Turkey - Asia
If memory serves there are three primary routes across the Asian part of Turkey. The pretty southern route. We took that route on the Encounter Overland trip in 1978. The northern, Black Sea route, which we took in 1977, and the central route. The central route is the main thoroughfare, used by the international trucks. Or should I say intercontinental trucks. The central route is the one most likely to be part of the Grand Trunk Road and may have been part of the Silk Route centuries before.
Populations tend to congregate and develop around water. Not surprisingly the Black Sea coast and the Mediterranean coast are more populated than the somewhat desolate centre.
We chose the Black Sea route.
The road to Samsun was a dirt track, but without potholes.
Another extract from a rare letter home, from Kabul dated 14 July 1975;
The sea was perfectly clear and very refreshing as it is now beginning to get rather warm. We spent 4 days edging our way along the coast and then headed inland across the mountains. We crawled up a rutted almost washed out dirt road for 25 miles to over 11,000 ft and then down for 20 miles. Eventually we met with the notorious central road.. A very bad road, a little good surface followed immediately by gravel and potholes.
We rejoined the central route at Erzurum. The mountains were lovely, the central route, whilst still mountainous, less so.
Our route through Turkey
View Trans Asia 1975 - Turkey in a larger map
