More photos here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/118443212147267278768

From Alanya we follow the road inland which takes us through beautiful mountainous area. The road is built in steep cliffs and the views are fabulous. At places the road is being repaired and the parts are not in very good condition. In a nice town Sariveliler we stop to buy some food. People are kind and curious. You can see this is not touristic place. We have a quiet sleep in a hillside not far away from the town.

Next morning we continue to Ermenek and descent towards Mut. It’s terribly hot so we just ride on to Kharman and then among endless plains of wheat fields towards Cappadocia. We decide to first visit less known places of Cappadocia, so we stop at small village Guzelyurt, which has its own underground city. We stop at old church and explore the surroundings. There are caves all around, made in the rocks, used in the past for living. We meet an English guy travelling by bike and we talk for some minutes. He is on the way to Africa.

We continue towards Derinkuyu, another old small village built in beautiful rocky area with thousands of caves all around, and then to Soganli, where we find a nice restaurant with the beautiful garden full of apple trees. The owner is very nice and allows us to camp for free if we eat dinner there; and beside we have free entrance to Cappadocia (Soganli Kapadokya Restaurant, Nuri in Yilmaz Ablak). We enjoy Cappadocia very much, it’s like a dwarf town, with many well preserved churches and millions of pinnacles and caves. Once again we discover oil on first wheel – this time the left fork is leaking. Once again Zoran puts it apart and fix it. We don’t know where exactly a problem is; there is no visible mistake, just leaking?!

We leave Soganli and drive to Urgup, but it’s too touristic for us, so we continue to the east. It’s late in the afternoon and we find a small cave to stay overnight. Very comfortable and peaceful with a nice view and we don’t have to put up a tent.

After Cappadocia we ride through picturesque landscape towards the mountain Nemrut Dagi which is archaeological and touristic attraction – on the top there are relicts of huge stony heads of different gods or divinities, some of them facing the east and some the west. We are there late in the afternoon, just the right time to catch the sunset. However, there are so many tourists on the top so we don’t wait.

Across the last remnants of hills we descent to an endless plain and follow a straight road through bleak stony desert towards Diyarbakir. No shadow to stop for a rest. After big and dusty Diyarbakir the landscape becomes more green and hilly and we ride beside cotton fields to another dusty town Batman, from where we turn and follow a nice road through a river canyon to a small village Hasakeyf, old village made in rocks, which will be flooded in the near future. Unfortunately a large part of old town is closed for visitors because a huge rock fell down recently and the place is being under reparation.

We continue towards Lake Van. Just before Tatvan we hardly find a small sign for volcano Nemrut dagi (yes, another Nemrut); we ascend to 2500 m and then descent to 2250 m into the crater with 3 lakes. At Warm Lake we find a kind of camping site, but there is nothing just a small hut where you can get a tea. And a nice guy Fejzir who “runs” a camp. He explains that we are out of the season right now and he is not on work but on holidays. We stay, put up a tent near the hut, just above the lake and we spend an interesting and funny evening with Fejzir, sitting at fire, drinking tea and talking. It’s freezing cold, but it’s beautiful night, so peaceful with million stars on the clear sky. Next day we do some hiking, all alone in the wild landscape, finding some magnificent views.

For border crossing with Iran we take the southern crossing Esendere/Serou. We ride through small Kurdish villages frequently passing military basis; the atmosphere here is a little bit different and we don’t feel really relaxed. However, people are still very nice, just kids can be sometimes annoying or even aggressive. Before the border we stop at Yuksekova and stay overnight at hotel Aslan (they don’t have a shower, but it’s cheap and they helped to park the motorbike inside the hotel, in the hall). We have just another 40 km left to the border.