From May 21
Van
Doğubayazıt along the south
I had about ten days left to get back to Istanbul. I’d come east along the north of the country, so I wanted to go back along the south.
01 · The border
Armoured cars on the road.
From Doğubayazıt I went down to Van, walked through the city and kept going west. For a long stretch the road runs not far from the border with Syria. Armoured vehicles drove along it: the military patrols that whole area.
not far from syria.
02 · “Who beat you?”
The face from Ararat.
My face was still a mess from the sunburn on Ararat: swollen, peeling, with cracked lips. One of the Turkish drivers who picked me up looked at me for a while and finally asked who had beaten me up.
Nobody, I told him. I did it myself, on the mountain, by not using any sun protection. I remembered that lesson for good: at altitude, protecting yourself from the sun isn’t optional.
One night
Gaziantep
One night in the city centre
A Turkish man let me stay at his place for the night, right in the centre of the city.
03 · The container
A room in a box.
I still don’t know exactly what it was: something like a container, but fitted out really nicely. I slept there, ate there, and in the morning went back to the road.
Back west
Antalya
Gaziantep via Mersin
From Gaziantep I hitchhiked along the south coast, through Mersin, all the way to Antalya, without stopping anywhere for the night.
04 · Full circle
Antalya, one more time.
In Antalya I had one more host and one more night. The same city where, a month earlier, I’d crossed 25 kilometres on foot with a 25-kilogram pack to reach the start of the trail.
Last days
Istanbul
Antalya via İzmir
From Antalya I went north to Istanbul, through İzmir I think, again without stopping for the night.
05 · Motorways
Hard to hitch.
On the way to Istanbul the roads turn into big motorways, and that made hitchhiking hard again. Finding a place to stay in Istanbul was hard too. In the end a Turkish guy hosted me, whom I found through the hangouts feature on Couchsurfing.
06 · The ferry
Across the Sea of Marmara.
The last stretch was by water: a ferry from the small town of Yalova across the Sea of Marmara to Istanbul. I think it was free for foot passengers. I spent two days in Istanbul, and then it was time to fly.