Craig is up at seven, washing and tending to the last few chores before we set off. Murat, the campsite owner, brings him tea and they take a break to put the world to rights.  I join them along with Mac n Tosh whilst we enjoy our panoramic view. The Ararat Range, the rocky slopes, the dinosaur spines, the village plains without roads or streets. Farmhouses, simple and solid, as eye catching as any Tuscan hill village. When you look more closely, though, you can see that none of them have glass in the windows. Only wooden shutters or plastic sheets to keep out the winter cold. 

Murat established Noah’s camping down the road and now, he is setting up this new site, Murat Camping. It will be several months before this site is complete but already, it attracts a steady stream of locals for cay, nibbles and nightly games of cards and OK (Turkish scrabble). As we sip our cay the concrete  truck arrives. The pour for the floor and pillars commence. Murat carries on with his development and we prepare to depart. Its not long and we are waving good bye and everyone comes to say cheerio. After five days, we will certainly miss this place. 

Murat Camping

Through the hustle and bustle of Doğubayazıt and on to the D975 towards Lake Van. The question is which way around the Lake do we go?  North of the lake with great views and mausoleum or do we go south and visit Van and the island. Tough decision but I guess, its nice dilemma to have. Maybe we should spin the bottle? 

Bye Bye Mount Ararat

Our journey to Somkaya village is dominated by soaring peaks, rugged hills and plunging valleys. The pure natural beauty against the perfect backdrop of mount Ararat makes us feel rather sad to be leaving. We climb to 2640m until we reach the peak of Tendurek Pass and then slowly descend in to a weird volcanic black lava garden. To the east the hillside is dotted with look out towers marking the border with Iran. Like genoise towers lining the horizon. The occasional military vehicle or tank lines the road surrounded by armed soldiers. All felt reasonably ok until we spot one military tank with a rocket launcher perched on top. Bloody hell! 

Down in to the valley plains and the Kurdish villages look slightly different. All the houses have pitched roofs and lined with tin. Highly reflective against the midday sun. The hay bales are stacked like space huts rather than rounded cousin IT shape. The town of Caldiran is busy and a typical Turkish one street wonder with everything crammed on to one street. We pass more Kurdish villages, which gives the region a distinctively different feel.  Not just in the look and feel of their village but in their welcome. Turkish people look and smile instantly. Where as Kurdish seem to look with suspicion and then smile.  

Mountain peaks

We cruise at around 2000m for a while and the air is cool and fresh.  As we descend the valley it changes in to scorched rocky hills dotted with thin and slender trees.  We spot a brown sign, take a quick right and follow the road to Devils Bridge. The old bridge straddles a relatively narrow gorge but to mark as a tourist attraction is a little over optimistic. However, it did provide a nice stopping point for lunch. The kids from the nearby farm village come running over and stand at our door just looking in. They are fascinated with Mac n Tosh. We make conversation and offer sweets but its not welcomed they just want to play with the dudes. 

View from satan’s bridge

It is late afternoon when we arrive at Lake Van and take a right on to D280. We are going to take the North road around the lake. To our surprise the lake road is littered with check points. We tentatively drive through the majority but at the heavily manned point we are summoned over. Armed soldiers circle the motorhome and check the outside including mirror checks for bombs. A Jandarma officer asks for our passports and checks every page and scrutinises every stamp. All the check points are manned by a mixture of police, military, plain clothes and jandarma. The length of time it takes to check makes us very nervous.  We knew everything should be OK but the process still makes your heart pound. Once he is satisfied with our passport and visa he waves us on our way. 

Van Lake

At Ercis we turn on to the D290 so we can hug the lakeside.  We search for a nice parking spot but really struggle as access is non existent, a military camp or as part of someones a farm. Just as we were about to give up we spot a Turkish park with pagoda’s in the distant. We bumble over and find the whole enclosure surrounded by high walls and manned by security guards. We scratch our heads and with a minute or so an armed soldier walks over. Time to turn around, looks like we got a park mistaken for an army barracks?  However, when we leave the exit sign would suggest it is a park for family and women only. No men except military personnel! Was it a park or barracks…no idea. 

Van Lake

Back on D965 and although very pretty it is hard to find a place to park along side water. We travel much further than expected but eventually find a nice parking spot at Adilcevaz on lakeside.  Suphan dagi to our side 4058 volcanic peak to our side. 

Our Bumble wild camping spot at Adilcevaz GPS position N038.796791, E042.742579

Our parking spot

I’m trudging through the park at sunset when I hear the sound of voices chanting. It comes from the other side of a low wall. I peer over to the lakeside and find a dozen teenagers. All clutching an instrument and quietly singing. Standing above them, occasionally stooping to correct notes their teacher. She looks very young but I am later informed she is 38, a mother of four and soon to become a grandma. As a welcome gesture to their village they sing us several songs. There are of course several bum notes but who cares, it still sounds so beautiful. 

What a beautiful welcome