Tatvan - Nusaybin

  Nusaybin, Turkey
Saturday, November 24, 2007

Itinerary : Tatvan - Nusaybin
Dates : 24th of November 2007
Mileage in Turkey : 670 km
Mileage so far : 16070 km

I think the bed I was sleeping on last night was in solid wood as my luck was back again!
Indeed, we woke up to a bright sunny day...But when you're in the mountains with a bright blue sky, it can also mean that it's freezing cold...So it's with no real surprise that I could see from my hotel room window the shiny road probably covered with ice. So the freezing temperature was confirmed when i went to load the bike and my nose hair, which I haven't been trimming fo a while (I wanted to save weight on the scissors) and is now part of my moustache, just froze on the spot! Nevertheless, we still put the train option on standy and decided to ride the bikes. We left at 7h30am that morning and it was minus 10 degrees! So the first hour and a half was really slow and I used my feet as stabilisers which seemed to have worked as there was no bike dropping today!

A bit too much snow but nice ski resort no?

Difficult? not at all...

icy road in front of the hotel...

After 60 km in those difficult conditions, the weather finally got warmer and the snow fewer so I looked at my GPS that confirmed me that we were going down again! So I quickly glanced at my map (not Kevin's) and realized that we had just crossed the last chain of mountains on our path...Finally! What a relief to have survived this experience and made it in one piece...I had my Ipod plugged on my ears and I think I still heard Kevin screaming of joy...When we did our first stop out of the mountains, we realized that the slow mountain riding was over and that the roads were good in this part of Turkey, so we decided to ride hard and try to get into Syria by tonight! Today's riding was a piece of cake after the last 2 days we've had, and it felt good to finally have grip and vision again...I think Kevin was a bit taumatised by Turkey that he was all set to get into Syria by tonight, to the point where I had to force him to stop once in a while to enjoy this trip! And put some food and drink in his body which he doesn't seem to need anymore...Was a fun day as well as kevin's body temperature went up again and his sense of humour seemed to have come back...Good to have you back crazy Kev!

Guess who am i doing an impression of?

Kevin is happy again!

Kevin...it's batman! Not dracula...

Nice stop on the way to Syria...

On the way to the syrian border...no more hood...

Yes! Back in heaven again...

I really enjoyed this day as the snow was gone and I finally got to see what eastern turkey looks like. It was absolutely great to experience a new country with a new scenery again...And it was exciting to discover the people's habits with their houses built inside the mountains, the face change, the new landscape,...I was like a kid again...But we still had to hurry up tough as Syria was waiting for us tonight...

Cheap house for sale...

Farmers are richer in Turkey...

Long staircase up to their house...

Nice town just before the Syrian border...

This bridge would have been on Kevin's map...

Why Turkey can't be part of Europe...

Unfortunately when we arrived at the border, it was closed...The guard told us that they close at 3pm and that they would open at 9h30 in the morning...If they close at 3pm, I can't imagine the time it takes to cross this border...So a bit like when we crossed into Turkey, we are staying in this border town, and I'm not surprised to discover that it's not very nice...(to avoid saying shit). No need to describe the hotel room...

Make sure you come back tomorrow...

Tomorrow, fingers crossed, normally it's a desert crossing in Syria!