20 years ago today - Day 253

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Monday, November 11th - Kulu to Aksaray - 14,174 km

I wake this morning refreshed and with a deeper understanding of why adventure is an over-rated concept and why I should not be traveling alone in Asia. I am so grateful for the companionship of Coen and Vincent, and I came within a hair’s breadth of losing it yesterday. I will stay very close to them today, close enough to feel Vincent’s nasal spray if necessary.

Today’s destination is a city called Aksaray, which one could say is the gateway to Cappadocia, although it is not actually in Cappadocia. It is very near though, and the largest city we will see until we reach Kayseri, the geographic centre of Turkey, which lies just beyond the other side of Cappadocia, to the east.

Today’s big obstacle is a large lake called Tuz Golu, or Lake Tuz in English. It’s like the size of Lake Simcoe in Ontario, which for Turkey makes it one of the largest in the country. According to my guidebook, it lies in a tectonic depression – I think I have had one of those before – in the central plateau of Turkey. It is fed by two seasonal rivers and is very salty. It has salt flats and brackish marshes around its perimeters. It’s intake only – it has no outlet. In the rainy season of late fall and winter, its surface swells quite a bit. If it is anything like the Great Salt Lake in Utah, it won’t be very pretty.

Aksaray lies on the dead opposite side of the lake from Kulu. The clockwise route is shorter because it hugs the shore more closely, but there is a major expressway along this stretch so the traffic will be Hell. The other route will be much quieter but less direct. To avoid the southern flood plain and salt flats, it circles farther from the lake. I have been hoping to convince the boys to go this way but Vincent, our official navigator, points out that even the shorter route will be at least 130 km. That’s quite a distance for my Dutch companions. They are younger but both of them are smokers. They tend to get winded by anything over 100 km.

So clockwise we go. The first half hour, 11 km, is not too bad as we take the road north to join the expressway. The next 120 km our route is the expressway, all the way to Aksaray. The expressway is a terrifying blur of speeding trucks and buses. Very few private vehicles are mixed amongst them. But what I initially think will be horrid and dangerous proves to be quite comfortable and benign because there is a service road practically the whole length of our route. In is set down below the highway about 30 m away. Provided that no truck or bus comes flying off the road we will be fine. If it wasn’t for the noise, fumes and drab scenery it might be a good place to cycle.

Anticipating a longer than average day, the three of us set out earlier than usual, around 8:30. We’ve been at it steadily, our heads down and our legs turning since then. We are not talking to each other, which saves time. We tried to but the trucks were too noisy. Shortly after noon, we reach Sereflickochisar (don’t even try to pronounce it), the largest town along today’s route. We stop here for lunch. The only thing worth looking for in this town is shade.

It’s a further four and a half hours into Aksaray. It is after 5 when we get here. It has been the same scenery all day, which is to say not much of anything. Aksaray itself is nothing to look at. Its name comes from the caravanserai near the centre of town, the Agzikara Han. I thought there would be more tourists facilities around, given it is the closest city to Cappadocia, but it is definitely not a tourist town. There are plenty of hotels though, for the truckers and bus drivers I suppose as most of them are near the freeway. We find a place downtown, a traditional four-floor walk up that reminds me of the hotel I stayed at in Lisbon.

The boys are whacked out after the long ride. We finished at 134 km. There were so many fumes that they didn’t even need to smoke cigarettes. After they clean up and change, we head to the nearest restaurant to refuel. Tomorrow, we begin our tour of Cappadocia.


PHOTO 1: Tuz Golu (Lake Tuz)
PHOTO 2: potato crop being harvested
PHOTO 3: Kursunlu Camii (Mosque) in Aksaray
PHOTO 4: Agzikara Han, the caravanserai in downtown Aksaray