Steve's Cycling Blog

So this morning we have a new plan for the next few days after an attack by members of the PKK (The Kurdish Workers Party) on Turkish soldiers which happened overnight, with nine people killed and others wounded. There’s not been much in the media but there are a few details on the Anadolu Agency website.

In that article you’ll read “An air-supported operation was launched in the area.” which can be translated to mean “the airforce went and strafed the village the attackers came from”. You’ll also see that the injured were taken to Doğubeyazit state hospital which is in the town we’re staying in, so these unfortunate events are happening right around us.

As a result TDA have decided that (even if the security forces would allow) it’s not safe for us to ride in this area of Turkey at this time. Consequently we rode to the border on the Iranian side, but have then been bussed to the hotel in Doğubeyazit where we are most definitely ‘confined to quarters’, though we’ve also been upgraded from camping to rooms here too.

Tomorrow we’re then going to be bussed to Kars, where we are due to spend our next rest day, and will have an extra day there before continuing cycling west towards Istanbul.

So the original plan went like this

Stage 100 route notes

Because of the changed plan we had an extra rider’s meeting this morning to bring us up to date with the plan and then a delayed breakfast and departure, eventually setting off just ahead of 0830.

It was pretty much uphill all the way to the border, though relatively gently and Roger and I had an enjoyable time riding together. As we got closer to the border we got a glimpse of Mt Ararat and Little Mt Ararat hiding in the clouds in the distance.

Ararat and Little Ararat playing coy

Things at the border went surprisingly smoothly. I managed to change the last of my Rial at a not-too-awful rate to Lira just before we went into the immigration building. Leaving Iran took a little while as they processed our passports but thankfully we didn’t need to get our bags out to be checked this time.

It was a very short walk through a wire tunnel to the Turkish immigration building where again the wait was relatively short. Once through there was a nice sunny terrace we could sit on whilst waiting for the bus which will take us to the hotel to arrive and the TDA vans to be cleared through into Turkey. Whilst waiting I also changed some USD, again at a reasonable (but not great) rate, and Jackie and Ruth took the opportunity to let their hair down (out) after a month of having to wear a scarf.

Jackie and Ruth celebrate removing their scarves (photo Jacqueline Nel)

A short walk down the hill and we were out of the border compound, though the vans were still coming so we left our bikes in Jordan’s care while we were put in the bus and shipped off to the hotel.

As we drove away from the border there was a line of trucks, two trucks wide, which stretched for over 5km waiting to cross from Turkey into Iran. I can’t imagine how long it must take to actually make it through that sort of backlog!

Along the way we got some better view of Ararat, though always hiding behind clouds, even now, some three hours later there’s still a cap of clouds surrounding the mountain.

Checked into the hotel and I was going to take a shower but it turned out cold water was the only option so I gave that a miss. Since then it’s been lunch, a wander round the hotel grounds (somewhat run-down), a touch of work, some arsing about on the internet, and writing up this post.

The weather has also deteriorated somewhat in that it’s cooled down significantly and there’s a pretty decent wind blowing outside so it’s nice to be sitting in a reasonably comfortable hotel ‘lounge’ where it’s warm and dry 🙂

Later: Though we’re staying in the hotel it’s opened specifically for us (the tourism scene is so grim here right now it’s not worth their time) but it wasn’t possible for them to provide us with dinner so we’ve had a camp dinner cooked by Mark, but eaten in the civilisation of the hotel dining room.

I also had one of the over-priced beers from the hotel bar and I have to say it was really rather good 🙂

While the storm that blew through meant rain here, up on Ararat it led to a light dusting of fresh snow. The storm’s now blown away leaving just a cap of cloud.

Ararat with a cap of cloud and a dusting of fresh snow

Update: I found another article about last night’s attack on the Hurriyet Daily News site, plus a few more details on the military response. This (relatively old) BBC article helps to put things into context a little, as does this Al Jazeera story about the recent removal of 24 democratically elected majors with suspected links to PKK, all of which paint a complex and unhappy picture.

Riding data

View from my tent

Once upon a nice courtyard