The route from Ispir to Kars has got to be the most memorable yet. I have never travelled on so many differnet types of road surface and aespecially on a GS fully loaded.
If you draw a line vertically through Ankara, the west side is wealthy and the east side is very poor and it shows. Main artery routes and are no more than dirt roads which are under constant repair and the main road for Ardahan to Kars is mostly graded road with gravel, which is dual carriage way wide. Up in the mountains it was 2 deg C at 2550m with snow.
Kars sits at 1700m whichis a positivelt tropical 7 deg C
My GS was brilliant and it really showed its off road potential when we had to divert off the mud track into a small village off the general road (if it is still a road when mud). This saw us all ascending big climbs of rocks with more mud through narrow lanes with animals every where. No time to take pictures unfortunately
They dont even worry about bridges so river crossings were required watched by the locals.
Max dropped his bike and had to dry all his clothes in the evening while Jeff (van man) repaired the pannier mounts on his F800
All the pictures show the days roads with one or two people finding the wet dirt too much to handle and find out how heavy a GS is to pick up(no not me Yet!)
Sorry if this is not perfect english but after lots of hours in the saddle, time is minimal after group meetings, to establish the following days proceedings. Still have to eat and sleep
Anyway, English was never one of my strong subjects
3760 miles - Kars, Turkey
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