Batumi to Kars
I thought “ah, just a quick ride with a couple of view points”.
In reality, it’s one incredibly scenic road, from rocky coastline, across the mountains, down to a river, through the canyon, including some sweet twisties through a forest up to an enormous mountain plateau, past the Cildir lake.
A road so cool that you just want to keep riding, but views so impressive that you can’t help but stop for yet another photo.
Just the last highway stretch from the Cildir lake to Kars was pretty boring. And a stupid speeding fine at the very end of the highway almost spoilt my whole impression of the otherwise super awesome ride.
It wasn’t about the fine itself, but about how ridiculous the Turkish law is to set the motorcycle speed limits 20km/h less than for cars.
Me to policeman: Do you think it will be safe if I ride 90km/h, while the cars drive 110km/h and have to overtake me all the time?
Policeman: No, it will be more dangerous, but it’s the law. Here’s your fine.
Maybe I should just switch to riding gravel from now on…
Kars – Mardin
After the stupid speeding fine, I didn’t even want to continue through Turkey. Can we just skip into some kind of motorcycle-friendly country already?
Well, okay, gotta get going. Another “quick” ride. Just take a look at Ararat from the other side, just a fortress a two, and the lake. Oh boy, I had no idea…
I got lost. Lost in magic.
Between the colorful mountains.
In the power of an unexpected waterfall.
Between the walls of each and every fortress, castle, palace, mosque, and church.
In the deep blue of the Van lake.
Between dawn and dusk.
Mardin – Mersin
And when I thought that there was nothing more to surprise me, I took a deeeep fascinating dive into the history of civilization, which started right here in Mesopotamia when the Ice Age was coming to its end, somewhere around 12 thousand years ago.
🪨 Dara (6th century AD) – the ancient city built as a base for the Eastern Roman Empire in its war against Persia
🕌 Sanliufra (4th century BC) – the city of prophets, with its legendary Pool of Sacred Fish where Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod
🏛 Gobekli Tepe (9.500 BC) – the oldest known temple on earth, thousands of years older than the Egyptian Pyramids or Stonehendge
🗿 Mount Nemrut (1st century BC) – a temple-tomb topping one of the highest peaks (2.134m) of the Eastern Taurus mountains
And these are just my highlights, as there’s so much more to see and explore (if you have the time and brain capacity that is).
After Nemrut I was already struggling to process all the information. So I had to abandon the plan of seeing everything on my list, spent the night in a super pretty town of Halfeti, surrounded by turquoise waters, restaurant boats, and green hills.
And the very next day I escaped to the coast with only a quick stop in Gaziantepe for a brainless activity of eating their traditional lamb soup “beyran corbasi”.
Oh, almost forgot to mention the incredible Mars-looking landscapes of red soil and yellow rocks for a great part of the way 💛
