Paisaia, lurrikararen eremua, trumoi-ekaitza

Today it wasn't quite as hot. I started at 8:30 at 19 degrees. However, the temperature should still rise throughout the day.

At first, I made good progress on a well-built road. Past the Euphrates reservoirs through small villages and beautiful landscapes.

The first refueling was due. Fill up once and get a bottle of water.

Now it is the case that you pay separately. First the gas and then all other items. Somehow, I must have looked stupid. The cashier and a colleague were amused. When I asked if they were laughing at me, she only said "I love you" 😂

I do have a chance with young women after all 😂😂

The journey continued with a temperature of 27 degrees now. Turned left into the mountains towards Elbistan. A dreamlike area. A road marked by earth movements. You could partly imagine how a new mountain range is formed, how the rock layers slowly push each other up.

Then I quickly realized that I was on the edge of the earthquake zone. The first damages to houses were visible.

Houses are usually built here in such a way that first a concrete frame is created, which is then filled in. Very similar to our half-timbered buildings.

Usually the concrete was still standing and the filled-in walls were broken out and many roofs had collapsed.

The biggest damages were visible in Elbistan. Sometimes completely collapsed buildings, but mostly heavily damaged uninhabitable houses. New buildings, however, were hardly affected.

In the villages, towns, and fields there were still many tents, sometimes entire tent cities that were still inhabited by people who had become homeless.

It is very impressive and very moving to have seen something like this with my own eyes. I refrained from taking photos here.

A few kilometers further, no more damages were visible and only a few tents from the Red Crescent or AFAD were still visible.

Heavy black clouds moved over the mountains and soon unleashed themselves in thunderstorms with heavy rain. I actually wanted to escape this weather and go to a hotel. But no luck. I drove through the weather for the next 50 km until I reached my destination in Kayseri, which was still over 70 km away. There I was able to secure a room at the Ibis Hotel and warm up again. The temperature had dropped to 13 degrees in the meantime.

It was an impressive day with an extra 430 km on the odometer.