Erzincan

October 5, 2023

It was pretty cold when the five o'clock call to prayer woke us up this morning (no need for the alarm clock) but at least it stayed above zero.

The two kilometer cycle down to the railway station was chilly but we were there by the required seven thirty and the train left on time at eight. It was pretty empty and, for the first half of the journey, we were the only people in our carriage.

It has been a while since we were last on a train which was when we caught the train from Reading to Penzance during our four months in the UK a few years back. It was painful remembering that we had forgotten our helmets on the train at the end of that trip :-(.

It wasn't a surprise to see that the mountains around Kars had a light dusting of snow after last night's low temperature. This helped make the first few hours of the journey novel and enjoyable. The views kept our attention for a couple of hours with some lovely valleys and mountains on which to cast our eyes but eight and a half hours was a bit much and we were glad to get off the train at Erzincan.

We passed through numerous small villages, only stopping at a handful of larger towns along the way.

Many of the valleys were quite steep and we had lots of tunnels.

Other valleys were broad and flat, especially around Ezerum and, as shown here, the approach to Erzincan.

It was a quick cycle into town from the Erzincan railway station and we took the first hotel we stuck our heads into. With a bit more effort we could have done better.

It seems much warmer here although the highest peaks also have a touch of snow. We will most likely be wild camping at close to two thousand meters above sea level tomorrow night so hopefully it doesn't get too cold.

Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 1,927 km (1,197 miles)

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