Crossing the border also means that we now see Ararat from pretty much every side. It is actually an important mountain for Armenia, after all Noah's Ark is said to have landed on it, but it is located on Turkish territory. Only from far away you can see it from Yerevan... but everything is named after it - bars, banks, beers.
Ararat (Ağrı Dağı) from all sides
Two border crossings later and underestimating the size of Turkey ends in us stopping somewhere next to the main road to spend the night. And we are almost blown away. There rages an incredible wind, gusts tear the bus back and forth and I can not even think about sleep. But it rained so hard and from so many sides the water pelts us that the bus is finally clean again the next morning after a long dirty time. Also not bad. Somewhere we find a public Hamam and Luca gets a long desired hot shower. Only Luca, because on this day only men are allowed in the hamams. We visit a salt cave (Tuzluca), chug around a bit and are in search of water. In a rather remote place we find a well - dry.
Hospitality and baking a cake
Suddenly the gate opposite the fountain opens and an elderly man invites us in. We are standing in a huge garden with hundreds of apple trees, a self-made fountain, several layouts for stone houses... "Ararat Gardens" is the dream of a man who moved here years ago to get away from city life and find happiness in nature. He invites us for tea, we are allowed to help ourselves to the apples, fill up our water canisters and finally take a bucket shower in his little house - half of which consists of a caravan. Luca bakes an apple pie and helps to save the chickens from the somewhat over-motivated dog, before we drive on again and spend the night in the barren expanse in front of the impressive volcano.
What a luck that we did not drive further. Because sometime at night the nice gentleman (with whom we once again only talk via google translate) writes us that we have forgotten a bag of clothes at his place. So we come back the next day. And drive into the middle of a family celebration - after all it is weekend? There is tea again and the 16-year-old daughter asks us for the cake recipe. We want to give it to her, but actually they want us to bake together right away. Ok, why not? It seems like it's everyone's first time baking. The teenager quickly drives to the village to get some flour, somewhere under a sofa we dig out a mobile electric oven and look for a bowl. We throw everything into a baking pan and hope that it will be good... and everybody likes it 🙂 In the meantime, a super fancy dressed bride and groom have their picture taken in the garden. This time we really pack up everything and head off towards Doğubeyazıt.
Surprises at Lake Van
The next days we spend in and around Lake Van. There we meet again super nice pilots, among others Kadir and Halim the policeman. But also this time we are just not at the right place at the right time. It’s flyable, although neither really high, nor really long. But they show us some super nice places at the lake, where we can spend a few days undisturbed. Furthermore, Kadir invites us to a Kurdish wedding of his friend. So we show up at his house - Luca even prepared by shaving a moustache - and are directly put into traditional dresses. I can't remember the last time I wore a dress. Everything glitters and sparkles and we go to the festival where we don't know anyone. The policeman hears about it too and comes to visit us in the middle of it to take a few quick selfies. If only all cops would be so nice, right?
We are talked into dancing and we all patter around the hall in a big circle. But somehow we don't really get the rhythm of the drum and the flute into our system. It doesn't matter, apparently many people are happy about our presence anyway, at least a lot of photos are taken of us.
Furry visit
The days at the lake are very relaxing. Luca can fly, I can write, we can go swimming every day, eventhough it is already October and we are at 1640m and enjoy the sunset. That's probably what a worker with a huge truck thinks one evening. He drives next to us on the gravel beach and enjoys a break until he realizes that he is stuck. We try to help him, but it's pointless, he just keeps digging himself into the gravel and slipping towards the water. Last chance: he calls his work colleagues who should come to his aid. But before that, he wants to show us a little kitten he got himself today, so he won't have so much misfortune in his life anymore. But what can I say? A moment of not paying attention and suddenly the animal disappears into the depths of the truck and was not seen again.
We hear it still meowing miserably until it suddenly becomes completely quiet. With food and calls we try to get it back into the daylight, but we just don't know where it's sitting, and the fear is great that we might hurt it somehow while driving off. He also casually tells us that he is not allowed to have the animal with him while he is working. At some point, his crew shows up and laughs at him, scolds him... toxic masculinity at its finest. I feel sorry for him, but there's just nothing we can do at that point. Until he suddenly stands beside the van again, completely excited, and gives me the kitten in his hand. His name is Şanslar - that means happiness in Turkish. He asks us to take care of it. Which we do, of course. For almost three days, until we finally meet him again and can give him back his now cheeky, playful, stuffed cat. Oh how we would love to have a travel kitty....
Reunions and decisions
While we just don't know how to go on, if, when and how to get to Iran, we drive around the lake a bit more. We also meet Emi from Denmark again, who was with us in Gipsy Village (Georgia) and is struggling with the same decisions. With her we camp far away from any roads under almond trees... and realize soon enough that they are bitter almonds and we maybe better stop picking them right now!
We also fly again further north with a teacher, a principal and his family along a ridge (Medaveng Dağı). He takes his super talented daughter with him mainly because she is our translator 🙂 We eat together in a picnic park, as there are so many in Turkey, and continue to a volcano (Nemrut Dağı), which is also said to be inhabited by bears. The weather at this altitude turns to autumn, the trees slowly change color and it gets colder at night. However, we do not see any bears. Only their remains, which are mixed with a lot of plastic. The garbage problem is prevalent everywhere in the country, and of course the animals then sooner or later also feed on it. So long as we still try to get a grip on it on the individual track...
Aaaanyway... The many back and forth drove us to make a decision: we go to Iran. I already hate the headscarf and this instrumentalization of religion as well, and we don't know Persian either, we can't read anything and we didn't get the permit to fly either and probably we are just insanely naive, but it was our goal, we have the visa, we are nervous, we are excited, we want to go on... So all the alcohol gets disposed of, the drone gets hidden, the camera microphones too, my hair gets submerged and we drive off towards the border...
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