Heading south through the mountains

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As we leave Sumela and head back to the village we provision with more fruit and vegetables, perhaps another sign of perhaps my snow anxiety. The road starts to climb. We have been mindful to the fact that it is winter and I have been watching the weather radar with regard to snow and there appears to have been a lot. My cousin sends me a link to a news feed 'Snow has arrived in the East' our nerves are a little on edge, well mine really. Graeme is a really competent and the main driver of our trip, but if we have snowstorm and even though we're on winter tyres and we carry snow chains we could come a cropper!!

Our newly purchased map doesn't go this far East so we have no real idea what lays in store so we have left with a lot of hope. We don't go far before the snow starts to fall and the landscape becomes covered in quite a bit of the white stuff! My "it'll be alright" is now a nervous cry as we reach some 2000m plus and the snow is now over 1/2 meter deep, luckily not on the roads! The views are beautiful and as we descend into our night stop in Erzincan the surrounding hills are all covered in snow. All we can see in the following mornings direction are more snow capped mountains!!

The next day follows suit, we allow a stop for a bit of a snowball fight and at the first pass we stop to admire the views. The road clearing team appear and before you know it we are in their very warm hut enjoying a chat, thank you, Google translate, and several glasses of chai! We discuss our travels, most are amazed we have driven here from the UK and it's a reminder of what we have achieved. They ask us if we have children, and we ask the same of them. We tell them they have done a great job on the roads and with their help our journey can continue.

We descend to our nights stop at Kovancilar which after a quick look doesn't look that appealing. We return to a Hotel we saw on the way in and ask if it would be okay to sleep in their car park, there seems to be no problem and we say we will have breakfast in the Hotel in the morning, again more chai and a chat we return to the van exhausted but happy we hope to have left the snow behind. The following morning. We head into the Hotel with a lot of dignitaries and their drivers. Staff are running here and there appearing not to be making not much headway and in all the confusion and with little English we think we have ordered breakfast. We take a Turkish Coffee and wait, we needn't of worried we weren't forgotten and our first full Turkish breakfast arrives. It is a real feast, eggs, bread, fried potatoes, olives ,3 types of cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, tahini, jams, honey and as much chai as you can take to wash it all down with!

We have one last push to our special location, one we couldn't have imagined that we could make Mount Nemrut. We overnight by a beautiful suspension bridge in another Park area and next to the water, these really have been a godsend to us, water and toilets which are the must haves for this type of travel. The following morning we are up early and with some trepidation we make our way to the top, we have heard stories of people who have burnt their brakes out on this steep descent, bad driving maybe. But we came here to see this magnificent site. We arrive at the main car park and normally in season this would be full and a minibus would take you the 2km to the start of the last uphill path of around 500m. The summit of Mount Nemrut is home to one of Turkey's most iconic sights it's a fascinating and eerie funerary mound of King Antiochus I of the Kingdom of Commagene and sits atop this 2,150-meter peak. Under the 50-meter-high, man-made burial mound, Antiochus' tomb is said to be concealed (though despite extensive archaeological work here, his tomb has never been found). Amazingly only discovered in 1958 when they were surveying for new roads. Today we are the only visitors, the pay booth is closed so we walk the road in, although initially I wasn’t feeling the love for the walk up but being able to spend the time being enveloped in this scenery just makes this visit that bit more special. The last 500m path takes you onto the spectacular terraces which are littered with the toppled remnants of giant stone statues that were once majestically lined up to celebrate Antiochus' own glory and the glory of the gods. We walk between the two main terraces facing East and West, the views are spectacular. There is snow up here and just another reminder of how lucky we have been to get here, and we take our time to enjoy this majical place. And we needn't of worried about the descent, Graeme's driving goes without a hitch.

Our nights stop at Karakus Mound another burial ground affords us views back to Mount Nemrut and the setting sun. Weary we plan to stay for two nights at Adiyaman. The weather is turning again and rain is due so finding another parkup near a park and apart from doing some chores and chatting to a lovely young couple who we show around the van it's really lazy couple of days.

After a restful couple of days there has been more snow on the surrounding hills and real Winter is coming to Turkey. We move South to Halfeti a small town on the river of The Eupherates an important river in Turkey and it's longest. We are here to see the half of the sunken town along its banks due to the building of the Birecik dam, which covered several archeological sites, and part of the population had to be resettled. You take a scenic boat ride back up the river and we hook up with a lovely turkish couple who point out the old castle ruins and we share a cup of chai as the boat docks at the town's now ruins just a couple of cafes serving the visitors off the boats. We know that as the many boats that are tied up back in Helfeti, come summer this would be another busy location with abundant parking for tour buses.

Gazientep is one of the towns on The ancient Silk road trading route and also hailed a food capital. We luckily find a parking place and we are able to walk into this interesting town. Shops adorn the streets selling all manner of items, we buy some pistachios, the thousands of trees we see are bare but their harvest is here for sale, all graded and sold by quality and do you know you can tell the difference! We wander, purchase and eat at another Lokanta, Meat Kebabs all washed down with Ayran. But soon it's time to return to Poppy and make our way to our last stop on this part of the country.

We have had with us the whole time till now, a secret tour guide! My cousin who has lived here for around 30 year's and in fact although she is guiding us we haven't as yet met... that's to come! Her last suggestion is The Mosaic Museum at Gazientep it is the largest in the world and oh my should you ever be near?!? What incredible pieces they hold, almost intact and so beautiful and large it really is a feast for the eyes. The works focus on Zeugma which was to be lost to the depths of The Eupherates with the building of the Birecik dam, whilst many were saved and one of these mosaics was literally rolled up as the water began to rise! they are still working at the site. There is a star attraction The 'Gypsy Girl' she's mesmerising and like the Mona Lisa (she is considered Turkeys version) stands in a quietened room and having seen both I can say that she really is quite mesmerising. We finish our enjoyable visit but it's back on the road its nearly Christmas and we have somewhere special to be.

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