After Diyarbakir (home of the illegal PKK separatist party and that's the best I can say about it), the road heads north through some as-of-yet unfound mini-Cappadocia and then onto lake Van, for lots and lots of rain and even more waiting.After not-so-exciting-for-me Diyarbakir I zoomed through Mardin, really not doing the place right, as it's a Unesco world heritage site and is thus worth a visit, but it was early in the morning and really, I'm not setup to park the bike and walk around a new city in full gear... that's why a van would be nice - you walk in dressed like Clark Kent and you walk out as Superman. The Vstrom doesn't afford one this privacy. Oh well.

So I buy a Mardin load of bread (lovely, crispy, yumm) and move on to visit the famous (?) Mar Gabriel monastery. No idea why it's famous, to me it looks like a failed attempt to reach the architectural/artistic grandeur of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

After about 20' I was done with that monastery. Very nice, but also too much religion in one place. Gotta move on.

So I headed north to Hasankeyf, a small village that sports more cave houses than Cappadocia in one place, but for some reason is not as well known. The "Castle" of Hasankeyf, an Acropolis really, a walled city on the top of a hill, is an entire ancient ruined city.

I walked there for 2-3 hours and there was still much to see - the place is pretty much in disrepair with no clearly marked paths or anything, so it's up to the visitor to not walk off the cliff.

The castle lies on the bank of the river Tigris, another ancient source of life that has seen entire civilisations come and go...

After a good night's sleep, I moved on NE, towards lake Van. It rained during the night and all roads were wet, and hence muddy. As if the skidding trucks were not bad enough, I got assaulted by a flock of sheep:

The end result was that the bike (and myself) became quite muddy - here during a rest/snack break on the road to Tatvan:

In Tatvan, I checked in a hotel and went out on foot to explore the city. I walked for a few hours, most of the route right on the lake's shore. An interesting sight: A minaret (mosque tower) construction site, with two turkish flags on the scaffolding! Flag makers in Turkey certainly have an easy life... it's difficult not to have a turkish flag in some shape/form in sight wherever one turns one's eye.

The next morning, I thought I would visit Mount Nemrut. Not the one with the national park around it and the huge stone heads on it, but another volcanic mountain that also sports a lake and supposedly a lovely crater one can camp on! I wouldn't camp (too cold/damp) but I wanted to see it before I moved on. So I found the unmarked road that headed up the mountain and started ascending.

First there was the mist.
Then the tarmac ended and the road became a (quite bad) dirt road.
Then came the snow.

Argh! Turn on the GPS. I'm at 2615m (300 vertical meters below the top) and I can't really carry on without taking unacceptable risk. This isn't really worth it (with a fully loaded bike? no way!), so I turn back and descend.

I take the south road that skirts the lake and heads east to Van. The landscape is beautiful...

...but it's also mui mui cold! That's why I look like the Michellin man in this picture, I have 5 layers on! (thermal underwear, synthetic base layer, fleece, cordura & the waterproof overalls)

So I get to Van in one (frozen) piece, look for a hotel, realise there is no secure parking, the city is a madhouse, there is no way I am parking my bike on the street there, way too noisy, way too dangerous, traffic is a nightmare, mud everywhere, people bolt out to cross the street and make me test the ABS with the Strom skidding like crazy, huge potholes filled with rainwater that the buses drive me into... not a nice experience. So I do what I do best and piss off 15km out, find a camping site (that turns out to be infested with ticks) and pitch my tent there. Slightly damp, but overall much better.

The next day (today!) I go out on a mission: change the engine oil and get a spare rear tyre, in preparation for Iran. I spot a Suzuki dealership on my way into town. I ask them for the right engine oil for my bike, the blokes make a few phone calls and within 3' have the solution. They are extremely friendly and helpful, we take a couple of pictures and they tell me exactly where to go to get the oil changed.

On the course of the day I also find Bora on the phone, he has the right tyre, we do all the paperwork payment etc and it's already on its way, so now all I have to do is wait, and in a few days I shall be fully equipped to enter Iran.

Till then!