An ode to Hatay and made our way up to the Anatolian plateau

To answer the obvious question first: yes, we were close to Syria (the closest we got was about 10 km from the border) and no, that wasn’t dangerous. At first we were also a bit nervous, but everybody we met on the way assured us that it was safe. Plus, apparently Hatay is home to the best künefe. And, as we said before, we do a lot for good künefe, so we made the trip down to this little corner of Turkey surrounded by Syria and the sea.

After Adana, we had a horrible day cycling to Iskenderun; it was hot and smoggy and the D817 was full of trucks. The further East we go, the crappier the cars and trucks become. We reckon that we are at the equivalent of smoking a pack a day right now. Iskendrun and the next town south, Arsuz, were very nice, and almost felt a bit more… Western? But the real fun started after Arsuz. We followed the main road south, climbing a bit to 200 meters and through little villages, pine covered hill sides and with views of the sea. Until we hit the tiny village of Kale (tiny, as in 5 houses) where the Hatay province decided to build a new road. It was so new that our navigation app (maps.me) didn’t even know it was there. Even better; they also decided that clearly there needed to be a bike lane next to the road. On the sea side. With a barrier. In bright blue. Why? We have no clue, because we are pretty sure that the locals would never ever bike here. But we would love for the person responsible at the Hatay council to get a promotion and an unlimited budget, because it was AWESOME! We maybe saw two guys on a scooter, 10 cars and the aformentioned military vehicle, but for the rest it was just 25 km of us and the glorious cycle path. Hurrah! Just the end of the bike lane was quite abrupt, so if you ever get to do this ride; be careful!

Then through the run down beach town of Samandağ. We wanted to visit the St Simeon Monastery and cycled all the way up the hill, only to find out it was closed and there was no way to camp there. The hill is full of wind turbines, so a) that means it’s really windy up there and b) there are a lot of signs with “access forbidden”. So we had to cycle back down, where basically the outskirts of Antakya start, so we had troubles finding a spot. Even worse, the spot we found (next to the road, in a small field) was also a favorite spot for the locals. Local wild boars that is. Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to have those sniffing around your tent in the dark?

But we survived, and the next day it was only 14 km to Antakya, the city also known as Hatay, Defne or Antioch. Take your pick. We checked in at a very cute hotel – where we were the only guests – put on our masks and explored the city. We made our way to the church of St Peter. Opposed to what he started in the Vatican, this church is a more modest affair.

We made our rounds through the Bazar, where people where shopping for their iftar meal. Apparently this is a men’s job and they pick up the bread, hummus and bakla (broad bean hummus) and olives. It was a lively affair and Kevin fitted right in.

On Friday it was a national holiday and the government extended the national lockdown to include this day. The Turks could not leave their homes from Thursday evening till Monday morning. For us this meant eerily quiet streets when we left the city to make our way up north and finally make it up to the Anatolian plateau. Almost the entire middle part of the country is elevated (averaged at around 1100 meter above sea level). Almost everywhere this means a steep climb from the coast, we have seen the Taurus mountain range all along the Mediterranean coast as a sort of wall. By sheer luck we have found the only place in Turkey where the climb is very gradual. So gradual, that we hardly noticed it, especially the first 500 m up. So we followed the D817 north and found a place to camp at a gas station. The landscape is very open, and it was hard to find any shelter. The next day we turned east towards Gaziantep on the D400, with a bit steeper climb and ended up at 1100 meter. Tadaaa, we made it! This means no more coastal cycling for now, let’s see what the interior of Turkey brings us!