hi everybody!
Next october (2011), me and my wife are planning a big road trip in Turkey, by our car (We are living in Greece, but she is turkish). We will start from istanbul on october the 10th and our goal is to arrive in Batman (my wife's hometown) for Kurban Bayrami (5th of November).
The places we want to explore are:
- Eastern Black sea,
- Coruh valley,
- North Firat nehri
We have almost 4 weeks (26 days) for all those places and our objective is less sightseeing and more meeting in depth the original local culture, people in remote villages that maintain a lot of their past customs and life, and of course the stunning nature.
So, our plan is:
- Arrive directly from istanbul to Giresun and start our trip from there. Our first plan was to make some stopovers in western and central Karadeniz, but making our research, we understood that (regarding the weather) is better to arrive in East karadeniz the earliest possible and be more relaxed in exploring the remote areas. Is it possible to arrive the same day? What is the best route? How long would it take? Any nice tip for lunch stop?
- Spend 2 days in Tonya, walking around and exploring the neighbor villages.
- One day in Trabzon
- 2 or 3 days around Macka, for walking, off road driving, visiting monasteries and try to find passage to the village demirciler above Yomra.
- Surmene, Of and up again to Caykara. Is there any mountain road connecting Surmene and Caykara areas, without having to go back to the coast?
- Couple of days in Uzungol
- Ikizdere
- Rize and Firtina valley for 2 days trying to get to Ayder or Cat.
- Along the coast in Laz area and arrive in Artvin after 2 days (Any reccommendation for stopover?)
- Day trip to Savsat
- Yusufeli and staying 2 days in Barhal or Yaylalar. (maybe it would be too late for Barhal? Would it be better to go there before when being in Ikizdere?)
- Drive along the Coruh river to Ispir and Bayburt (Which way is it better from Ispir to Bayburt? How long could it take from Yusufeli to Bayburt?)
- Erzincan
- Erzincan to Kemaliye where we plan to stay for couple of days for exploring North Firat (any suggestion for nice places?)
- Kemaliye to Malatya (or Darende if there is any short route from Arapgir; lonely planet is recommending Darende as a place not to miss)
- Mt Nemrut
- Batman
Questions about Black sea:
- The period we are going (after the 10th of october) how are the secondary roads?
- Is there possibility to find closed roads?
- Can we get to yaylas?
- Are there any people on the mountains (or in case of trouble we will be helpless?)
- Can we still do off road? We have a Dacia Duster 4x4, which is more like a high suv than jeep.
- What conditions are the dirt roads: too muddy or still relatively dry.
- Any chance to find some local celebration in order to listen the local music, such us Horon and Kemence?
Open to any suggestions especially for the route from Yusufeli to Erzincan and from Erzincan to Malatya via Kemaliye.
