Alhaktsikhe - Kars, 1/X; 9th September
9th September
The owner gave us a bunch of grapes as we were leaving. The grapes in Georgia are delicious — if you press them against the roof of your mouth with your tongue, the body of the grape slips out its skin, and the taste is deep and flavourful.
It was straightforward to the Turkish border, some gentle climbing. There was no que, took us about 15 minutes to cross over.
Soon after the border, at the start of a climb, a truck slowed down and asked if we wanted a lift. I instinctively said no, but looking back, we could have done with it — the rest of the day there was quite a lot of climbing, and there’s a lot to see in Turkey and we don’t have a huge amount to see it — Tjalen spent three months crossing it last year.
Once over, we got to the village of Posof and had our first Turkish meal — grilled chicken (mangal I think it’s called), which came with a serving of salad containing chilli’s and some bread.
Shortly after leaving Posof we met a couple from Edinburgh who are on a month long cycling trip of Turkey. I gave them my Georgia SIM card and we exchanged currency too. It was good to chat about what we can expect in Turkey from cycling touring, and we told them what Georgia was like too.
We found a fountain half way up the pass and decided to camp there. The road is in hearing distance, but we are obscured enough.
After dinner of lentils and rice, I washed my feet and face from the fountain water before bed. The road just slightly toobusy to do a full on wash -- maybe a car every two minutes, unlike in Tajikistan the day before Khalai Khumb, where there was only silence throughout the night.
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