View Larger Map
Thursday, November 7th - Goynuk to Cayirhan - 13,725 km
It is sunny in Goynuk this morning, and cold. There is no frost yet, even at this height, but we are getting close. I hope we won't be climbing much higher today, or that if we do the roads will have warmed up and won't be slippery.
We return south 2 km to the Hwy 107, the way we came into town, and then turn east to continue our route towards Cappadocia. The road climbs steeply at first, affording us some great views of the town and valley below. Soon the steep climb levels out and we turn away from Goynuk, to the south east. The climb is keeping up warm until the day itself warms up.
Vincent teaches me a trick when climbing a hill. When a truck passes him in slow gear, he speeds up enough to catch a grab bar at the rear of the truck and them lets it pull him to the top. It’s scary but I give it a try. I almost losing my balance and fall as the truck jerks my arm, but after I catch my balance it’s an easy, free ride to the top. What a thrill to discover this. I can’t wait to try it again.
We reach a height of 1150 m at the first pass, 400 m higher than we were at Goynuk. The forest here is thinner and drier the further we move to the east. We continue south. At the 30 km mark, we have dropped back down to 800 m. Here, a sign says that we are 57 km from the town of Nallihan. Coen is his normal sense this morning. The cold air is making our noses run more than usual, so I am staying well back from Vincent.We follow a valley floor east for a couple hours, climbing again to 1200 m. It’s another easy climb as we all catch separate trucks that haul us up the hill. From there it’s downhill the rest of the way to Nallihan. The road turns south for last 15 km and enters a new desert landscape as we approach the town. There have been villages but no towns of any respectable size since Goynuk until this point. Nallihan is set on a terrace below a mountain but above the valley floor. We climb 100 m to get into the town and there we rest for half an hour to enjoy a mid-afternoon lunch.
We have another 30 km to go to reach Cayirhan, our destination. A third of the way along this last stretch we enter a broad desert valley bordered by tall, naked mountains, eroded with ridges and gullies and striated by coloured bands of pink, ash and grey-green rock. The evergreens have disappeared. This environment is too dry for them. Groves of deciduous trees in bright fall colours are scattered here and there on the valley floor, but mostly the land is barren at this time. This landscape definitely doesn't belong to any place in Europe, which in itself is quite exciting.
We have had a tailwind much of the day, it moves us along at a steady pace towards Cayirhan. Just before we reach the town we reach the lake that it is set beside. It is an irregularly-shaped lake created by a dam south and west of here. Around its banks there are coloured trees, reeds and fields of green grass. Hundreds of birds circle above the lake and dot the surface of the water. With the coloured mountain backdrop, the vistas are spectacular.
Cayrihan is set off the lake a few hundred metres. It is a flat, dusty town which has no other captivating features of its own, just the lake and the colourful mountains. Our guide for western Asia says nothing about it. There is some kind of refinery or processing plant here – not an oil refinery – and no tourist facilities. It’s a blue collar town where the women are hidden away from our view. Not hard for Coen and Vincent to stay faithful to their girlfriends here.
There is a hotel on the main street and a couple restaurants, including a rather good one. Once we have washed up and changed we are quite ready to eat, having covered 110 km today. We are all in rather fine spirits, and looking forward to tomorrow.
PHOTO 1: leaving Goynuk
PHOTO 2: outside Goynuk
PHOTO 3: countryside in the next valley
PHOTO 4: side road 'bike path'
PHOTO 5: Vincent inspecting the crops
PHOTO 6: the land is definitely getting drier
PHOTO 7: craggy peaks above Nallihan
PHOTO 8: beyond Nallihan, part 1
PHOTO 9: closer to Cayirhan
PHOTO 10: by the lake just before Cayirhan
PHOTO 11: egrets on the lake
No comments:
Post a Comment