Sahap was very curious about how we start and stop cycling with our recumbent bikes. So I gave him a small demonstration:

After our departure, we were happy to discover that the moorland we entered had only a few hills with mild slopes.

Even the villages were closer to each other, not more than 10 kms. We hardly passed a village, a few knolls, and the next minaret became visible in the distance.

In Kozanli we stopped at a small grocer to buy a few cookies and ice cream.

Zita had a wonderful time looking around and examining everything in the shop until she found her treasure. Even I thought her efforts were worth it. This treasure was an English-Turkish dictionary and cost only 1(one) lira.

Before reaching Kulu, there were a few more hills to overtake.

Here we met with a cool old guy, a shepherd, who sported Adidas training shoes. J They are not visible, unfortunately, in the pictures we took of him.

That evening in Latif, we received Kurdish hospitality again.

We only started our breakfast after all this.

We made progress through a desolate countryside, but as soon as we got lower in the valley, we saw that it was not as desolate as we thought. First we saw some beehives, then some sheep.

As soon as we left the valley we came across a gypsy encampment. They were really nice and friendly, and gave us a bottle of cold drinking water.

I was planning to have a midday siesta in Yesilöz köyü. As soon as we got there we could see that it was a very small place, just about big enough to have a mosque, but no shop or teahouse.…

We were sitting by the mosque very tired and exhausted and we had very little food. I asked somebody about a shop, when he gestured that we should follow him. Finally we arrived not at a shop, but in a large courtyard, one corner of which there was his nicely painted house, with his wife and 5 months old baby inside.

A few minutes late 2 more children and 2 grandparents also appeared. This is how Atci (pronounciation: Atji) lives in an extended family. 

Lunch was cooked aubergine with home made yoghurt, cheese, eggs, vegetables, bread and tchorba.

It was a big-big adventure to have lunch with them.

The next village was called Tepeköy, one valley further on, on top of a hill, around the height of about 1000m.

We were just about to set up camp on a patch of grass under the minaret, when somebody shouted across in perfect English:  „How are you?, Where are you from?”

We found ourselves at Sahap’s family.

In Tepeköy there was a real rural, traditional kurdish wedding, where Sahap took us along.

It was brilliant, a fantastic experience!

The boys and the girls were dancing separately in two circles, to exciting and interesting music – I can’t describe it, watch the video to see it!

I invented that while we are in Turkey, I will put together a small travelling dictionary, which we will put up on the web site as well.  And we will also make a list of those aspects of other cultures that we like, in order to introduce them into our life after we return home.  Because there is plenty to learn from other people.