28.09.09 On the way to Erzurum / På vej til Erzurum

We drove from Elazig to Erzurum app. 280 km. About 15 km outside Elazig the road narrowed down to 1/3 of what we are used to. We were surprised to see that Turkey in the far east of the country is not interested in developing the roads. We drove towards the town, and boy, was that a winding road. Passed through villages, which seemed very poor, with Shepard’s and guys on donkeys. After a while, we suddenly found out that we were at an altitude of about 6000 feet. We opened the guide book, and bravo, the town we were going to was close to a ski resort. We stopped to fill up gas and it was so windy and cold that we felt like having a piss every 5 minutes. Suddenly on top of these mountains we could see that the thermometer in the car showed only 3 degrees Celsius. Not bad for Nissan, that they even have an alarm in the car when the temperature drops below 3 degrees. We passed snow capped mountains, and there was a big discussion, if it was snow on the mountains or not. This was when the thermometer in the car fell to 1 degree Celsius. I said oh shit what have we got ourselves into. Well the best part was when we drove into the town of Erzurum, and it started snowing. All this with me in a t-shirt and jeans. Found a great hotel, with heaters

Så er vi i dag kommet til snevejr, det havde vi godt nok ikke regnet med, men vi har nok ikke læst guide bøgerne godt nok. Vi kørte til Erzurum fra Elazig en tur på ca. 280 km, de sidste 150 km var det konstant vej arbejde, så det tog lang tid. Desuden var det en bjergvej. Erzurum ligger i 2000 meters højde. Det er også et skisportssted, så vi burde ikke være blevet forbavsede, da vi så de snedækkede bjerge i nærheden. Igen kørte vi igennem mange øde strækninger, små fattige landsbyer og flotte natur områder. Vi så flere teltlejre, som vi tror bliver brugt af fårehyrder. Jeg blev endnu engang fristet til at tage rigtig mange billeder ud igennem bilruden. Bilen er ikke vant til så megen kulde, så termometeret begyndte at blinke da vi nåede 3 grader, men den kørte nu fint alligevel. Farmor har ændret sin billet så hun tager fra Erzurum den 30. Så sætter vi nok kursen direkte mod Iran på det tidspunkt.