I was woken up by a rooster crowing. The goats had been
let out of their shed. When John ventured outside our host magically
appeared with a cooked loaf of flat bread and 2 Turkish cups of chai.
Lovely dark brown bread slighly flavoured with some herb/spice and
sprinkled with sesame seeds, and very oily.
The
wife was busy chasing sheep to ensure they went the right way, down
the steep hill and not back towards the village. I use the term
village loosely there were only about 8 houses here.
Then
the guy bought out a tea pot hot water combo. Tea pot sits on top of
the hot water. He refiled our cups.
The
wife interacted with us in between when she went to the edge and
watched her sheep and going inside. She had a most interesting trill to call her heard. Most headers have a unique set of repetitive noises for their herd, but this one was quite wonderful.
We
asked permission to walk to the top of the hill and he showed us
where the path started.
I
am not sure how the sheep find food. There are small flat spots that
may grow enough grass for one sheep for a day but what about the
other 29 and tomorrow?
The
hike to the top gave us great views and sprinkled us with snow
flakes. When we returned to our host she asked "Why?" (in gestures) "why on earth did we walked to the top of the hill?". john just laughed and showed her the photos we had taken of her world.
Through
google translate we understand that they sell the sheep to buy food
they do not eat the sheep. They did not have a vege garden and live
about 40mins and 20km from town if they had a car? We have noticed
in other villages the mobile sales men that come around with veges or
clothes. So maybe this is how the village is suplied.
Some
houses in the village seems to have ploughed land in small chunks and
our host and at least one other had animals. Maybe one grows the
fodder for the animals in winter ??? Would be great to be able to
have an in depth conversation with them.
I
drove out and down thinking that it is quite amazing where we will
end up and what we may see or experience during the day, ked part of the
interest is just that, the discovery, the unknown, the challenge.
The
mountains are really beautiful and the mist makes them more so.
The drive down was beautiful. We could see the vista in daylight rather than twilight.
Loading
a truck with wood.
Going back through the town of Aladag, with the ever present mosque. Kids playing in school grounds 
Donkey with his load.
We
stopped at a water point to fill with water. There were two pipes
running. We started to fill from one by bottle. This time John
decided to tip into EC by himself, I just kept filling the two
bottles.
Another
small car stopped to fill their water bottles. Out piled 6 adults
then they filled 25 x 4 litre bottles. The car left with it’s
suspension on the bump stops…..
A
very new road which was not yet used. But already having problems with slippage
Once
we crossed the river just below another dam wall we turned off yellow
onto a dirt white. Up we went and along a little to find Bardzraberd
Stronghold.
We
found the track as marked, parked the car and started walking. It
was only 1 km but the track petered out so we just following on map.
Finally
found the entrance to the stronghold yes only one on this huge
pinnacle of rock.
We had seen this pinnacle over 3 hours ago and
wondered if it was the stronghold. Such an amazing hill.
We
only explored the entrance and as there was no other nearby evidence
of building we headed back to EC, it was already 16:30 with a walk
then a hunt for camp ahead of us with an hour of sunlight….
We
tried one side road but although it nearly heralded a camp,it did not,
so we returned finding a camp at the turn off.
We had looked on the way up but it looked unsuitable but heading down it looked better. John jumped out to check it.
We had looked on the way up but it looked unsuitable but heading down it looked better. John jumped out to check it.
Getting
in between the trees I touched one slightly with the back right roof
as she lent over a bump.
A nice camp.
A few cars went past, and although some slowed down, none stopped.
