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  DogubeyazIt, Agri, Turkey
Friday, May 11, 2012

I have broken their code, but not enough to load any photo's, sorry


4 Days of Travel

After 4 days of travel, here we are at Mount Ararat, the supposed place of Noah's Ark

We saw the statues at Mount Nemret, rather sad looking in the gloom of the day, but it was the highest point we have been on this trip (2533 meters, 8310 feet) there was supposed to be a magnificent sunset, but as the mist and clouds rolled in, the sun disappeared well before time, oh, well, maybe the sunrise will be better

It was cold up there and a lot opted to sleep on the bus (the word 'sleep’ is used loosely here), it was cold, and people couldn’t get comfortable on the seats, so there was a lot of tossing and turning, not quite asleep and not quite awake, it was a long night, the sun did rise, but was just a mere glow as the cloud and mist were still with us, they it was a rather disappointing trip up here, but what scenery there was looked good, mountains in the distance and still snow on them and the height we were at, the road must be a real nightmare to traverse at night, it was a long grind getting up here, and was very slow trip back down, breakfast was a cold on, but I had filled up the flask with hot water so some did get a hot drink (not that hot at that height though) it was pretty barren up there so a fire was out of the question, nothing to burn there, they had a scabby shop selling souvenirs, but nothing that was of real interest

We got down eventually and then had to get a ferry, that was a experience in its self, it looked in pretty poor shape and looked liked a converted landing craft, I filmed the loading of it, surprisingly it never went down as much as I expected and after an hour or so we arrived on the other side and it was another grinding climb up another mountain and another bum numbing ride to our next destination

After several hours of travel we have been to Lake Van (that was just a big stretch of water surrounded by rubbish as far as I was concerned), I never saw any beauty in it, the sky was over cast, with a good bit of rain in the air (I wasn’t disappointed)

A herd of cattle were driven down from the mountain, they showed a lot of interest in my tent, but a bit of arm waving and shouting sent them on their way, the local boys showed up, didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, but they did show a lot of interest in the bus and tents, so we had to keep a close eye on both, they may have been innocent, but why chance it, so things were pretty much locked down

There was a hot water spring not far from us, but as usual we never had time to go look at it, it’s used by the locals quite a bit, so we were told

During the night the heavens opened up, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, it pattered on my tent like gravel being thrown, the wind came in gusts, quite strong at times, it was quite spectacular, but I don’t think anyone else heard or saw it, (I would have been surprised if they didn’t hear it though)  the morning arrived and some very soggy people got out of tents, either their tents didn’t cope with the wind and had pegs pulled out or the rain got in and they had wet sleeping bags, it was a soggy breakfast of toast (done on the gas burner) and muesli with powdered milk (I had a ration pack, I knew they would be handy) it was a very quiet group on the bus, sleeping bags on seats trying to get dried out and some very tired, bedraggled people

We have  stopped in this place, nicknamed ‘doggy biscuit’ (no one can pronounce the real name) for a cook group shop, the town was pretty scruffy and downtrodden, but they found enough grub for the cook group, the place seems like a garrison town, soldiers all over the place, but rather poorly dressed, scruffy  and walking about, fags lit, hands in pockets, it these are front line troops, God help Turkey, they didn’t impress me (their  weapons looked in a pretty dirty state, and with empty magazines in them, maybe they throw rocks at any invaders)

We had to stop at a check point before we arrived here, a big scrabble to get the safe open to get out their passports, beats me why they don’t have them with them 24/7(the soldier wanted to get on the truck, the door was locked the safe open, a lot of shouting and flapping went on, as they didn’t want the soldier to see the safe and its contents)

Now we are at Mount Ararat and a camp site (laughingly called a camp site, ) Murat Camping, there is a strip of grass to put up the tents, in between the wheel ruts and weeds, there is a strip of gravel to park the truck on, and then a wide swath of mud to get to the ‘ reception’ (all terms used here are very loosely to describe them) there are lots of ‘structures’ being built on site, so maybe it’s a something else during the off season,  everything here is rather grubby looking, but then its miles from anywhere, and seems to be a staging post for climbers and walkers, there is a Turkish listening post on the hill overlooking us, and we have been told, ‘no photos’ (they must think we are intelligence gathering, as if)

As usual there is a rug shop with everyone’s best mate trying to flog a rug to us

Dave has been pretty rough today, daft bugger slept under the truck in all the wind and rain, he hasn’t been well at all today and the bumping and bashing on the road hasn’t helped matters, he is going to get a room here for tonight, I said I’ll share the cost with him, but it’s not what I would call an upgrade, but it’s out of the damp air for him, I’ll be covering myself in DEET, not for the mozzies, but the bed bugs

The toilets are pretty dire (how hard is it to chuck a bucket of water to clean them up ?) doesn’t seem to be any hot water here either, I’m glad it’s for one night, then we are off to Iran and all the fun that is going to bring

They have been having a clean out of all the books and magazines that may cause offence to Islam, bit OTT to me I think, but in the end Adam has the responsibility of the truck (when it suits him) I only worry about me from here on

It’s hardly worth taking pictures here, it looks pretty much the same as all the places we have past and I have photographed and all mosques and streets are the same now, but I have grabbed a photo of Mt Ararat from the bus on our way to the Iran border

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