14 August, Eleşkirt to Horasan, 65km
Öğretmenevi 50TL
A beautiful ride on a hot day through
beautiful scenery. We gained 400m during the first 30km and shed 650m between
the top of the Saç Geçidi pass and Horasan, a town of 40,600. Our road shared a
valley with a river, twisting and turning, sometimes between dramatic cliffs,
sometimes through hills on which the grasses were so short, the hillsides
looked manicured, sometimes past bone-dry hills painted cream or orange. We
were the only guests at the Eleşkirt
Öğretmenevi last night. Knowing from previous experiences that we would be
locked in, we told the manager we needed to get on the road by 07:00. Seven
came and went, with no sign of the keeper of the key, so we decided to depart
via a window. Charl climbed out a window we thought might be wide enough for
the bikes and leapt to the ground a couple of metres below. I passed the
panniers and bikes to him. The problem was getting me out. Luckily a search of
the other downstairs rooms revealed a narrower window with a shorter drop
outside – and we were free, glad we had settled our bill on arrival. We
returned to the çay evi we had
frequented yesterday and were invited to sit at a table with two men, one of
whom had joined us uninvited yesterday. The çay evi guy had been
concerned about this and had asked a couple of times if it was a “problem”. We
said it was not and made laboured conversation with our table companion,
discovering through our use of Google Translate that he could barely read.
Today, via his friend, we managed to communicate a good deal more. When they
said their goodbyes, it was to collect the tools of their trade: their brooms,
dustpans and wheelbarrow – street sweepers, they were.
Between Eleşkirt and Horasan
Between Eleşkirt and Horasan
Between Eleşkirt and Horasan
Between Eleşkirt and Horasan
Between Eleşkirt and Horasan
Between Eleşkirt and Horasan
Between Eleşkirt and Horasan
Between Eleşkirt and Horasan