05 May – Round trip, 161 miles
An optional ride-out to Mt Nemrut “Mountain of Gods”.
Some fairly twisty roads out to get there and some very small country lanes.
Visited some old Roman Bridge – where we were swamped by some school trip – about 2 dozen, or more, 9-10 year olds all wanting to practice their english. Most of the others managed to hide away, when they all converged on me… with the same questions darted at me from every direction, for about 10 minutes straight… “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?”, “Do you like Turkey?” – etc, etc. They took a couple of group photos with me and bike, and a couple of “selfies” – and I completely forgot to get one of the group photos taken with my own camera/phone.
Anyway – rather impressive bridge, considering it’s nearly 2,000 years old.
And – then on to Mount Nemrut itself – where the entire top cone is artificial – built by slaves carrying up rocks to make the mountain higher… and there’s a few giant statues of the normal stuff – gods, guardian eagles/lions, and the guy who ordered it built… rubbing elbows with the gods, obviously. Again – rather impressive.
And finally – some very very twisty roads to return to Matalya, including quite long stretches of gravel… slowly building up the experience which will be required all too soon.
