#2: [09-Dec-08]

27-Aug-2004 -- This is the 3^rd confluence out of a 29-confluence hunt, the story continues from 40N 35E.

On day no.6 we started at 10 a.m. in Sivas. We had such a late start, because I went out for a 2-hour run in the morning. At noon time it got really hot that day and we had to go over the Kızıldağ-Pass, which is 2190 m high. At that time the motor heat got to a critical temperature. But, curiously, the temperature wouldn't go down as we went down the pass. We had to stop and have a break. At the river Fırat Nehri (Euphrates) we sat down in the shade and had a watermelon (as we actually had every noon). After that break I wasn't able to keep the car moving strait on. We had a flat tyre! That was causing the motor to overheat! For me, being an enthusiastic cyclist, this was the first time in my life to face such a problem with a car-tyre. Well, we did manage that quite well and continued our trip one hour later in a dirty-sweaty stage.

It was already shortly before sunset, when we approached the CP. According to the map, we had to turn into the road to İspir. But it turned out to be totally wrong. Then, I found out that there was another road to İspir - the old road, its turnoff was about 3 km further east. On this bumpy road we managed to come as close as 140 m to the CP! What an easy access to the point! We walked over harvested fields of grass and reached the point.

On our way back, we wanted to take a picture of the local people. Therefore, we stopped at a farm and asked the farmer, if he wouldn't mind taking a picture of him. Well, he didn't understand what we wanted, but invited us to have a çay (tea) with us in his farmhouse anyway. We accepted and drove into his yard, where the whole family welcomed us. As it is custom in Turkish families, men and women were split up: Guang had to go with the women and drink tea, while I was with the men to drink tea in the opposite house. We managed to communicate with hands and feet and some common sense. After emptying our glass of tea, we refused to take any further drinks, because it was late already. Before we left, the farmer signed on the top of our car, as we used to let sign all the people we met or hitchhiked with us. We reached Erzurum shortly after and stayed the night there.

CP visit details:

• Time at CP: 6:05 pm
• Duration: 40 min (until we were back to our route, excluding the invitation)
• Distance of car parking: 142 m
• GPS height: 1852 m
• Description: Flat grasslands, mountains all around but further away.
• Given Name: Turkish Tea Confluence

Story continues at 38N 47E.