Şırnak

İt was a good decissıon to come by mini bus!
Hakkari - Şirnak is a fantasticıc stretch of road but definitely not one made for biking.

The bus left half empty and almost on time down to the river.
The first 60km are follow the river in the extremely narrow and dusty valley then one branches of along the Iraqi border to the west.
That's where the roller coaster like feeling starts. İ stopped counting after the 4 major ascend.
Obviously the available space was filled up quickly but the crowed was a happy one.
From grandmothers to babies to life stock - it took me quite some time to identify the sounds coming from the back of the bus - rington? a quirking part of the bus - no young chicken in a box :)
İt was a happy bus ride with proud and happy Kurds past many of the castle like army posts.Most of the checkpoints and there were plenty İ passed "undercover" because our driver did not want to wait for me to fill out the paperwork every time - the 4 hour trip lasted 6 anyhow :)

There were two layers of "luggage" on top of my bike at some point which almost killed the guys in the back when we had to break for a "little" pothole - reaction - laughter of all involved!

The Jandarma makes their point very clear...


Kids everywhere - playing with everything. Most guys have 5 and more.

Şirnak the welcome comity - the bus continued to Mardin and nobody really understood why İ am getting of. But they dumped me right in front of the hotel İ wanted to go to.

İt is dusty and there is no point of interest for the average tourist but it has a good atmosphere and everything you need.

The latest fashion just arrived - School uniforms!

The wasteland in the foreground is called park :) but you can see far into the land and the horizon should be Syria. You can also not see the lovely Park Restaurant where İ just had dinner in this picture.