I had been driving for about an hour on a rather deserted mountain road in a winter wonderland in Northeastern Turkey when the road end abruptly at what seemed to be a snow covered mountain. The GPS was no help, as the route on it involved going through the what was impassable snow. I saw a snow plough working on a tertiary road and started following it, we got to a village and a guy came out and asked me where were we headed, when I told him Kars was out destination he starting gesturing me to go back, saying “Savsat, Savsat (shavshaat, shavshaat)”, which I thought meant go back. There was no way to turn around due to the high snow banks and the road ahead dipped downwards, so there I was sitting in the car trying to decide whether I wanted to go forward and try to find a turn around or back up on a steep, slippery mountain road.
We had been making our way eastward through Turkey, starting out in Istanbul, spending some time in Ankara and Cappadocia. For the last part of the trip we planned on exploring the North East of the country, starting in historic Trabzon on the Black Sea coast, then heading to the Kackar mountains. After spending a few days in Cappadocia we started early on the 9 hour drive from Goreme to Trabzon. It was pretty monotonous the first few hours driving along D 260 past Kayseri to Sivas, where we took a short stop to rest. The drive got more interesting past Sivas going through the Geminbeli pass and on to the the Pontic Mountains. We ran into some serious snow towards the end of our trip past Torul, just north of the Zigana pass, the sun had already set so this part of the drive was tough, but we made it to our Hotel “Mercure” in Trabzon around 9 in the evening.
After some much needed sleep and a good breakfast we headed out to explore Trabzon, the first point of stop was the Hagia Sofia. A former Church it was converted to a mosque in the 16th century, it became a museum after the Turkish revolution and has recently been converted back to a mosque. Although much smaller as compared to the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, it is quite worth visiting. There are frescos still present (they are covered up during prayer times) and a modern glass façade has been added on one side. We spent about an hour exploring the building and grounds, then headed form some much needed snacks at the nearby Yakamoz Pastenisi, their fresh borek really hit the spot. We headed to the city center to pick up a few things, the traffic was pretty bad and the driving was made tougher due to the narrow streets in the downtown area. On the way back to our hotel we had a late lunch at Corbasi Kazani near out hotel, this little cafe was a great find, with excellent food at very reasonable prices. A major attraction in the Trabzon area is the Sumela Monastery. Nestled in the cliffs this impressive set of buildings was built around 800 AD and was continuously inhabited till after the Turko-Greek war in 1922, when the last of the Greek Orthodox monks were forced to migrate. The complex itself is very well preserved with beautiful frescos and paintings, and went through a recent refurbishment.
The next morning after a big breakfast we were on the road early, headed to the Kackar mountains, our destination being the city of Kars. After an hour of driving along the coast we headed into the mountains on the Atrvin-Ardahan highway. The drive was very scenic, and passed through some quaint towns including Aradanuc (more about this later) which we reached about 2.5 hrs into the drive. We made a short stop in Ardanuc and were back on the road, the drive form this point on was spectacularly scenic, going through a winter wonderland, we did notice the lack of traffic on the road, about an hour into this part of the drive the road came to end at what seemed to be a mountain of snow which is where I started to follow the snow plough and ended up stranded on the steep mountain road. Having no other option, I slowly backed up for about a mile, there were snow banks on both sides making a three point turn impossible, after a nerve wrecking 30 min, I finally found a place wide enough to turn around. We found someone on the road and asked them for a way to Kars, the answer we got was Savsat!. Not sure whether Savsat meant go back down the road or something else we headed back towards Ardanuc, where we stopped at Yildiz restaurant for some food, where the waiter finally explained that Savsat is a city and the road we were trying to take to Kars has been snowed in. The alternate route was to take a bit of a detour via ‘Savsat’. After a good filling lunch we headed towards Savsat, this part of the Kackars was rather arid and devoid of greenery for the most part, it became scenic again as we got nearer to the town. By this time the sun has set and the roads started icing over, it was still another 90 min or so to Kars, we decided to find a hotel nearby, after about 20 min of tough driving on icy roads we saw the sign for ‘Black Forest Hotel‘, the drive up to the hotel was steep and had iced over so we were not sure weather or not the place was open. Thankfully they were, although we found out that only two of the 40 or so rooms were occupied (winter being a very slow time for this area). Their kitchen was also serving so we had a much needed big dinner in their huge and virtually unoccupied dining hall and called it a day.
The next morning we decided to abandon the trip to Kars and head back to the black sea coast. After exploring a little bit of the surrounding area, we headed to Findikli on the coast (this is also 30 min away from the Georgia border which was our next destination), we would spend a couple of days here before heading to Batumi in Georgia. Findikli is a pleasant little town, with quaint shops and restaurants, the region itself is known for walnut and tea plantation. We stayed at the almost new Ramada Hotel, which although a little pricey for a Ramada, turned out to be a wonderful place to stay. The hotel staff was very welcoming and elpful and their kitchen serves excellent food, I would highly recommend it for a stay. The Ramada was right across from the Ataturk Parki by the beach which has a nice long boardwalk along the sea. We also shopped for a few trinkets in town and had some very fresh fish which was cooked right then and there in front of us.
We had a wonderful time visiting this part of Turkey, it is much less touristy and has spectacular natural beauty. We will definitely be back for further exploration!
The Open Roads 