Black Canyon to Kemaliye

We are following in the footsteps of Flo, Julie (2 🇫🇷) and Amelie 🇩🇪 - a group of cyclists who cycled through here months ago. They met in Turkey and spent a few weeks together before going their separate ways again.
Bruno has been very fascinated and inspired by J+F and so we find ourselves on the roads that the trio took to cycle along the Euphrates.

We are the only ones to get off in Çaltı. There is no raised platform but we are helped with our luggage. The train departs and moves the cabbage on the tracks one last time, proving that this station is not one of the busiest in Turkey.
A friendly man comes to us from the station shelter and tells us that we shouldn't drink the water from the fountain. Instead, he offers us his drinking water and, fresh and soaking wet, we set off on the dusty track.

The route first takes us 350 metres up the mountain via steep hairpin bends, where we work up quite a sweat - at around 30 degrees. At the top, we find a mountain of gold and other precious metals next to the road. (The lab confirmation is still pending, but we took samples with us to be on the safe side).
(Dad, if you're reading this: I'll ask at the border if export is allowed! 😀)

Then it's all downhill and after a fast descent we find ourselves at the entrance to the Karanlık Canyon and the tunnel, which has been connecting Kemaliye with the environment since 2002 and has become a highlight for tourists.
We roll (slowly) through the tunnels for several minutes at a time and need a few hours to cover the short distance, as there are plenty of views and the air here is very pleasantly cool compared to the air soup out there.

Kemaliye is touristy but stylish. Everything is nicely decorated with standardised wooden signs for the shops, flower boxes are dotted here and there and Atatürk stands on the small central square overlooking the idyllic village.

Bayram, the highest Islamic festival, begins tomorrow. It lasts four days and commemorates Abraham, who was supposed to sacrifice his son Ishmael to prove his faith. Ishmael was spared, but a goat was sacrificed.
Shops will usually remain closed and only reopen after a few days. One side of us is happy about the good supply and that we don't have to store food for several days - on the other hand, the situation shows us that even for the highest, four-day festival, only a short business break is possible. The shops have to keep running.

Our family-run campsite is situated on a slope overlooking the small town and both banks of the river. The evening we arrive, a young woman is celebrating her birthday and we join in the celebrations with cake 🍰 and traditional dancing.

The local restaurant serves good food every evening and the waitress is so quick to clear the table that I call 'stop' the first time to keep my half-full ayran.
From then on, she always peeks over my shoulder with a smile to see if the cup is empty 🤭Weiterlesen