Sunday July 6, 2014, 65 miles (105 km) – Total so far: 3,613 miles (5,815 km)
Sunday July 6, 2014 500 train miles and 65 bicycle miles
On Friday, the 4th of July, we left our wonderful hosts Deniz and Banu in Ankara, Turkey. The stay was longer than we intended but our mission was accomplished as we now have all the required visas through the Stan countries. Thank you, Deniz and Banu for the great hospitality. The total costs of the visas from Istanbul and Ankara were $1100 plus add in about $170 for public and taxi transportation. This will lead us to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan where we will attempt to get a China visa.
Since it was early we stopped by our favorite restaurant on the way to the train station. After a delicious lunch and a few beers we were told by the manager that our meal was free because we are travelling the world by bicycle! What a treat! Thank you to Veruna Cezgin (Cafe del Mundo) for hosting our lunch. At the train station we had to jump through hoops to get our bikes aboard as it was a back and forth “yes, no, yes, no” as we talked with various people while all the time utilizing an English speaking person at the train station’s tourist office. I finally found the conductor right before the train arrived and he said in English, “No problem.” He and others assisted us with loading the bikes and panniers into the luggage car. The cost of our sleeping compartment was $75 USD and the extra bike fee was $30 USD. We have learned that when dealing with transportation officials to put on a big smile and never, ever lose your patience. So far this has been very successful.
The train left at 4:05 pm and arrived in Erzurum the following day at 1:30 pm. It covered much more than the 500 miles from Ankara as the train traveled well south to run a triangle pattern. So we were able to see more of Turkey than our eastern bike route would have allowed. Turkey has much splendor in the countryside and we enjoyed watching it from our cabin window. This was Jocelyn’s first overnighter on a train and she loved it. The sleeping was easy as we were rocked to sleep.
We quickly started climbing out of Erzurum then the rain began before we reached another mountain summit. The descent was epic and allowed us to put on the miles and we reached the mountain village of Yusufeli. We really wanted to camp but since it was raining very hard and we were wet and cold we opted for a hotel. After cleaning up we finally went to sleep after 11 pm. We are looking forward to the next several mountain climbing days as we ride to the city of Hopa on the Black Sea. From there Georgia awaits and we are on track for our date in Azerbaijan.
