Meeting the Kartvelebi & Kurdistan, day 15, Iğdir in Turkey.

I left Tblisi direction Didgori, the direction I took was almost a straight line, so at some point I finded myself in an a stage of an Enduro race, that for the Africa Twin is extremely hard Enduro.

 A V-shaped mule track, plenty of rocks, trees and very steep. I had to work a lot with the clutch in some points. The temperatures of oil and coolant reached 103 degrees celsius, the beast was sweating and suffering while the pilot was doing the same and he was worrying about the fixed chain slider. The beast was feeling alive and free once again!

 When I reached the Didgori I was completely soaked. The monument is huge and epic, big swords are everywhere. You can find more by googling. 

Didgori.

Then there was an unpaved road, very large and fast. Near Manglisi I was again on pavment, and I followed the road to Tsalka, Poka and I've crossed the border with Turkey near Çildir. This Custom is new and it has been opened again (after 1995) in december 2015. There was no waiting line.

This border between Georgia and Turkey has been opened recently. I was the only one that was crossing there. The border is near Kartsakhi lake.

 All this region is a plateu at 2000 meters above the sea level. On the Georgian side they are building a railway and on the Turkish one a 4 lane road will be available in the next years. The Çildir lake is part of the plateau, and it is really big and the road around it is very nice. 

Çıldır Gölü and the D010.

But the best roads are outside the main one: The whole region (in Turkey) is full of very fast unpaved roads, which allow the rider to hit speeds up to 120 km/h easily. 

BRAAAAAAP!

By following some of these roads I went to Ani, an abandoned middle age city. I just passed nearby sadly, but visiting it with full armor would have been painful. Then down to Digor, the weather was grey and a storm was arriving, so I had to jump into the rainsuit, in Digor I should have tanked, but petrol stations didn't have Benzin. So I had to head to Tuzluca, but I wasn't able to reach it, because I run out of fuel few kilometers before it. 

Run out of fuel, few kilometers before Tuzluca on the D080.

I stopped a car an the man inside kindly offered to bring some fuel to me. After 20 mins he returned with 5 liters of fuel, water and ice tea. He didn't accept my money. I thanked him a lot and I went on, to Tuzluca, where I tanked fully. Then after few kilometers I was in Iğdir, where I found a cheap hotel for the night.

There are a lot of soldiers everywhere outside cities, in every small village that I've passed through there was a garrison in a well defended fort. I think it is like that because I've ridden very close to the border with Armenia and because it is the kurdish part of Turkey. In Iğdir and at petrol stations people were really friendly and kind.