Dust on My Feet: Overland to London - Dogubayazit via Trabzon to Ankara

Trucks crossing Tahir Pass in winter - this photo taken on a later trip in 1980

Thu 1 April DOĞUBAYAZİT – ERZURUM 276 kms

Doğubayazıt is a small town some 25 kilometres from the border and is very much a Turkish military town with, besides the border with Iran, there is the border with the Soviet Union (Georgia and Armenia), not far away. We left Doğubayazıt at about 7.30 am and after passing through the small town of Ağrı, we climbed up over the snowy Tahir Pass (2,496 m or 8,188 ft). Ten years later when I crossed this pass while on leading a Sundowners Caravan tour, the driver and I had to fit chains to get over this Pass, avoiding the snow-bound Bulgarian lorries as we clanked our way up to the summit.

After a lunch stop was made at the little village of Harasan, we continued to the small Kurdish village of Dikendere. The villages here in Kurdistan are pretty basic, with flat-roofed houses constructed from the local broken grey stone that forms the basis of the surrounding hills. Conical piles of dung, used for fuel, were positioned throughout the village. Somehow the villagers managed to scratch a meagre existence with their brown-fleeced sheep in these sparse mountains.

Small Kurdish village on the road to Erzurum

Two-wheel cart & sheep in Kurdish Village

We reached Erzurum around 3.30. This city is situated in a very beautiful valley at an elevation of around 1900 metres (6,233ft), surrounded by snow-covered mountains. The city was known to the Romans and early Christians as Theodosiopolis. In the centre of Erzurum are the Double, or Twin Minarets which are part of the Çifte Minareli Medrese, a 12^th century theological college built by the Seljuk Turks. I visited the Minarets just on the sunset, so didn’t see them at their best, and enjoyed an excellent dinner of döner kebab (lamb spit-roasted on a vertical barbeque) with salad, a sweet and a beer for 11.05 lira (1970 prices). We are staying at the Polat Hotel.

Fri 2 April ERZURUM - TRABZON 262kms

Early morning from the Polat Hotel in central Erzurum

We left Erzurum at 8.30 for the scenic drive to Trabzon on the Black Sea. The dominant features of today’s drive are two spectacular passes through the mountains, both having narrow winding roads with spectacular and beautiful views. The first pass, Kopdağı, climbs to a height of 2409m or 7,903 feet through snow-covered mountains before dropping down to the small but beautiful town of Bayburt, dominated by the ruins of a Byzantine Castle, on the old Silk Road. A look at the history of Bayburt is a cameo of the history of Asia Minor. The town was either settled or conquered by the Cimmerians in the 8^th century BC, the Medes in the 7^th century BC, then came the Persians, the Kingdom of Pontus, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Bagratid Armenian Kingdom, the Seljuk Turks, the Aq Qoyunlu (a Sunni Turkoman tribal confederation), the Safavid Persians and finally the Ottoman Turks. Marco Polo passed this way on his epic journey along the Silk Road to China in the 13th century and in his Travels, he limited his observations of Bayburt to: "And on the route from Trebizond to Tabriz is a fortress called Bayburt, where there is a large silver mine." As with most Turkish towns, a bust of Kemal Atatürk is situated in a prominent position in the middle of the main road.

The town of Bayburt, dominated by a ruined Byzantine castle

After lunch in Bayburt we drove through some very pleasant countryside. The soil in this part of Turkey looks rich and fertile and we made a stop in a delightful little valley called Ikisu.

Women hoeing in Ikisu Valley

The name Ikisu means the meeting of waters, or two waters. In this fertile valley I watched two women industriously hoeing their fertile wall-enclosed garden. Peach blossoms were just coming to their early spring best as I walked through the Valley to the little, tinkling Ikisu stream. The only building was a tea house, although there were some other buildings further up one of the hills.

We crossed the second pass at dusk. The Zigana Pass rises to a height of 2032m or 6,676ft, before descending towards the coast at Trabzon – Trebizond in Marco Polo’s Travels. We stopped for dinner in a small village where we all trooped into the kitchen, looking at, then pointing to the dishes we would like, and then being charged accordingly. We reached Trabzon at around 10pm. and are staying in a camping ground some 3 miles from the city centre. As we are now at sea level, the temperature is much milder.

Spring blossoms in the beautiful Ikisu Valley

Sat 3 April TRABZON

Today we headed off an excursion to the spectacular old Greek Orthodox monastery of Sumela, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. This monastery is around 50 kilometres from Trabzon, set 1200m up on the face of a steep cliff on Karadağ, the Black Mountain, in the Altındere National Park.

The Sumela Monastery

The Monastery is believed to date from around 386 AD, in the reign of Roman emperor Theodosius I. It became famous for an icon of the Virgin Mary known as the Panagia Gorgoepekoos, said to have been painted by the Apostle Luke. To access this ruin we travelled by minibus to a small village some kilometres out of Trabzon, then transferred to the back of a truck for the most hair-raising ride I have had, or am likely to have. The road was nothing more than a goat track, no wider than the truck, in fact, at times the trees on both side were overhanging into the truck. On one side would be a solid wall of rock, the other a sheer drop of several hundred feet to a river. It was quite frightening looking over the side of the truck and seeing nothing for 3000 feet! The climb was steep, but the truck finally wheezed its way to the tea house near the monastery. After a quick lunch, we climbed, on foot, the remaining 1000 odd feet up a zigzagging track to the monastery, clinging precariously high above us. The monastery has been rebuilt several times and remained under special protection, first in 1365 when Byzantine Emperor Alexios III issued a Chrysobull, or Golden Bull, a decree which confirmed the freedom and autonomy of the Monastery.

Ruins of inner buildings, Sumela Monastery

When the Ottomans conquered Turkey, Sultan Mehmed II, in 1461, granted Sumela the sultan’s protection and it was given rights and privileges that were renewed by following Sultans. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the declaration of the independent Turkish Republic by Kemal Atatürk in 1923, the Monastery was abandoned during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

The main buildings are now in ruins, but we were able to explore remnants of the monks’ cells, dining halls, chapels and even toilets! Some fine Byzantine frescoes remain, both inside and outside one of the chapels although many depictions of the saints have had their faces and eyes defaced in accordance with the Moslem practice of not showing a human form. All of the lower frescoes have been badly defaced or destroyed by later vandals. On the whole, however, Sumela Monastery is a fascinating structure, and its position on the cliff face is something to marvel at. This full day trip was worth every hair-raising and breath-taking minute.

Byzantine frescoes in Sumela Monastery

Sun 4 April TRABZON – SAMSUN 326kms

We left Trabzon at 8.30 for a drive along the attractive Black Sea coast to Samsun. There are many attractive little settlements along the coast with the coastal hills coming right down to the water’s edge. Many of these villages have the remains of old forts, in strategic positions, overlooking the bays. At one point along the coast, the road turns inland and climbs over an attractive range of hills. The view from the hills, over well-cultivated fields with acres and acres of hazel-nut trees, is magnificent. The final leg of the journey into the port city of Samsun was along the Black Sea coastline. We are staying tonight at the Hotel Atlantic. Had a fish dinner tonight of small, fried sardine-like fish, tossed like a pancake.

Mon 5 April SAMSUN - ANKARA 406kms

Left Samsun after a breakfast at about 8.30am. The drive was mainly through green, fertile farmland as we made our way up onto the Anatolian plateau. Lunch stop was in the town of Çorum where there was a problem cashing American Express travellers cheques. We arrived at about 5.30 in Ankara and after some initial problems, found the Hotel Satay.