28 July, Kozluk to Veysel Karani, 18km
Evliyaoğlu Otel 80TL (negotiated down from 140TL)
Our day began badly and ended well just 18km
into our planned 80km ride. Began badly because our hotel room, cooled only by
a fan, was so hot neither of us slept well and both arose still “looking through
yesterday’s eyes”*. We had planned to be in Bitlis, but on the outskirts of
ugly little Veysel Karani (not marked on my map) we came across a totally
unexpected sign advertising a totally unexpected hotel and agreed that if it
was air-conditioned we would stop for the night. It was and we did. When we
first arrived in Turkey, we were neurotic, as all crime-soaked South Africans no
doubt are, about protecting our bikes and gear. Often receptionists would
suggest we simply leave our bikes outside our hotels, but we always insisted on
bringing them inside and on locking them. In the three months we have been
here, we have grown quite casual about security, and today for the first time
came close to paying a price for being blasé when Charl saw, from the hotel
lobby where we were enquiring about a room, a group of youngsters fiddling with
his money bag left outside on the front of his bike. During our lunch stroll
through Veysel Karani’s market, sweets were on sale, many more women than usual
were out and about, visiting the mosque and drinking çay at the çay evis, and
boy children ran wild in the streets, almost all of them showing off plastic
guns, their end-of-Ramazan gifts. Earlier, at our breakfast stop, while the
owner’s son prepared a toasted cheese and salami for us to have with our
coffee, the owner told us he had one wife and 18 children. He was amused at the
awe I could not hide.
* Xhosa expression
Between Kozluk and Veysel Karani
Between Kozluk and Veysel Karani
Veysel Karani - view from our hotel window
Veysel Karani