31 July, Tatvan to Van, 10km
Bahar Otel 60TL (negotiated down from 70TL)

After a quick breakfast we cycled the few kms to the docks to catch the “feribot” which crosses Lake Van between Tatvan and Van twice daily (pronounced “One” in each case). Wikipedia: “Lake Van is the largest lake in Turkey ... It is a saline soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains ... Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes (having no outlet). The original outlet from the basin was blocked by an ancient volcanic eruption ... Lake Van is 119 km across at its widest point ... the shore length is 430 km ... has an area of 3,755 square km.” The rusty old ferry carries primarily freight and charges foot (and bike) passengers just 5TL for the 4.5 hour trip. Cycling into this city of 400,000, we met a heavily-laden French cyclist en route Iran back home. According to his blog, his bike weighs 85kg as he carries even an oven for baking his own bread! He told us that the Turkish president was due to visit Van today, which explained the heavy police presence and the bunting along the main thoroughfare. We could see the riot police from our late-lunch restaurant window, and now and then hear chanting somewhere in the distance. Just as we decided nothing was going to come of it all and left the restaurant, the riot police donned helmets and crouched behind their shields. There was a flurry of stones beside us and the water canon was deployed and we were hustled into a cautiously unlocked baby clothing store and took shelter there. When that seemed to be “all she wrote”, we left the store and headed back to our hotel, which we did not leave again. For several hours, on occasion, we heard running feet and shouting; and later we saw a little looting and destruction of municipal bins, and like the tea shop across the road had to close our windows against the stink and burn of tear gas. 

Feribot from Tatvan to Van

Tatvan

Between Tatvan and Van

Van

Van