TRAVERSE Issue 24 - June 2021 | Page 119

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bikers .
Celil had the incredible gesture of leaving his apartment for me ; he and his wife went to sleep at his father ' s house , so that I could rest . Wonderful human beings , the Turkish .
The next morning he called me to go to the workshop where his father , who spoke no other language than Turkish , prepared a wonderful breakfast for me .
In front of the workshop , there was a hairdresser ' s shop . The hairdresser , a friend of Celil ' s , upon seeing me arrive on La Más with ‘ his ’ aluminium saddlebags full of stickers from many places and as witness of the places where I have travelled around the world , crossed the street and greeted me in English . He smiled and told me to “ please wait a few minutes ”, he would be right back . He went to his store and I saw him coming back from the barber shop with a chair in his hand on which he made me sit down . I did , and he began to massage my head and arms which transported me to another dimension , that of total pleasure after a long motorcycle ride .
I left Safranbolu and headed towards Samsun and Trabson with a destination of Ayder . It was a long ride where fatigue took its toll on my body , especially on the last stretch where I was caught at night in drizzling rain . I arrived in Ayder , which is an alpine village nestled in the province of Rize and famous for the honey produced from rhododendron . I spent three nights there , enjoying the alpine climate , rain and even snow . Today the entrance to this national park is closed until 2025 . The landscape has nothing to envy of Switzerland or the German Black Forest . It is fantastic .
On the morning of the fourth day , I took advantage of the sunrise to head towards Kars passing through
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