Project VELAIA

When I am thinking about the last two days I see this long way to Erzurum in front of me. The scenery is still a beautiful green valley with high mountains to the left and right but it is a bit more crowded ’cause it seems to be the main connection in the north to IRAN and the east of

 

There are many fruit sellers next to the street and you can get really tasty and cheap energy there. I spent one night in a little fruit seller chimney where there was a bank I could sleep on.

I have been informed by a fruit seller that he has hosted a cyclist from Allemanya called Christopher just a day before – but the communication was a bit hard so it could have been a week, month, year or even a lifetime before But alone the possibility to cycle with another German or English speaking cyclist for a few kilometers motivated me quite a bit so I made some more kilometers the second day.On the same day I have been stopped by the police (POLIS) twice – not for passport checking but for checking, tea and photos – they are a lot more polite here than in the western part as it seems to me. At the second check point (a police station) I even got some minutes internet access and some peaches.

 

In a restaurant next to the street I had a quite cheap vegetarian meal of Pide with the usual Turkish salad (gurks, tomatoes and normal green salad) and took the chance of remembering that the brakes had made some strange sounds to change the Magura brake pads the first time after over 7000km – only the ones of the front disc brake because I am using it in 97% of the cases I have to break. So I have to say again that I am really happy about the equipment and bike!

The place for the night is booked next to the river under a beautiful clear sky with uncountable stars and the sound of the fast flowing river in the background completing the atmosphere and reminding me to the cycling trip in Norway in 2005 (only difference being that it would have been still light in the north).290km with 2500 hight meters in 2 days (average of 18,4km/h)