We wake up to a stunning view on the edge of the cliff after a peaceful night. We wash up in the spring and head straight back into tunnels, I figure it almost works out to be 30kms worth of tunnels overall but broken up into pieces. Heading out we travel past a few iron ore mines, but small potatoes compared to Australia, then hit the secondary roads through the mountains to work our way to Erzincan, but on route we have to cut through Kameh. There is a guard station here, and as I slowly pull through we here, stop! I stop and the guard walks up to the car and asks “Would you like chia or tea” And well why not, we park next to the armored vehicle and head in for a drink, He is form northern Turkey, hence the blonde hair and Asareh says we looks like twins and considering my family is form Ukraine, well it sorta makes sense. Sorta close. Haha.
-
- Leaving camp
-
- smoke break
Google translate to the rescue
-
- Tunnels
-
- backi in town
-
- On route again
He suggests we stay for an hour to check out the local ruins, and we figure why not? So we drive back into town and park up, and he appears again, and guides us along our way, using google translate we work our way through the history of the area. We view some old underground tunnels and see some ruins, then he points us on our way as he must attend Friday prayers. Very friendly people.
After a small walk through the field we pack up and work our way back towards the guard station where I pass through with a wave and continue on my way. We push through to Erzincan where we stop for fuel, I check out on old dodge truck and we grab some coffee to keep the spirits up. Pushing up the mountain we only have maybe an hour to our camp. And what a camp, we pull into a lovely green field and setup near the trees, and even though it pours down with rain we still heat some water for a shower, enjoy some tea and relax.
-
- But what does it mean?
Overall an easy day and we are making good progress as tomorrow we want to be fresh for the infamous D915, the most dangerous road in the world as voted by the internet.. We have dealt with this “hardest this, Toughest that” in Africa so we will be the judge.
