Story 17
And look humble...
From Trabzon we went directlt to the Sumela monastry, which had a beautiful setting, but was horribly renovated. When we wanted to leave the next day, we decided to cut off 7 kilometers, but we did not realize that it was a pass of 1000 meters high. Thank God we left early, because after this unexpected pass, was a pass of 2000 meters. Oops..
Just before arriving at the top, a German turk stopped and said we were crazy. Bus he had respect and said: see you at the top. And there he was, with his whole family and a little note saying: HERZLICH WILKOMMEN!!!
A beautiful hotel awaited us there with splendid views.
The next day we had the biggest landscape-change so far: from lush green to desert dry bare mountains. Amazing. ?n Gumushane the boss of the hotel turned out to be really nice, gvlng us the Dream Suite, beer, fruit, waterpipe and a free trip to a nice cave nearby.
After a day's rest we left for Bayburt. A place soon to forget. And then there was the biggest pass untill then: 2370m. And we felt every meter of it. It was an exhausting day, cycling to Erzurum in one time 130 km. But we were happy to be there. We went to the embassy in an Iranian outfit, including headscarf and a tip from Sophie's mom ( see title!)
Unfortunately we will have to wait 10 days for our visa, so we decided to cycle to the border (300 km in three days).
On the way we stopped to hide from a thunderstorm and we met some nice people showing us their brand new truck. Right in front of us we witnessed the ritual slaughtering of a goat, whose bloody head was spread all over the truck for good luck.
The next truck stop our picture was taken by a busload of Iranian mountainbikers!
Right now we are in Dogubayazit, from where we will go back by bus to Erzurum to pick up our visa. This place lies at the foot of Mt Ararat (5134 m) and the landscape is breathtaking!