We
left about 8am. As promised the fisherman had moved his vehicle and
chairs from inside the tunnel. We did wake the other 3 sleepy heads
as we drove past within a foot of their tents when leaving. Waved to
the bleary eyes that poked out of their tents.
A
beautiful day. It took us 100min to do the first 7km. We stopped
often in the tunnel to take photos when an access point allowed. We
were in and out of EC a lot. Got my exercise for the day!
Once
out of the Tunnel we still had the canyon to deal with.
The
road reminded us of parts of Northern Peru and Bolivia for it’s
steep narrow roads.
I
drove the last section with the knowledge of the sign saying only
2.2m high. Surely their would be a crux point. Although the overhang
in places was low and the corners narrow there was place bfore the
corners to get wide. So no problems.
A
great road and spectacular scenery!
We
continued following the narrow dam of the Euphrates river (Firat
Nehri). The first village we came to was quite touristy quiet
different from the other end of the tunnel which was agriculture
country.
Finally
crossing the dam we headed towards Tunceli. It was also a nice windy
road and slow.
We came upon two cyclists - German brothers to which we
offered a tow up the next hill.
We came upon two cyclists - German brothers to which we
offered a tow up the next hill.
This
was accepted readily so we towed them up the switch backs with them
swapping sides occasionally to ease their arms.
We
stopped shortly after with a view to have lunch. A boy with his
donkey came passed and tried to talk to us but without much luck,
then his sheep came over the hill.
Fat tailed sheep are ugly enough with wool but this!!! AT the next little town we caught up the the cyclists who’d had a great trip down. Maybe we’ll see them in Mongolia.
We
got stopped twice for police checks. In Tuncili the guy would not
accept the photocopies of the passports he wanted the originals. So
we had to dig then out. All the other checks had. 
Anyway
they had thawed a bit towards the end of our encouter.
Anyway
they had thawed a bit towards the end of our encouter.
It
was pouring rain so didn’t want to get too far off the roads. Found
a spot frequented by other people on a rock ledge looking over the
Munzur river.
Just
as we were leveling, a ute pulled up behind us. John went to talk to
them in the rain and found that they were 3 guys out for a drink. The
downpour abated I grabbed a couple of glasses and accepted a glass of
wine each. The 3 Turkish guys had a bottle each and drank in from the
bottle. The had a bag of roasted chick peas for soaking up the
alchohol.
Just
as we were leveling, a ute pulled up behind us. John went to talk to
them in the rain and found that they were 3 guys out for a drink. The
downpour abated I grabbed a couple of glasses and accepted a glass of
wine each. The 3 Turkish guys had a bottle each and drank in from the
bottle. The had a bag of roasted chick peas for soaking up the
alchohol.
After
a chat and a talk to the teacher girlfriend by phone, and they
finishing their wine left us for a quiet night.
It had been a long days drive.
210km
210km