Malatya

After replacing the rear tire, I set off, into increasingly cold rain. Soon the rain became a mix of snow & rain. A combination of the climbing & my gear kept me comfortably for most of the time. Unfortunately at a certain point my Windstopper gloves got wet, my 'waterproof' overgloves didn't really live up to the billing, at which point my fingers started to get cold. Snow was falling & the land beside the road was covered in snow.

Just as I started to get worried about finding a warm dry place to get some lunch, I came to a village with a tiny restaurant. There was quite a crowd in the place & they all wanted to shake my hand. As word spread of a strange cyclists arrival more arrived. I had a very enjoyable hour eating, warming up by their wood stove & chatting to a couple of English speakers, the local school's English teacher & a guy from the village on holiday who had emigrated to the UK. As it was a Kurdish village I presume that he left as a result of the troubles in the 80s & 90s. I couldn't see anything identifiably different about the Kurds in the restaurant from the Turks I'd seen so far. There was the same range of hair & skin colour as elsewhere & the shape of their faces was not so different from someone in Southern Europe, be that Italy or Spain.

The road continued to rise, up to a pass of 1800m which was shrouded in fog then dropped steadily. Soon the snow was only visible on the highlands & the clouds were high above. I so enjoyed having the road to myself & got over the cold by having a çay if the road went down or not stopping if it went up.

I stopped for the night in Malatya, the biggest town I'd overnighted in since Istanbul. My hotel was right downtown. It was nice to be in a city again after a month of small towns & the country. The place didn't have much visible history but plenty of buzz. Apparently there's a large bazaar which I should have time to see a little of if I don't sleep in.

I cycled 83km in 5 hours & 46 minutes