Turkey - Asia
The Pontic Mountains or Pontic Alps
After spending a while following the coast road of the Turkish Black Sea it was time for the Mountain passes.
The Pontic Mountains or Pontic Alps stood between Trabzon on the coast inland to Erzurum, via Bayburt and Askale, where we joined the central road.
So it was summer when we drove through the mountains, and these photos are snow covered. The mountains are not high enough to be permanently snow covered. It does look pretty in the snow though. It was also many years later.
The sign below shows the altitude of the pass at 2409m, about 7,900ft. It was not just the height of the passes that was spectacular, nor the valleys and scenery. The roads themselves are just something else. The extract of the google map shows a small segment of the bends, loops, and zigzags as the dirt road climbs in and out of the valleys and over the passes along the route towards the center and then to the East and more mountains.
Wonderful roads with little traffic and no tourists. Proper drivers roads winding their way inland and higher and higher.
According to some of the websites I have visited recently, the Black Sea is still Turkey's Secret Coast and therefore I suspect that this road is not high on many tourist or traveler's destination lists.
Having looked at the websites, we missed out on a lot of things just off the road, which appear to be well worth the time to visit. However, without the internet or any guide books, it was just a case of exploring as we drove.
