Over the Shoulder of Mt Ararat // Bicycle Touring Turkey

On our bicycle tour across Turkey, we head to Lake Van to escape the heat. We bikepack up the border of Iran, enjoy waterfalls, beautiful wild camping spots, and gorgeous byroads on our gravel bikes. At one point, we learn our road may not be so safe and decide to make a change of plans.
Join us for some good old fashioned mixed terrain cycle touring.
▶ Our hearts go out to those in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria in the wake of the massive earthquake this week. If you'd like to find ways to help, please check out our community post: / @slow_spokes
▶ This video is part of our Cycling Turkey series. Watch the rest here:
• Cycling Turkey Series
▶ Get early access to our videos & more on Patreon. Tiers start at $2/mo (and all tiers get the same benefits!): bit.ly/s_spatreon. (Or just buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi. Thank you! ko-fi.com/slow...)
▶ Music: The music in this episode is licensed through Track Club. If you use our referral link, you get two months full-access for free! trackclub.com/...
▶FULL GEAR LIST: / 2024-gear-list-107025941 (free post)
#travel #biketour #bikepacking #cycletouring #turkey #türkiye #cycling #gravelbike #slowtravel #wildcamping #bikecamping #bicyclecamping #lakevan #mtararat

[@AmazingWorldBikeTour]

Nice one! You make an important point early on and you make it very subtle. These regions are wildly different from what the average news make us believe. It is fascinating to see how other people experience almost the same route. Keep it up and thanks for the 🍕 Arev and Mathias

[@jasonthompson5256]

Great episode, thank you 👌

[@michaelhawkins7995]

Thanks for the views,chat n touring. Great stuff! X🙂

[@Jackplumz]

Lovely, I having been foolowing your videos closely, a great insight into places to visit on my planned Turkey tour this summer. Great to see you can cope down there in June at least in the mountains. Think the Syria border area is out after the dreadful earthquake there, so very timely as i was just looking at heading through the middle to Van. great work.

[@mfcobanoglu1]

The earthquake zone is totallly devestated. The aftermath of the disaster is mostly can be seen n Kahramanmaraş, Malatya, Adıyaman, Osmaniye and Hatay provinces. İ'm saying this as a first- hand witness of the earthquake since Malatya is my hometown. The downtown area of these cities are 90% demolished. As for the heat concerns İ recommend you North-eastern and Black sea region of Turkey. As it is the highlands of Turkey and mostly covered with forests the temperatures are low. And the weather gets rainy as you her close to the Black sea. Why not cycling through a route including Erzurum, Kars, Artvin, Rize and Trabzon.

[@VeloObscura]

Really enjoying the series, guys! I don't really know a lot about Turkey, other than wanting dearly to travel through it, so you're giving me lots of ideas and showing me the places I need to check out. Cheers!

[@infectionSincross]

i love the channels name. didnt watch the video yet and immediately subscribe. lol

[@slow_spokes]

Chris gets the credit. I (Hillary) didn’t want to make a KZbin channel until Chris came up with that name and then I was like well crap we can’t not use it. Now I’m obsessed with making the videos. Makes me so happy. Hope you enjoy them!

[@jordanschwirtlich832]

I think this is one of my favorites so far of your videos because it's an area that I haven't seen before! I like how everyone just waves at you even though I bet you two are an unusual site out there.

[@dougmckinney7575]

Hi Chris and Hillary, you guys are knocking it out of the park with your videos. Really like the back and forth banter. You guys are naturals. Looking forward to more videos and am going to be sad when these end, so you have to go on another tour again! Are you two riding Salsa Vayas?

[@dougmckinney7575]

@@slow_spokes , thanks for input. I’m on a Salsa Marrakesh but want a bit more stack so am thinking about building up a Vaya. I love the tag line”Hey Hillary, Hey Chris, where are we?” Puts a smile on my face each time I hear it. Cheers to your next trip. Oh, and the voice overs with both of you is great too

[@dougmckinney7575]

@@slow_spokes N+1 is always the answer! I also have a Surly ECR,Surly Ogre and some other skinny tire bike. Lol

[@biking-places]

Beautiful footage, really looking forward to making it out there one day.

[@murattahan2391]

👍👍👍

[@wearetrackclub]

Nice music choice ;)

[@erikl.1860]

Great video again (just like all your previous videos). I’m planning a cycle tour to Turkey, leaving Belgium beginning of April. Then I come back through Greece, Italy, France. I count on 6 months, my longest trip so far. I have two questions, I hope you (or your viewers) can help me with: - Is credit card generally accepted in Turkey, or should I get cash from ATM as soon as I cross the border? - How to get Internet? Turkey is not included in my package, so I would need to get a Turkish SIM card for data. Or is WiFi available ‘everywhere’, so that I can count on free WiFi while in Turkey? Thanks.

[@erikl.1860]

@@slow_spokes Good to know. Thanks a lot!

[@valenteferraro9859]

i percorsi dove li scaricate?

[@slow_spokes]

This one we created in Komoot based on suggestions from Reddit.

[@maliksince1973]

Turkeye is a historical country.

[@abidRehmani313]

very nice video nice life I watch your videos perfectly and wish that I could also go on this track I have also gone out once or twice but have returned from the way because of being alone. And the real issue is stamina, I am building stamina, then I will definitely come out, be happy, my prayers are with you

[@maitaioe9455]

Noah's ark is not a myth. You will find out, one day.