card. “Welcome to Iran, Sir!”. Installed a VPN that allowed us to use the internet. Bought lots of water and some food. “Welcome to Iran!”. Covered ourselves (specially Larissa). And hit the road.

Private green plantations contrasting with desert dry sand.

Once the border was crossed, the landscapes changed immediately. A dry, dramatically mineral mountainous country was in front of us. We were happy, but also a little bit afraid of doing this. Is there enough water here? What about food? And if we have a problem, how can we communicate? Internet has many websites blocked here, how can we find hotels? Can we use internet at all? Many questions, maybe as much as the fear that the western media try to give us when talking about middle east.

We had our lunch break here, just enough shadow

Kind of aqueduc to water the fields below

A big uphill, around 11am, with 45°C was in front of us as soon as we left the border. Slowly, we started our climbing, feeling a little bit miserable. And then, a truck stopped. “Welcome to Iran!” and they offered us a lift.

We knew that, in Iran, people used to offer many things – from a cup of tea to a ride or hospitality. It is part of their culture. The thing is that to be polite, you’re supposed to decline 3 times. . If they insist after the 3rd time, it means the invitation is sincere. This « game » is called “taroof”, and it would be a companion during our journey. So we refused 4, 5 times and, as the lovely couple was still insisting, saying that it was for free, just willing to help us (and that after all it was already noon anyway), we accepted. They were lovely and we could communicate as they spoke turkish, as many people in this region.

In front of the pick-up truck with the couple who offered us a ride

After this lift, we were cycling in a desertic area, on the mountain, in very different landscapes. It was so beautiful that we wanted to wild camp. During the evening, once again, a car stopped, with a happy smiley driver inviting us to his place. “Welcome to Iran! Come to stay in my place.” The “taroof” game begun. Actually, we wanted to wild camp, so we refused several times. But the man, with his child in the car, kept on insisting. Finally after easily 5 good minutes of discussion, we accepted and ended up having a lovely dinner with him and his son in a house that they were building.

The place where we finally landed : typical dinner with cheese, bread, tomatoes and greens.

Early in the morning, a “bakery car” stopped and offered us some fresh, warm bred. “Welcome to Iran!” At this time of the day with an empty stomach, the Taroof game cannot work for us. We accepted directly. The guy seemed surprised as we didn’t decline, but well, offering fresh bred to cyclists on the morning is a one direction proposition.

We went back to the road and reached Tabriz. Many people open their car windows to yell at us a warm and loud “Welcome to Iran!”. The city was very nice, the perfect place to get used to this new country and have some rest. “Welcome to the Islamic Republic of Iran!”. People warm welcoming us everywhere, everywhen, everytime.

After 2 days, the decision was made: a bus will drive us to Tehran, as we started to be late for the Central Asia countries and as the temperature here was really warm.

Pierre’s Iranian style. People could not understand it. Legs are covered but we wtill cannot see them??

All the cyclists told us that it is kind of a suicide to cycle in Tehran, as you don’t really exist as a cyclist. For this reason, we arrived on a friday, the free day of this country, when all the shops are closed and there are less cars around. Getting out of the bus, a guy interpelled Larissa : “Cycling for you is forbidden! Stop this! You will go to jail!”. We just smiled and kept on cycling. We learned later it is considered like something obscene for women here. Welcome to Iran.

We spent the rest of the week hosted by Alireza, a very nice Warmshower host, preparing our itinerary for Central Asia and its visas.

With Alireza enjoying a traditional food restaurant

After lots of paperwork, our Turkmen visa application was ready. We went to the Turkmen embassy, crossed our fingers and decided to travel by bus to visit the country while waiting for the Turkmen answer. Usually, they refuse 50% of the application, without any reason (just as Shengen space deny serveral of the Iranian visas application, BTW).

So it is good to have a plan B and be prepared, like taking a plane to Uzbekistan, or going back to Azerbaijan and sail then to Uzbekistan. Both solutions were not very charming, as time consuming and well, rather expensive.

As often when entering inside an iranian house, the tongues speak, veil fall for the women, a different society than the outside one revealed. Few discussions later, we find out that all the hassle we get to be able to travel to Turkmenistan is reciproc for the iranian people willing to go to any country abroad : getting a visa for Shengen space is very difficult and somehow aleatory, need to prepare enough cash when traveling to one country as their bank card won’t work, studying abroad is almost impossible, and so one and so forth. Iranian people in general hate their government for these reasons among others. They have the feeling to live inside a jail without any way to sneak out. Welcome to Iran.

It is only our first week in Iran, and already very informative.

“Welcome to Iran »

Week 16 – Shikahogh State Reserve + Armenia recap

1 réponse

July 13th – 48 kms, 1700+, old bridge after Tsav
July 14th – 52 kms, Agarak

Crossing the Shikahogh State Reserve during our last 2 days in Armenia to reach the border with Iran was perhaps the most idyllic cycling we had so far. Breathtaking scenic routes, almost no traffic (actually almost no people at all), wild nature, lovely locals.

It was as well the moment where we could not find gas canister for our stove anymore, or then stupidly expensive. Time has come to cook with petrol. Great, from now, beside smeling sweat and solar cream, we will smell petrol as well.

Happy pigs, trying to get fresh on the mudd.

It is with this new fragrance that we achieved our longest climb so far: 1700m elevation in only 48 kms. Tired and happy, we reached an ancient bridge after Tatev, perfect spot to pitch the tent. A family was already here, enjoying a barbecue. No need to use our smelly stove, they invited us to join them and within 10 minutes, delicious dishes they prepared surrounded us. They had to left before twilight, offering us tons of food and one small bottle of their homemade vodka!

Meat, lavash bread, wine, vodka, cheese, vegetables… Nice surprise uphill. 🙂

With the lovely family who invited us for barbecue.

After a quick shower in the river, it was time as well for us to rest. The night was cold and wet: a cloud got stuck right in the sommit we were.

Last day in Armenia was going downhill the Shikahogh Reserve to then cycle along the border through pomegranate plantations until reaching the city where the border checkpoint is.

Admiring the big downhill in front of us…

Araxe river: the border between Iran and Armenia, full of pomegranate plantations.

While searching for a water fountain in a village, a lovely family invited us for coffee, cakes, fruits and well, wine and vodka. It was the weekend afterall. When we had enough, the family told us: “You know, you should drink one more, soon you will be in Iran, meaning no more alcohol!”. Wise guys.

Oh, Armenia… We were already missing it when we were still in this hostel at the border, enjoying a last diner with other locals inviting us at their table. From this place, we could see the border : the dramatic mountains on the Iranian side look like the Mordor from JRR Tolkien.

Armenia – Iran border. The mountains on the iranian side do not really look encouraging.

After all stories we heard about Iran, it is somehow afraid and intrigated that we reviewed our checklist a last time before sleeping:
– Printed e-Visa and other documents they might ask? Check
– Lots of water? Check
– Voil for Larissa? Check
– Long sleeve shirts for both? Check
– Enough money to travel one month without possibility to withdraw money and use our credit card? Check
– No more vodka bottle offered by locals in our paniers? Check
– No microphone, no drone, no whatsoever spy tools? Check

Good. Iran, here we go.

Recap

Distance travelled inside the country : 1009 kms
Flat tires: 0 (yeahhh)
Lavash bread: 27
Vodka shots: 1 (ha ha)
Nights with locals: 3 nights
Camping: 7 nights
Bivouac: 11 nights
Hotel/Guest House: 10 nights

What did we like?

Landscape. Beautiful mountains, nice valleys.
People we met, long term travelers among others.
Armenians were very kind, with honest and generous smiles. They also really appreciate that we tried to learn some words of their language, kind of rewarding 🙂 Perhaps because it is horribly difficult.
Fountains, barbecue, picnic tables were everywhere on the roads (and also on the cemeteries), easing our daily life.

What did we dislike?

Armenia is a trash. This is such a pity. The country is beautiful, but every single nature spot we had the chance to cycle through was spoiled with garbage.
As per the above, it seems that ecological consciousness almost doesn’t exist in Armenian’s mind. This is also valid for young generations. Thinking about it, this is not exactly their priority in regards to the different wars and economical tensions along the country.
Armenia was the poorest country we crossed so far, showing another daily reality. Unfortunately, we saw many kids working in shops, restaurants, fields. This will hopefully change soon.

What is growing?

From what we have seen: apricot (symbol of Armenia!), tons of cherries, watermelon, raspberry, redcurrant, pomegranate in the south, wheat. The northern part of the country was curiously rather empty, nothing is growing for some reasons (maybe it’s cold? dry? too high? we don’t know).

People seem to have less private gardens than in Georgia. We could figure it out because some products were very easy to find in small markets (like milk, seasonal fruits, cheese), while in Georgia it was almost impossible. Indeed, you usually don’t buy what you grow in your own land…

Curious facts we learned

Lavash bread, which is a kind of a huge crepe, reaching sometimes more than 1m long (you need a huge pot of Nutella!)

The economic situation is difficult for young people, facing a high unemployment rate. Many of them want to leave Armenia and go abroad for work.
Armenia was the first christian country in the world. Also, there are many ancient churches and wonderful monasteries to visit around the country.

For the first time, when Larissa said her first name, the answer was not: “Hang on, this is a Russian name!”. It was funny because people were saying: “Oh, that’s nice! You have an Armenian name!”. It is also the country where people start to not understand “Pierre” first name anymore. We still didn’t know at this time, but it will get worse. Sarting from Armenia, we’ll just say a very well french pronounced “Piotr”.
Armenians have a specific alphabet for their language. It means that every sound has it’s own letter. The alphabet « fits » perfectly with the spoken language. It is, somehow, the opposite of french, where the french word for « much » is writen « beaucoup », but you just pronounce « bocu ».

Week 15 – 2 Bears, 1 Rocket launcher and plenty of monasteries

3 réponses

July 6th – 57kms, 985+, Hell’s Gorge
July 7th – 32kms, 685+, Noravank monastery
July 8th – 19kms, 85+, rest at camping Crossway
July 9th – 60kms, 1365+, Spandaryan reservoir
July 10th – 63kms, 785+, Harsnadzor
July 11th – 25kms, 850+, somewhere after Tatev
July 12th – 39kms, Kapan

That night with the windstorm, the big bushfire and wild camping with scorpions was crazy. When the sun showed up, we woke up, happy to be alive, but still looking a little bit like zombies. Somehow we found energy to visit the Khor Virap monastery.

We cycled uphill, as usual in this country, to the Hell’s Gorge. We arrived late, around 21h, and meet Simon and Claudia again. Our friends found a great spot for us to sleep. Lucky us, it was a calm night, we just had the noise a very small river to fall asleep. But it was going to change the following day (and all the others that we slept with them).

Great spot, also good for clothes washing

Some rock climbing in between two cycling days

The sun showed up in the morning, and we enjoyed the day to make some rock climbing, as our friends had all the gear to do so. In the afternoon, as usual, we made two groups: the cyclists and the “vanists”. 😉 Once again, we met Simon and Claudia after cycling to the wonderful canyon of the Noravank monastery. We arrived there when the sunset lights illuminate the red rocks of the canyon. It was gorgeous! We decided to sleep in the monastery propriety, as there was a beautiful view on the valley.

Larissa asked the guardian if it was ok to camp at the monastery, and he said :
– Yes, no problems, you can sleep here. But do you know that there are bears here?
We are used to have locals giving us advice and trying to protect us. They usually don’t believe that we can cycle so far, that we are able to go on the mountains, as it’s very steep, cycle through dirty roads, etc. We explain that yes, we can. They also tell us to pay attention on the wolfes/snakes/scorpions/bears/dogs/humans… We do pay attention, but it’s usually very rare to see those animals around (except for the humans, but they are usually ok). With a smile, Larissa answers:
– Oh, don’t worry! I’m a very strong women, I’m not afraid of bears. Actually, the bears should be afraid of me.
The old man looked at her for some instants and shook his head, probably thinking something like “crazy tourists”. Now we can say that this proud answer will never be repeated again.

As Pierre was using the toilet cabin to clean himself, Larissa was on the door, in order to be sure that the guard doesn’t show up and sees Pierre naked. All of a sudden, she noticed two eyes reflecting her head light. It was weird, as the eyes were standing quite high, like around 1,70m tall. “It is a human”, she thought at first. But human eyes don’t reflect light… Someone with binoculars? Maybe the old guardian is a kind of a voyeur and he’s using some binoculars to see Pierre having his “shower”? This would be crazy, but it’s the only think that she could imagine at that point. She puts her lights stronger and could clearly see, around 50m far from her, two big brown bears. One of them was standing up and looking at her, the other one was trying to find some food on the ground. She almost had a heart attack and entered in the toilets with Pierre. “There are two big bears outside! The guardian was right!”. At first, Pierre thought that it was a joke. But Larissa was too afraid, it couldn’t be a prank. Pierre checked the scene and also saw the big bears. We don’t really knew what to do, especially being half naked… So we went on the toilets and made some noise and put the lights on, directing them to the bears. We also left a WC door open to “hide” inside, if the bears decide to attack us. After a few minutes (seconds? hours? we lost our sense of time…), the bears decided that we were weird enough or bothering them too much and they left.
We went back to Simon and Claudia, and explained what just happened. Once again, Larissa and Claudia wanted to run away from this cursed place. And the boys wanted to stay. Simon even went out, trying to see the bears. He succeeded, as he saw the bears during the night, hanging around the mountains. Lucky us: our friends have a van, so they could stock our food for the night. The bears shouldn’t be attracted by our tent without food. We slept in our tent, with one eye closed an the other one opened. Once again, we survived, but we learned that, at least sometimes, locals can be right.

Our not-bear-proofed bivouac at Noravank monastery

The following day, we woke up at dawn to see the sunrise. It was not as beautiful as the sunset, but many Mouflons showed up on the mountains. During the breakfest with Simon & Clauida, all of us decided to take a day off just to unwind. Eating in a restaurant, sleeping in a real campground with no whatsoever weird animal, having a decent night of rest.

As the daylight came back, we kept on going, against a strong head wind, with 20km of steep uphill, with some rain also. That night, we camped alone on the Spandaryan reservoir, joined by dozens of earwigs.

Reaching the pass… It’s getting dark and we’re really tired.

And in the morning, we had on of the most amazing views:

The following day, still a strong head wind, and a boring never ending straight road. We’re tired. Lucky us, some locals invite us for coffee (and vodka, that we declined, as it was 9am).

« Do you want some vodka with your armenian coffee? »

We also visited a megalithic archeological site, Zorats Carer. We (specially Pierre), really love those places, and we have alredy cycled in Carnac, France. For sure, Zorats Carer was less impressive, but still interesting.

During the evening, we joined Simon & Claudia with their van. Once again, they found a great spot with amazing views. We ate, had our “showers” and chatted a bit. Let’s say, we cycle as quick as a van can drive in Armenia 🙂

Once the tent was pitched, the van parked, and everything was ready to go to sleep, two cars showed up. It was 10pm. Then another car. In total 4 cars full of young Armenian willing to party. We’ll never have a quiet night together then, right???

The young armenians arrived, said hello and explained that they want to make some barbecue there. There was indeed a kind of old barbecue fire on the ground and some empty vodka bottles around, ths could had given us some hints that this place was used by locals as a party spot. “Ok, no problems”, we said. And went to sleep. All of us except Pierre, who wanted to talk to them. Actualy, to socialize and to make sure they won’t piss on our tent during the night. If the young guys were weird enough to us, what they should think about us? One couple travelling with a big ass van, one other travelling with bicycles, both of them going to sleep at 22:00! Weird enough!
So obviously, vodka welcome shot was quickly suggested – which should be accepted as part of the sociabilization process. In Armenia (and Georgia BTW), people love to make speeches before drinking. Also, you need to take a shot for friendship, one for the family, another for the wife and children. If you don’t have children, then one shot for fertility. And then one for God (of course, this one you can not miss). It can go on easily with whatever other reason you want to celebrate.
During the night, in between some vodka, a guy asked him what was that weird car, meaning our friend’s van. Pierre explained that it was a van revamped for overlanding, with a kitchen and an open roof-top to sleep inside.
– It’s not true, said the armenian guy.
– Hu, really?!
– This vehicle is not a van, it’s a rocket launcher!
Armenia has some tension with its neighbours. With Turkey, but especially with Azerbaijan, where the war still make victims every year. Very often, we saw buses (with more or less the same colour as the van) full of soldiers going east. Ok, we don’t have the same life and the same perspectives. But a rocket launcher?! Seriously!?

Clausi : the dangerous rocket launcher van

In the morning, we found out that the young guys left us some watermelon, bread and… vodka of course! Pierre told us this history and we all laughed about it. Actually, all except Claudia, who was slightly afraid that they could turn into a target for soldiers. Fortunately, we met our friends again in Uzbekistan, so we know that no one bombed them 😉

It was the time to farewell. Indeed, Simon & Claudia were going in the other direction and now they had no more excuses to be as slow as cyclists when traveling with their vans. For us, it was time to see the Tatev’s monastery.

When you decide to go to Tatev, you must know that you’ll have a river to cross. Easy, they have a bridge. But, and there’s a big but, this river dug a “hole” in the mountains. A deep one, actually. You’ll have to go 600m down (from 1500m to 900m), cross the river, and then go up again about 600m to reach the monastery. Ok, challenge accepted. The beginning was easy, just going down. When we reached the river, we visited the Devil’s bridge. Then, time for almost 2 hours of elevation, around midday…

Go down and then up again to cross the small river down on the valley

It was hot but, finally, not that bad, as it was not as steep as expected. Arriving there, we met Fabio, the Argentinian guy cycling for 5 years around the world. We visited the monastery and left the village to find a place to wild camp.

That’s it for this week. We hoped the following camping nights would be less wild.

Week 14 – Still waiting… in the camping

2 réponses

June 29th – 30km, 675+, Garni
June 30th – 6km, 500+, Goght
July 1st to 4th, Goght
July 5th – 62kms, 20+, Khor Virap

Leaving the city we got flushed by heavy rain – we “missed” this after a few days in an apartment. So we stayed in Garni village to dry, and take some rest, as we had some stomach ache. In Garni, a pagan site was rebuilt from its ruins. The place was very green, surrounded by mountains and rivers. After a week staying in a big city, it really felt good to walk around and see the nature again.

The following days, as soon as we still had to wait for our package, we decided to pitch our tent in a camping. And what a place! In the 3GS camping we had 2 great kitchens, a swimming pool, nature and mountains close by, clean toilets and very very nice people. By far the best camping we have ever seen. Well, ok, this was the first official camping of our journey, but still a very nice place. There, we met some traveling friends (Silke and Jan’s FB page) and spent 6 very nice days until our package finally arrived. It was very good to hang with some friends again, sharing good food & good discussions.

Close to the camping stands the beautiful Goght monastery, right on the side of the mountain. Lots of tourists were there. Weird to see all those buses full of people… But still, it is worth the climb there. Also, we saw a kind of a weird tradition: people use to hang some tissues or objects on the trees, in order to make a wish. It could be a nice tradition, but in our days, we saw specially plastic bags, baby wipes, toilet paper and dirty sockets. Not exactly the nicest thing to see hanging in the trees. Especially when the track to a panoramic view goes RIGHT in all these trash-hanging branches.

Make a wish and put some trash on the trees.

After the visit and while we came back to the camping, we met on the road a South Korean cyclist, on the road for 3 years already. This guy was friendly and we are always happy to meet other cyclists travellers to share our experiences. But… But something was slightly weird with his behavior. For instance, one of the first question he asked was “Where do you sleep tonight?”, which is rather unusual as a first talk (specially in the mornind and as we were going in opposite directions). We told him that we were staying in a campiste. Well, he never showed up to our camping.
We learned later in a Whatsapp groupe that this guy is actually stealing money from other travellers, and had already been in jail for having robbed around 15000 USD (from cyclists especially)! We were shocked. The cycling people is usually a nice community where everyone help and respect to each other, whatever the way, speed or reason of their travel. So another lesson learned: even though we meet mainly nice people on the road, we should always remain vigilant.

Some months later, as we’re talking to another cyclist, we told him that we were shoked about this history. He was worried and wanted to know the name of this guy. We told him that his name is John. Our friend was very disturbed and asked us to show him a picture. We did so. In this moment he said:
– I traveled with this guy, John, for one week in Georgia. After he left, I figured out that my money was missing. So far, I never knew who stoled it from me: was it one of those nice families that hosted me? Someone in the hostel? An uknown person while I was sleeping? I never talked about it with anyone, because I never knew who I could blame. Now I’m happy that, at least, I know who made it.
We said that we were very sorry about it. We asked him how much was robbed from him.
– Around 1000 dollars… Also, I just figured out that this money was missing when I entered Iran, where I can not use my credit card anymore. Fortunately, I was lucky that during my journey in Iran people were often inviting me and giving me food. Finally, all this money was not that necessary anymore, it came back to me in another way.

*99,99% of the people we meet are just great!*

During a quiet sunny morning, the miracle happened : FedEx informed us that our package finally arrived in Yerevan! AND that it should be ready for pick up during the afternoon, after custom clearance!! Alleluia!!!!
So we prepared everyting we needed to arrange the wheels, informed the most trustful bike shop we could find that we will arrive during the afternoon and jumped in a cab to Yerevan.

We were so happy to receive this stupid package. After sending back the stuff we didn’t need anymore (using the regular post office…), we headed to « My Bike » bicycle shop in Yerevan. The former mechanic of the Armenian’s racing bike team is working there – quite a straightforward guy. Golden teeth, getting chubby after retire from cycling, strong like a caucasian bear, accurate eyes. And well, we trusted him. We had the Rohloff wheel fixed, relaced and trued within 10 minutes, using the good old style earing with vodka adjustment technic (forget to find a mechanic with tensiometer for your wheel in Central Asia). The job was done, we were ready to hit finally the road again. Close to 6000kms later on horrible gravel roads among others, the wheel hasn’t moved!

When we finally left our camping, we met again a super kind German couple, Simon and Claudia, who are overlanding with their fully revamped T3 van. We were both going to the same place, Khor Virap. It is a monastery with a nice view on the Ararat mountain (where Noah is supposed to have landed on after the Great Flood).

Armenian cemetery. You usually find those images on the tombstones (that really look like ghosts from far). But you’ll also find picnic tables, barbecue and fountains close to the road, where people died on car accidents.

Simon and Claudia found a super nice camping spot on the top of a hill, with a wonderful view. We put up our tent and, after some moments, wind. More wind. A huge and powerful sand storm, actually. The wind was so strong, that we were afraid it could break our tent – the hoops were bending like crazy. In a rush, we took our tent off and jumped in Simon & Claudia’s van, protected from the sandstorm. While this storm was going on, we saw a big bush fire, getting bigger and bigger every second because of the wind. Claudia and Larissa were really not feeling very safe there, but it does not seem to bother Pierre and Simon. After some discussion around sand-crunchy pasta, it has been decided to change our camping spot, going down the hill where we could potentially find a place protected from the wind (and the fire?). We found a place, in the middle of the trash, having the nice company of some scorpions. Larissa woke up in the middle of the night because it was smelling smoke. It was a false alert, the fire was far. And Pierre was sleeping as a baby, anyway. Back to sleep, pay attention with the scorpions, please.

Week 13 – Waiting in Yerevan

1 réponse

June 21st – 62km, 380+, Sevan
June 22nd – 70km, Yerevan
June 23rd to 28th – waiting in Yerevan

First of all, thanks for all your comments and messages – yes we got them.
We’re very happy that you’re following our adventure and supporting us. Thanks, thanks.

Also yes, it has been some months without posting anything… Well, it is easy to explain: after Armenia we went to Iran, were most websites (Google, Booking, Facebook and… WordPress) are blocked. Also the people there rarely gave us some free time to work on this blog. Arrived in Central Asia, WiFi speed drastically dropped. In Turkmenistan, we barely had internet access in the desert and 5 days to cross the country was kind of a rush. In Uzbekistan, we could use internet with some freedom, but it was so slow we gave up to post anything. In Tajikistan, some parasites kept us busy and you can forget decent internet in the Pamir. In Kyrgyzstan, Fall arrived with consistent temperature & daylight drop and as we are now leaving as chicken, as soon as it was dark and cold, we were sleeping. In Kazakhstan, we were just cycling quickly to catch our plane.

That’s it for the spoilers. Now we left the beautiful mountains, the cold, Central Asia and autumn behind us. With an airplane, we joined Bangkok – Thailand, were we drink as much coconut water as our bodies can absorb (yes, our plan changed, we won’t have time to see much in SE Asia as initially planned). And guess what? We got a cold HERE because of the AC. Not at 4000m lost in the Pamir, not in the frozen steppes of Central Asia. Here, Bangkok, Thailand, tropical country. Well, we cannot complain…

So finally, we take the time to write a post here. It’s always a pleasure to read our notes, see the pictures and remember all the way that we have done. And even cooler to share all of those stories with you. The following posts we’ll be smaller than the others (as we have some delay), with pictures and quick information. Hope you’ll like it! Take care and big sweaty hugs to all of you:)

On our last day on the surroundings of the lake, we visited Sevan city and it’s famous monastery.

We camped close to the lake and could see the other side of the post card… The water of the lake is rising, and many constructions are getting flooded by the water. The day after, we met locals fishing just in front of their houses, so close to the water. We exchange some words with them and understood they were quite desperate, as they know their house will be flooded soon – just a matter of time – and the government won’t do anything to help them.

We went downhill from Sevan lake to Armenian’s capital, Yerevan. As we were going on lower altitude, the landscape changed quickly. Basically, the vegetation was going from green to yellow, showing a much dryer ambiant down there. Our daily storms were left behind. Also, the mosquitoes seem to be happier in Sevan lake than in the capital.

In Yerevan, once again, we were lucky to be hosted by a local, Tigran. Tigran hosted us for 2 days. We could discover the city, the armenian food, enjoy a folk concert and have some pleasant moments together. Thanks Tigran for your hospitality and kindness!

As our package from France with some spare parts was lost in the wonderful world of the international logistic, we decided to rent a small appartment to wait decently. Everyday, we called the Fedex customer service to check if our package arrived. Everyday, the answer was the same: not yet, please contact us again tomorrow. It was like this for 11 days.

We enjoyed this waiting period to visit the city, get some fat again after 3 months of camping food, maintain the bikes, wait again, plan the itinerary. After a while and as our money was flying, we were just tired of the city. So we took our bikes and went camping in the mountains, relatively close to the city so we could come back easily once this damn package will arrive. We needed to see something else.

Memorial to the victims of the Armenian’s genocide

More to come soon, still in Armenia!

Week 12 – First (steep) steps in Armenia

1 réponse

June 14th – 66km, 1000+, Haghpat
June 15th – Visiting Haghpat
June 16th – 66km, 1300+, Shahumyan
June 17th – 54km, 1180m+, Semynovka
June 18th – 69km, 250+, Tsapatagh
June 19th – 16km, 140+, Arengui
June 20th – 76km, 250+, Gavar

Armenia… As soon as the border was crossed, something changed. Indeed, a frontier means leaving a comfort zone. How to count this unknown money? What do people eat here? How to speak with locals? Oh, they also have another alphabet! The words that we learned in the precedent country are not understanded anymore. How do you say « thank you » in armenian, again? « Schnorrhakalutsjun »?! Ok, this language is going to take us some time to learn. Maybe it’s better to use only russian? No… Locals are so happy and proud when we try to say some words in their own language… Ok, let’s keep on trying! Thank you: « Xe-no-ra-ca-lu-tchun ».

Cycle, hurry, hurry… Indeed, we have a special meeting… We will meet Florian, our cyclist friend we first met in Turkey, then in Georgia, Batumi and now in Haghpat. He found us a very nice camping in the village, which is on the top of a canyon. Reaching this place was not easy, especially because of the 10 to 15% uphill during the last 5 kms. We hated Flo at this exact moment, but were smiling again when we saw his happy face waiting for us in the camping 🙂

In the camping
With Flo

Alone in this nice camping, we enjoyed the beautiful view of the canyon and discussed about our journeys and this new country. The landscapes are different, there is more water, the nature is greener again. But the population, the cars and houses looks sadly poorer than in Georgia…

We keep on cycling, among storms, nature and amazing views.

Next day started with a nice downhill to Dilijan. Dilijan is one of the most touristic villages in Armenia. This town has an interesting old city (way too touristic for us, though), plenty of nature and even a tourist office – actually the only one we saw in Armenia! A nice parc surrounds the city, and many hikes are available. We did none, preferring absorbing some fat by eating an ice cream, while waiting for the heat to cool down.

After this downhill to the city, we need to go up again. We have a nice uphill in the mountains. Our reward was waking up with a nice view on Sevan’s lake.

Located at 1900m, Sevan Lake is the 2nd biggest altitude lake in the world. Surrounded by mountains, the lake is actually quite beautiful.

But, and it’s a big « but » : the lake is full of trash. It is so sad. You go to the beach, you are welcomed with tons of plastic bags, bottles and other trash laying on the floor. Also, you can see many old Soviet’s industries being abandoned along the lake, giving a weird ambiance to the place. Indeed, the level of the lake was very low, mainly because of the irrigation. The gouvernement is trying to increase it’s level again, witch has as a result that many buildings are abadoned and under the water now…

Drinking water?
Lots of trash on the lake…

It is wet and tired that we landed in a fancy hotel in the middle of nowhere. Swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, internet good enough to publish an article for the blog… After spending almost all day in this hotel, we start cycling in late afternoon. The road keep following the lake. A quick stop in a market to buy food immediately changed in an invitation for an armenian coffee, than for wine, than for dinner, than for vodka and than for sleeping in Armen’s place.

Armen is the owner of this small Market. He is a very friendly man, generous and funny. After a while, two young brothers came to his market. They are very skinny and looked hungry… Armen gives them food, speaks to them, learn them that it’s not polite to eat too quickly, to say « thank you » and… how to drink wine. We are very surprised that 8 and 10 years old kids are alowed to drink wine. What shall we do in this kind of situation? When you see big differences between your culture and the other’s one? In France, since some years ago, it was also normal for kids to drink alcohol, they could even have it on school. By the way, wine was considered more as food than as alcohol. It would be easy to judge it, but we tried to understand and somehow accept those cultural differences. After 2 shots of wine, we stayed polite and said that maybe it was enough for the kids. We gave them some soda and they were very happy.

With Armen

In Armenia, the place that kids have in the society changed very clearly. It’s normal to see kids working on the fields, taking care of the animals, selling merchandise in shops, in restaurants, on the streets… We still didn’t know it at this moment, but the further we go east, the most common it becomes. As (almost) every Occidental coming from families that could provide us with food, education and love, we could see that we have a big privilege since the first moments of our lives… Sadness, pity and anger alone are not going to change this situation. Having conscience about our privilege and fighting for justice and equality may help.

Kid taking care of the sheeps…

The following days around the lake were easy cycling. The problem is that the weather is constantly changing, with heavy storms many times a day. « Storms » means more water and it also means… mosquitos! One evening, when we put our tent close to the beach, we had a big mosquitos invasion! It really looked like a horror movie when we opened the tent: the air became solid and black, with mosquitoes trying to enter in our tent, nose, eyes, mouth and ears. Mosquitos everywhere. We closed the tent and waited a long time until this situation calmed down and we’re able to go out.

In the morning, without the mosquitoes

These are our first mixed feelings about Armenia. More to come soon.

Week 11 – Tbilissi + Georgia recap

1 réponse

June 10th – 60 kms, 875+, Tbilissi
June 11th to 12th- visiting Tbilissi
June 13rd – 55 kms, 560+, Dashtapa

After a nice night in our spot in the middle of the flowers, it was time to go to Tbilissi, capital of Georgia. The road until the city was great, beautiful downhills, until coming close to downtown where it started to be very crowded. Also, it was much warmer down there, coming from the countryside the temperature difference was obvious. Once there, we had troubles to find a hotel, everything was closed or booked… Finally, Zaira’s Guest House had a place for us. As always, Georgians are very happy to share their language, food and, above all, their alcoholic beverages… Every morning, Zaira offered us fresh wine, chacha, vodka… At 9AM! It was somehow too early for our stomachs 🙂 We spend 3 days in this nice city, eating icecream, tasting georgian food and visiting this very pleasant place. We also met a french couple, Jeanne and Alex, travelling with motorcycles, also going east. Having some company to visit a city is always fun!

Views of the city

Architecture

On the streets

Botanic garden

Our last day in the city passes very quickly. After trying to fix Pierre’s wheel and making a huge logistic effort to send a package from France to Armenia, we left the city. While we cycled, we decided to look for a place to camp, using the app iOverlander. We ride in the direction of the place and, on our way, we met another cyclist. Suzane is coming from Germany and traveling alone. And is carying 3kg of cherries for some reasons! We had a nice evening all together in this spot full of turtles and snakes, eating cherries, sharing histories and diner.

Recap

Distance travelled inside the country
Flat tires – 0
Chacha – We stopped counting
Icecream – 3 per day when there was a Luka Polare store
Kachapuri – 20/person
Nights with locals – 3
Bivouac – 5
Hotel/Guest House – 7

What did we like?

Food ! Khachapuri, Khinkali, Lobiani, Georgian cheese, ice-cream among others, everything was really delicious.
Wine : Georgia is producing interesting wine. What is even more interesting is the home-made wine produced by the people in their cellar. It was especially enjoyable for us after having travelled 6 weeks in Turkey including 3 weeks of Ramadan, meaning close to zero alcohol.
Freedom : after 3 weeks of Ramadan in Turkey, it was good to eat & drink freely during the day, without having to hide ourselves. Also good to be dressed with short/t-shirt without the risk to shock locals.
Black sea : large streets for pedestrians and even a cycle path along the beach in Batumi. Big contrast with Turkey! Beautiful blue, clean and pleasant water to unwind.

What did we dislike?

Bad roads : if you think the roads are in bad shape in your country, come to Georgia. Even the government apologizes for the road conditions.
Crazy drivers : too many Schumacher in this country. And honking all day long.
Storms : almost every night we had a storm while we were in the mountains
Having to drink wine/chacha at 9:00 am. This happens a few times and it was quite difficult to escape such invitation without having one or two shots.

What is growing?

Beside the many fields we have seen, we had this impression that almost everyone in the countryside has a small garden, where one grows what they need. Corn, beans, wheat, melon, water melon, grapes, cows, goats, sheeps,…

Curious facts we learned

Georgia is one of these countries where the animals are breeded outside enclosed plot of land, and usually without a shepherd. So the cows/goats/sheeps are just walking freely everywhere : in the middle of the roads, in the bus stops, on the bridges aso. We are still asking ourselves how many times a farmer takes to group his herd at the end of day.
Georgia has a complex relationship with Russia. There’s a tension among both countries considering some territories. But, on the other hand, many russian tourists come to the country to enjoy the cities, the Black Sea and the mountains.
It seems that Georgia is a kind of a new underground tourist destination, still a bit unknown, and attracting more and more tourists because of its food, wine, beaches, mountains, culture. We were happy to visit it before the tourist explosion. Maybe you also shall do it. 🙂
There’s no right time to start drinking alchool in Georgia. It only depends on your thirst.

Week 10 – steep Georgia

3 réponses

June 3rd – 50 kms, 1100+, Khulo
June 4th – 22 kms, 1035+, Goderzi pass
June 5th – 74 kms, 455+, Rustavi
June 6th – 54 kms, 1000+, Nakalakeno
June 7th – 70 kms, 1060+, Saghamo Lake
June 8th – 59 kms, 485+, Tbeti
June 9th – 43 kms, 485+, Manglisi

Nothing better than a good night of sleep to rest and to put our ideas together. We figured out that we were kind of lucky being able to fix the wheel on a Sunday in the middle of nowhere. We managed to solve this problem in a few hours instead of days, which is a pretty good thing. Pierre’s wheel is now a fragiled, but we should be able to move further. We felt relaxed from the stressful evening. After our breakfast, we started our 8 hours climb – nice program. During the evening, we were invited to stay at a farmer family’s house. We went with them to milk their cows and to see how they prepare their own cheese. Beso and his lovely family hosted us, gave us delicious home made food, a good bed and a beautiful evening together. They offered us a cold shower close to the cows run, kind of smelly but refreshing.

For breakfast, they prepared us a plate named “Furious”! Which is typical from this region. It is made with hot cheese mixed with butter and few water. Quite greasy. You eat this with bread, a bit like a “fondue savoyarde”. It is like a fat morning bomb. It gave us all the ~~fat~~ energy we needed to take the road and continue our uphill. We were ready to do what was supposed to be one of the hardest pass of the trip – the well known Goderzi pass. For around 30 kms we’ll have to go uphill, through very, very steep and bad shape roads. Gravels, pot holes, pebbles, sand. Fortunately, it was easier than what we expected, as the road was dry, or probably thanks to the fatty breakfast. Arrived at the pass, we stayed at the Goderzi resort as a storm was coming, which has the price of a resort, without the comfort…

The good think about uphill is that you know that you’ll have a downhill for reward. After the Goderzi pass, we had around 20km downhill through very beautiful landscapes. The road was in a slightly better shape than the day before, but still shitty. And some rivers crossing added some fun.

We kept on cycling through wonderful roads and were struggling to find water. We came in a village to ask for it and, as there was another storm coming, we asked the locals if we could put our tent in their garden. Without hesitating, Olia showed us the big storm clouds that were coming and invited us to stay at her place. She prepared us a comfortable bed and some home-made pasta with their own cheese, butter, garlic. And wine. Her husband made his own wine and was very proud to share it with us. As we set at the table, the storm started. Lots of rain, thunders and hail were coming from the sky. We can say that we were very happy to be in their place, sharing a delicious meal and tasting this good wine. Probably too much wine actually, we went to sleep quite happy. It was a good evening! Good surprise: the day after, no headache – the wine was good.

After breakfast, once again, we had one of those bittersweet moments. We feel so happy to find such good people on the roads, but also very sad to say goodbye. We kept on moving through Georgian’s mountains. We made a 40km detour to visit Vardzia, the “Cappadocia of Georgia”. Indeed, there’s an ancient city carved in the tuff, dating from the XII century. This site was able to host around 5000 people, and had a network of tunnels, churches and monastery. For the night, at first we wanted to wild camp. Then, a guide met us and told us about his guest house, Gocha Kavelidze. We were able to negotiate a good price and had, once again, a delicious homemade dinner, wine, chacha, good company with some Russian and a good night of rest.

After this alcoholic introduction of the country, we had to change our plans as we had to organize the shipment of a package from France to Armenia with some spare parts for our bicycles, so as replacement items for our tent and stove. Many material issues and many hours spent over the phone with multiple customer services, lovely. So we first headed to Tbilissi, capital of Georgia. From this date, our travel took another rhythm, as we had to wait for this package. And obviously, the package got lost in the gloomy world of international logistics. We would like to thank again all our friends and family involved in this shipment: Robin, Viola, Charles, Alexandre, Geoffroy, Melissa and her parents, Marie and Jean-Paul.

In the meantime, we went through small roads, around mountain lakes – beautiful landscapes. We were lucky to find good people on our way. We were invited for coffee, chocolates, fishing and for sleeping by a lovely family. And some vodka. But well, it was only 9:00am so we found this extra breakfast quite harsh. And we still wanted to cycle more than 3km that day. So we declined, escaping the morning vodka trap. During the evening, once again, the storms were threatening us. As we had a short break to get bred, a truck stopped in front of us. It was Florian, a nice French guy living in Georgia, who invited us for a tea and to stay at his place. Even if we could still cycle 1h or 2h, we accepted his invitation – we had to wait for the lousy package anyway. Florian is revamping an old house with her wife, together with the help of a friend. They want to turn it into a guesthouse. When we met, they were at the beginning of their works. It was nice to give them a hand and to find french speaking people. We had a nice day and a nice evening all together.

Last day of the week started with the visit of the public market of Tsaka. Later on the road, we found somehow funny to have this impression of constantly going uphill… The downhills are so stiff that we don’t even have the time to enjoy or even notice them. Also, even if we ate a lot and did not cycle that many km per day, we felt very tired. Is this normal? The roads are very nice, but many, many uphills and always some storm threatening us. At the end, this weather probably contributed to tired us. Never mind, it is part of the travel.

Along the road, we met a beautiful Polish couple traveling for 9 years with their bicycles. 9 years!!! They traveled all around the world and are now in their way back to Poland. They took the time to discuss with us, shared their experiences and gave us some precious advices, especially about Iran. We felt so happy and inspired by them. We finished this day in a nice bivouac spot, among flowers and some wild animals, that were making sounds like wolves…We don’t know what it was, but we felt safe enough to have a good night of sleep.

Week 9 continued – Hello Georgia

2 réponses

May 30th to 31st – Batumi
June 1st – 44 kms, Pirveli Maisi
June 2nd -11 kms, Vaio – shitty day due to broken spoke

Crossing the border between Turkey and Georgia is quite a contrast. Pierre is not the only men wearing a short. Women are wearing skirts. Alcohol advertisement along the roads. Even people swimming in the Black Sea! Yes, we are in another country.

Black Sea in Georgia
Home made parasol
Black Sea
Arriving in Batumi

Few kilometers to absorb the contrast and we arrived in Batumi. Batumi is the second largest city of Georgia and is also known as “the Las Vegas of the Caucasus”. This is actually easily understandable : nonsense skyscrapers, casinos, many disco clubs, alcohol everywhere… It looks like many people from Russia, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia are coming here to “unwind”.

Batumi
Batumi
Batumi
Batumi
Batumi

We met our new cyclist friend Flo here and enjoyed his company to visit the city during few days. Beach, ice-creams, restaurants, working on our blog, relaxing. We were also lucky as we were in the city for the last Friday of the month and could therefore join Batumi’s Critical Mass – a nice way to meet locals and discover the city. Cyclists in Batumi and Georgia in general are very few, but the Critical Mass is getting bigger and bigger according to the organizers. Again, they were struggling with the politics and mayors to promote bicycling in the cities, developing bicycle lanes aso. A tough never ending discussion that we know pretty well in France (and almost everyhere?).

With Flo
Critical Mass in Batumi
Burgers

June 1st started and it was a good date to take up the road again. We quickly realized that drivers in this country are completely crazy. They by-pass everywhere, everywhen and anyhow. Honking for whatever reason. Also, if you believe the roads are in bad conditions in your country, come to Georgia! You will be surprised. Pot-holes, peddles, gravels, missing asphalt. Sometimes it is quite a disaster. It is common to see a car with 2 spare wheels on the roof. And often, the spare wheel is more worn out than the installed wheels. Also, the cars are rather old here. It looks cars from western Europe are all having a second/third/fourth life here. And also from Soviet Union. You can find cars with the steering wheel on the left, others having it on the right, which might be disconcerting as at first glance you just think that there is no driver.

So it is with such new conditions that we cycled towards the Goderdzi pass. A long uphill through a green valley following the Adjaris-Tskali river. As stiff that it is actually slightly difficult to find a place to camp. We asked a grandma if she knew a place where we could rest, and indicated us a nice spot along a stream. Perfect spot, with a small river, green grass, shadow and very quiet.

The following mornind we felt full of energy to attack the oncoming uphill. Unfortunately, after only 11 kms – BANG! – the sweet noise of something borking. It comes from Pierre’s bicycle. It’s a broken spoke. Pierre’s nightmare happened one more time. (Geek mecanic alert!) To give some background, Pierre’s rear wheel was completely re-laced with new spokes and trued before our departure, as the wheel was constantly breaking spokes after about 10000 kms. So we were confident with this new departure that spokes should not break on Pierre’s rear wheel. We were wrong. After a few 3000 kms, broken spoke again. But ok, we have spare spokes so it should not be a big deal to fix this one. Oh, wait a minute, the spoke is broken INSIDE the nipple. Do we have spare nipples? Obviously not. So we first tried to find a way to remove the broken part of the spoke from the nipple, in vain. And then, realizing : one of us has to go to Batumi to find a stupid nipple. It was easily 14:00 and we started to stress: it was a Sunday, and luckily one bicycle shop was open in Batumi until 16:00. So we should move quickly to be there before the closing – we were at 60 kms from the city. We packed our stuff quickly, Larissa found a place to wait far from the road with never stopping honking cars, and Pierre started to hitchhike. Took 2 minutes for a truck to pick him up. Pierre arrived at the bicycle shop with the wheel at 15:50, wheel was fixed 10 minutes later. Then Pierre took a bus back to Larissa’s place and it was easily 18:30. We both felt emotionally exhausted. So we decided to camp there, even though the place was for sure not the best one : weird people were hanging out inside their car, drinking beers and smoking cigarettes. At least they gave us some warm beer to raise our moral. Then we realized that we lost some tools during the rush before the hitchhike… And to end the day on a high note, when she came back from the shop to purchase some groceries, Larissa thought Pierre had been kidnapped or felt in the river as he disappeared. Pierre was actually looking for the lost tools, 200m away. It was the first tears of the trip. We ate quickly and went to sleep, this day definitely had to stop for both of us.

Pierre’s bicycle waiting for a fixed wheel

Week 9 – bye-bye Turkey + recap

1 réponse

May 28th – 56 kms, Rize
May 29th – 84 kms, Arhavi

The overall landscape and atmosphere completely changed after we passed the mountains separating western Anatolia to the eastern Black Sea cost. Here everything is much greener, the air is wetter and warmer. It looked we arrived in a tropical country. Sometimes we felt like if we were in Brazil.

Green! We called it « the Tea road ».

As we cycled towards Rize, we observed many tea trees being cultivated here and there, so as many trucks carrying tons of tea leaves. There are many tea factories along the road, many of them being quite famous in Turkey. The road itself simply smells tea.

Tea truck
Tea plantations
Tea factory

Actually, most of the tea produced in Turkey is Rize tea, a terroir from Rize Province on the eastern Black Sea coast, which has a mild climate with high precipitation and fertile soil. This tea is usually processed as black tea. In 2004, Turkey produced 205,500 tonnes of tea (6.4% of the world’s total tea production), which made it one of the largest tea markets in the world, with 120,000 tons being consumed in Turkey, and the rest being exported. Furthermore, in 2004, Turkey had the highest per capita tea consumption in the world, at 2.5 kg per person—followed by the United Kingdom (2.1 kg per person). Thanks, Wikipedia.

This is the reward you get when you go uphill to avoid a tunnel.

Arrived in Rize, we stayed at the famous Mustafa’s tea house. Mustafa is part of a cyclist group in Rize, and, as an owner of a tea house, is welcoming many cyclists here and offering free tea. Quite nice actually 😉 Here we met Flo, a cool and funny German guy cycling a loop from Berlin to Bishkek all alone. Flo was the first (and the only one!) « cycle traveller » that we meet in Turkey.Together with Mustafa and some of his customers, we shared tea, Ramazan food, and good discussions. It was a lovely evening.

Mustafa’s Tea House
With Flo

By the way, what is a Tea House, or kıraathane? It is a kind of coffee where it is served tea. Just tea. You will most likely find an old fridge in a dusty corner with sodas and other fancy drinks, but no one pays attention to this here. You come to a Tea House to drink tea, play some Okey and converse with your men friends. Yes, you will barely find any woman in a Tea House the only one was Larissa). Not to be mixed up with a Tea Garden! There is a Tea House in every town, city and village of Turkey. It is part of all the establishments that go into making up a community.

It was interesting to be in such a place during Ramadan. Right after the muezzin call around 20:00, clients started to come here. Drink a first tea. Then a second. Then, easily 10 or more cups during all the night. The last customers left at 2 am! We found kind of impressive to see all these guys playing okey and spending their evening drinking… only tea! We slept in the fisrt floor of this Tea House, hearing the sounds on the dies, the laughs and feeling a good smell of tea in the air.

Our « room » inside Mustafa’s Tea House

Another interesting aspect of Turkish culture was to observe their relation with the Sea itself. Just get the background in mind first : the Black Sea is a beautiful turquoise color Sea just inviting for a dive, rather clean and not that much boats in front of the coast. The weather is warm and wet, the heat is though, and… almost nobody is enjoying the sea! There was simply no one in the water. Not a single person. Actually, we haven’t seen a real beach at all. Instead of having beaches, coffees and other “beach like” infrastructures, here in the eastern Black Sea coast you have just a big ass highway right in front of the bay… This is something we could not get as European (and specially Brazilian) minds.

Our last day in Turkey was a long ride along this stupid highway following the coast. While we stopped after 85 kms along the road, realizing that the place we planned to stay was 30 kms further away as our supposed host just announced it, we could hear someone calling us. We were rather pissed due to the situation – one more time it seems evaluating the distance is not their forte here (it was initially announced 70 kms) – and this guy was insisting on calling us. First, where this guy just popped from? We are in the middle of a highway. Second, why is he calling us and insisting? We were actually not very symaptic with him as we were pissed and tired from a day full of cars, honks, and pollution. But he insisted on keep on saying « Hello! ». Lastly, while we were evaluating a potential place to camp nearby, the guy just decided to join to us. And he was so lovely. He explained to us that he has a house “here” and we could be his guests for the night. It took us a while to understand where his place actually was. We couldn’t see any house or whatever here, just a highway. Murat has actually a kind of garden house at the water edge. We crossed the highway, passed the security rail, walk 5 meters and here we were: a shack hidden by multiple fruit trees. Within 5 minutes to realize the place itself, Murat prepared us an “apero” and started to cook a dinner for us. It was completely spontaneous, funny and surprising. Murat quickly comforted us as we apologized to our first host, explaining we could not ride further 30 kms as it was nightfall, offered us a shower, food, a bed for the night and very good company.

With Murat
Murat’s beach
Murat’s shack
Murat’s shack. Highway is just behind

Murat has already hosted lots of cyclists and everyone writes a small message in this small house. We also did it. Turkish hospitality struck one more time! What a good way to spend our last night in this country and say bye-bye to Turkey 🙂

Recap

Distance travelled inside the country: 2063 kms
Flat tires: 2 (Pierre’s rear wheel, the 2 on the same location).
Cay: +100. Per person.
Pasta: 4 kgs
Chocolate bar: around 30
Nights with locals: 13
Bivouac: 15
Hotel/Guest Gouse: 16

What did we like?
– Turkish hospitality. Simply astonishing. France has good lessons to learn about this. So do Brazil, by the way.
– Diversity of the landscape: plains, snowy mountains, tropical or desert parts.
– Delicious food: local specialities, very good desserts, excellent tea, bread, vegetables, kebabs, coffee…
– The roads: they were usually in a good shape, and some alternative roads to avoid the Highways. It was very plasant to cycle here and the cars were almost always very respectful.

What did we dislike?
– Sometimes, highway is the only way to connect easily two cities together – not funny by bicycle.
– You won’t get invited to drink tea on the highway. Either on Ramazan.
– You can find here a chewing-gum without any taste. It looks like chewed chewing-gums re-arranged as new ones. We could not understand this.
– As you probably know, there’s a lack of freedom of expression in Turkey. Reporters are not allowed to criticise the gouvernement, the religion and Turkey. If you do so, you can go to jail. Also the democracy has been threatened. While we were there, the elections of Istambul were recounted and than cancelled, as the opposition party won. We only felt comfortable to post this article after having left the Turkish territory.
– Sometimes, Larissa felt imcofortable about men in Turkey. Some simply ignored her, others, let’s say, gave too much attention… After a few days in the contryside, she was not wearing shorts anymore and was somehow avoiding to talk to man. This feeling is shared by other cyclists, specially those who are traveling alone.

What is growing?
Almost everything. From the parts we have seen, among others: olive groves, apricots, tomatoes, apples, pears, figues, multiple peppers, onions, cucumbers, courgettes, eggplants, grapes, pomegranates, strawberries, mulberries, wheat, barley, melon, watermelon, beans, tea trees, goats, cows, tons of stray dogs. You have actually in this country many fields, many people (also young) farming and many shepherds. This appears to us as a wealth, it is not the case in other countries.

Curious facts we learned
– Cats can eat (and love!) cucumber.

Two cats addicted to cucumber.

– As we crossed many rural areas, we observed it is often the women having the back bent in the field, and the man driving the tractor, drinking tea or smoking.
– Turkish creativity to create delights. They even created a dessert made of chicken breast (!), sugar and milk. It is called “Tavuk göğsü” – a must taste.

Tavuk Göğsü

– Wikipedia is blocked in Turkey since 2017. On 29 April 2017, Turkish authorities blocked online access to all language editions of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia throughout Turkey. The restrictions were imposed by Turkish Law due to the English version’s article on state-sponsored terrorism, where Turkey was described as a sponsor country for ISIS and Al-Qaeda, which Turkish courts viewed as a public manipulation of mass media. This just shows how tough and stubborn can be the government here.
– Mustafa Kemal Atatürk represents to the Turkish people what George Washington represents for the Americans. And much more. Atatürk portrait can be found on every house, Tea House, coffee, institution, petrol station, farm you will cross. To make it short, Atatürk is the founder of the Republic of Turkey, and modernized the country by its politics on many aspects: made primary education free and compulsory, opened thousands of new schools, introduced the Latin-based Turkish alphabet, replaced the old Ottoman Turkish alphabet, Turkish women received equal civil and political rights during Atatürk’s presidency, earlier than most other countries in the world. If you want to learn more about Atatürk, enjoy the fact that Wikipedia is most likely not blocked in your country.

Atatürk’s portrait in the mountains

– In 2019, it seems that the population is highly divided between people supporting the current government (pretty close to a dictature) and people supporting the opposition. This can lead to some tenses.
– There is a reason why Turkish people are drinking so much tea: at the urging of Atatürk, Turkish people turned more to tea as it was easily sustainable by domestic sources. This allowed to make the country independent from coffee importation. Tea only became the beverage of choice in Turkey in the 20th century. It was initially encouraged as an alternative to coffee, which had become expensive and at times unavailable in the aftermath of World War I. Upon the loss of southeastern territories after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, coffee became an expensive import.