Near the town of Yalvaç is the site of Antioch in Pisidia, a town from the Hellinistic period with excavations and an aqueduct, which I drive to immediately after breakfast. Unfortunately, the site is fenced and closed, but the aqueduct is freely accessible. Impressive to see how people had to get water in the city in those days.
On the way I get a warning on the display of the engine that the oil level is low and the first, known to me, place where I want to have maintenance done is still 1000 km away. During my first coffee stop I want to check the oil and really coincidentally there is a moped shop next to the coffee shop. When the blue smoke from the moped that the owner is working on has cleared, he comes to look at my motorcycle and I ask him if I can check my oil on his sidewalk.
After putting the engine on the trestle, we wait together while enjoying another glass of çay (tea) until the oil has subsided and can be gauged. That is indeed too low so I look up the specifications of the prescribed oil. Fortunately, he has the oil that meets the requirements and I top up 0.7 liters. One more farewell photo and on our way.
A few hours later I stop at a water point along the road, as there are many in Turkey, to eat my just bought bread with feta. The shepherd of a few cows is also tapping water. He asks if I want çay but I wonder how he is going to make it. He begins to break some twigs and a few minutes later a black teapot is on a fire in the grass.
With the translation app and hands and feet we get a conversation going. When I ask him where he sleeps, he throws a rock at a tree. Over there!
He roams the fields with his cows and two donkeys, and the sacks next to him are all his possessions. He offers me a tomato, grapes and fire-roasted green peppers and eats some of my bread and cheese. When I'm back on the bike, I'll be thinking about this meeting for a long time. Impressive.
At the end of the afternoon I arrive in Eskil, a village on the edge of a large salt lake and desert. Here one could even see flamingos. My search for a hotel in the village yields nothing and I decide to take a look at the edge of the salt lake when I see a Salt Lake Dessert Camp sign.
I follow the directions and sure enough, in the middle of the desert plain is a camp with 30 yurts to spend the night. Awesome! Costs a little more than I'm used to, but this is really a great opportunity.
I leave my stuff in the yurt to visit the salt flats and on my return I enjoy the best dinner I've had in Turkey so far. What a luxury, what a place, what a silence. And what a cold night…
