Mountain stage in Eastern Turkey and into Iran 19 Oct
Rose about 7:30 to the usual sort of breakfast, and visitations from one or two locals. We achieved the sensational feat of being on the road soon after eight o'clock. A few kms after Trabzon we left the Black Sea and headed off up a narrow and very winding valley. Progress was slow. The valley was extremely beautiful and very fertile. The leaves on the trees ranged from green through all shades of yellow and brown to a magnificent rich rusty red, which contrasted with the dark greens of the conifers.
For a while we followed the valley floor through several villages. The first of these contained a convoy of three carloads of Pakistanis and a beheaded calf being butchered. Soon, however, we started climbing, the first pass was 2510m, and that had to be reached from sea level! A lot of the way we were in company with an Iranian Hillman Hunter with four up. The road surface was fair to indifferent tarmac, with various bits which had disappeared. At the top there was a small settlement including two butchers. It was very cold despite the nigh on perfect weather. The sun shone, with a few billowy white clouds, some on top of the mountains, adding a backcloth to the fantastic scenery. The villages are amazing, often being a small group of mud buildings almost indistinguishable from the surrounding earth and mud, some disguised further by having haystacks on the roof - usually next to the chimney!
The scenery changed somewhat on the other side of the pass. More arid, less fertile, but after a twisty and very impressive descent into Torul we again drove along the valley floor for some distance. Here it was slightly less twisty (the first 100km took two and a half hours). Then we went up again to a minor pass of 1900m and down onto much more arid land, with erosion channels in all the hillsides where the flood water descends in the rains. Suddenly we stopped at a spring and had lunch. For a change we ate stationary and had a cup of coffee.
Across the road, sitting in the doorway of his house, was a Turk listening to the radio while his wife worked down by the river. Soon after 1pm we were on our way again and now it was a fairly straight swinging road where we could maintain a decent speed. As usual there were grand bits of dry scenery with colourful (red) rock and dust. The soil still looked fairly fertile, where there was any that was tilled. And the road was mainly well surfaced. But abruptly, after a small village, the tarmac vanished, and we were on "stabilised gravel". In fact, it was fairly smooth but not so stable. There was a good deal of rear end hanging out and it called for a bit of driving technique. This pass (2390m) was steep with second gear a lot of the way up and almost into bottom here and there. Then on the way down we had to exercise care.
Here we saw Mr Shah for the third time today - he passed while we were lunching. When we regained tarmac, we were flagged down by two German VW vans, but it was the Turkish chief guide for Eastern Anatolia who wanted a lift back to Erzurum after helping one of the people who had apparently broken an axle. The road to Erzurum (50km) was very fast. Nevertheless, Mr Shah caught up on the Erzurum bypass, stopped and we found he wanted to change money, but it was Sunday. Happily, our new-found friend, Yuvas, managed to change £2 for him so he was happy. Then we both bought petrol, and we turned on the heater.
We drove for several kilometres on excellent road, then suddenly it deteriorated to a heap of boulders, well small boulders and dust! Happily, the boulders became gravel, and, despite the corrugations, we were still able to maintain 70km/hr - it was a good suspension tester. Shortly after 5pm (when it's getting on for being dark) we reach Horasan, where we decide to stop before the next pass. It shouldn't be too much of a climb since Erzurum is already over 6000ft (1800m). First we find a restaurant - the "Trabzon Lokantasi" where we have a good meal for 9TL.
While paying the bill Brian discovers an English-speaking Turk (food technologist) who is doing his national service here, and a French-speaking Turk also doing national service. We sit and natter and drink tea and then Yuvas (yes, another) takes us down to the local Mobil service station and introduces us to an English couple, Ian and Chris, who are hitch-hiking to Singapore (hopefully). Pity we can't give them a lift as they seem lovely. Sit in garage "office" for some time talking, the garage owner speaks a little French, then we depart to our limo, to sleep on the forecourt, at about nine o'clock. Sinfully late! After we'd gone to bed Chris came and borrowed the carving knife because there were some "funny" people about in a dolmuş.
Next morning we were roused by knock on window from Chris at about 7:30, they wanted some tea. Up and breakfast. Dried figs are delicious. Then quick wash and check car. That tyre again! But closer inspection showed that this time it was "permitted" since there was a large nail in it. Repaired and replaced. Then the exhaust needed (more) welding. Quite a problem finding a place with gas welding facilities. Eventually a good job was done for 15TL, and off we go finally about 10am. Chris and Ian must have got a lift. The road continued terrible, and soon we started over the pass, a mere 2475m (over 8000ft). It was difficult to tell where the summit was, but we got over about 11 o'clock.
On the way up we saw Mr Shah's car and the Cortina and Vauxhall VX4/90 Pakistanis. It seemed that Mr Shah had left the road just over a minute bridge about 6:30 and bent his right front wheel or drive shaft rather badly. The VW Germans were there straightening the bodywork with a hammer, but it didn't look too good. Mr Shah himself had gone off for a spare whatever it was he bent, and we didn't see him at all. There were so many people around, including the inevitable goldfish-like locals, that we pressed on.
As promised on the maps, the road improved at Eleskirt when we got onto a plain, and continued to be good to Agri. Here we saw the "Australians" in the Ford Thames campervan, parked and eating. They turned out indeed to be Australians, and although whenever we'd passed them before the birds had been "in command", it was in fact Ian who was the leader of the gang. After some chat it was decided that we should drive a little way out of town and have some tea (they only have a gas stove and they're conserving gas).
As we drove out looking for somewhere to pull off the road we pass Ian and Chris. The Aussies had given them a lift to Agri so we piled them in for tea as well and soon pulled off and had a long discussion, lunch and tea and coffee. The road continued to be quite reasonable to the border. At the tea halt, as Chris and Ian walked away, we had a little conference and decided we could quite easily fit one in each vehicle so called them back.
