A perfect day to go hiking in the mountains. We set our sights on a nearby antenna tower that was about 4.5 kms (2.8 miles) one way with a 477 meters (1,565') altitude gain.
Blue sky and sunshine and no wind to speak of. Just a nice spring day. You can almost watch the snow melt!
Uphill every step of the way. We started off with sweaters on, but it didn't take long for them to come off. We weren't sure if we might need them at the top because it would likely be cooler up there.
We just love this type of scenery!
Heading uphill.
We thought we were headed up to that rock, but it turns out the antenna you can see in the distance is much higher up.
Soon there was a lot more snow.
Some kind of tractor had made it's way up here lately, but eventually the tracks stopped and turned to footprints.
Avoiding the mud.
Gorgeous views.
This is where the tracks stopped.
We thought about turning around, but we were less than 1 km from the top. We could see the antennas and the structure up there. Still, trudging through the fairly deep snow didn't look like fun. But, we needed the exercise, so we kept going!
It was hard work, but I kept thinking about our hike up Kilimanjaro and how this was really not that difficult in comparison! It took us about 45 minutes to do that last kilometer.
Made it to the top!
They have a nice sheltered viewpoint up here at 1,764 meters (5,800').
We could see the peak of Mt. Erciyes 140 kms (87 miles) away.
There is a big ski resort on the other side of that 12,800' mountain.
Right in the center of this photo is the viewpoint we went to yesterday.
Zoomed in.
View off the other side.
The side facing the sun has no snow!
We trudged back down through the snow. Made it back to the bottom just after 1:00pm. Just in time for lunch, so we stopped in at the restaurant and sat on the outdoor patio in the sun.
The waiter spoke fairly good English, but there was no written menu so when we asked him what was available, he listed off a bunch of stuff in Turkish and we didn't understand a word. He could see the confusion on our faces, and then said "chicken" to which we replied "okay!". It was pretty funny.
So, we had no idea what we were getting or how much it cost. We weren't to worried though... restaurants are generally pretty inexpensive in Turkiye.
Some salad fixings.
And a big plate of kabob grilled chicken with salad and flatbread.
This little kitty sat and watched us eat.
We were stuffed.
The total for the two of us came to 117 lira ($10 CAD, $8 USD) including tip.
Ruth, saying hello to the horses.
We had a great visit here, and if we weren't getting low on groceries we might have stayed another day!
But, we need to keep moving towards Istanbul. Today will be another fairly long driving day to the outskirts of the city of Kayseri.
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And in Canada...
Beautiful hike.
ReplyDeleteIt was a fantastic hike, we really enjoyed it, even though trudging through the snow wasn't a lot of fun, the end result was worth it. :-)
DeleteWhat a stunning hike with amazing views. Good going to make it to the top, even through snow. You're right that an epic hike like Kilimanjaro puts it into perspective. Looks like a delicious reward lunch after all that hiking!
ReplyDeleteThe views were fantastic, well worth the effort we put in to get up there and the weather was absolutely perfect for our hike. Yeah, if you compare Kilimanjaro to this hike, this hike was a piece of cake. :-)
DeleteLunch was delicious and a great way to finish of the hike.
Great post, what a hike, You two are amazing 💙💛
ReplyDeleteThank you we are glad that you enjoyed the post. It was a beautiful hike and we are looking forward to more hiking in the coming days. :-)
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