9 July, Adiyaman to Kâhta, 35km (and by bus to Nemrut Daği)
Guneş Motel 120TL (dinner and breakfast included)

Hills, heat and wind made today’s short ride seem considerably longer than it was. Once in Kâhta, we persuaded a hotel to store our bikes and panniers and to do our laundry while we spent two nights on Nemrut Daği. After a quick shower at the hotel, we made our way to the otogar to get the mini- bus up the mountain. The bus pottered first around town picking up two people at their homes, one a woman laden with supplies, the other an elderly man. In the village of Narince at the turn off the main road and into the mountains, the bus stopped and all the locals piled out to shop for loaves of flat bread and ripe red tomatoes. Then up and up we climbed into dramatic mountains, parched and wild. At a lengthy stop before the final 6km ascent, we chatted to a man who works for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. An amazing coincidence: Mahmut owned and operated the original Kommagene Hotel at which I stayed in 1984 and from which I took a tour of Nemrut. Of course we did not remember each other, but we reminisced with pleasure about the “good old days” of tourism in eastern Turkey.

Between Adiyaman and Kâhta - Nemrut Daği

Nemrut Daği

Nemrut Daği

Nemrut Daği

Nemrut Daği - Guneş Motel