Day 1,472

The best road in the world … so far

Now isn't hindsight a wonderful thing. With hindsight we'd have known not to stop after arriving in Bayburt and instead we should have fuelled up and carried on, but as we cannot see into the future we stayed put for two nights. Now we needed a rest, Tom's back was letting him know that it needed a day off the bike, and I was just so tired. Our hotel was great, providing a fantastic breakfast and we even found a restaurant with food we loved. Bad weather was due tomorrow, so stopping had been a great idea, except it hadn't. 

Let me explain… 

A few weeks back we realised our time in Turkey was coming to an end and we needed to decide which way to leave and then enter Georgia. Out of the blue I received a message from Barry, a fellow tourer who lives one tube stop from my sister, so we'd met up a couple of years back, in my brother-in-law's local obviously, and talked bike touring. Barry had even used our route through part of Mexico,the 23, and I think he enjoyed it. He had a suggestion for us, why not ride the D915, otherwise known as Turkey's most dangerous road. After the 23 he knows we are up for a challenge. Matt P had suggested we carry on stalking him and ride another canyon, even better than the one we'd just ridden. Choices choices - possible death or stunning views. You can guess what we chose! 

Let me tell you a bit about the D915, it carries the nickname Highway to Hell, not just Turkey's but the world's most dangerous road. Built by the Russian occupiers, using  Russian soldiers and local labour during the early part of the 20th century, it links Bayburt to the coast, ending in Of, on the Black Sea, a distance of around 70 miles. 

First we would have a 4,000 foot climb to reach a bleak plateau at Çaykara, over about 23 miles, but all the climbing towards the last few miles with gradients building from 8% to 14%. Then the descent. The start and end are paved but the centre part is loose gravel. In total there are 29 steep hairpins, the most dangerous section of these, the Derebaşi Turns, has 13 hairpins, dropping just over a 1,000 feet in 3.2 miles. On a narrow strip of gravel. If the weather's bad then waterfalls gush over the surface, making it even more treacherous. In places parts of the road have simply fallen away down the cliff. There are no safety barriers. So Barry wisely advised us to make sure we ride it in dry weather with good visibility.  

Now we may be foolish but we're not completely daft so Tom had studied the weather forecast. I had reached out to other tourers and the advice was to split the route in two, ride to the summit, camp up overnight, giving us a full day to enjoy the jaw dropping views with over 40 miles of downhill riding. 

The point of no return - with the weather not looking great

Here is where hindsight comes in. If we had carried on and ridden to the top, and descended the following day then chances are the weather would have been OK. Our tired food deprived bodies were simply not up to that. So if the weather forecast was correct, if we took a full day off, then set off midday the following day, camp up overnight at the top, then we should have great weather for the descent. So that was the plan. 

Tom was a bit eager and obviously couldn't wait so we set off pretty early but I wasn't worried. He had seen an abandoned building on Google Streetview where we could shelter once we reached the top. The weather though wasn't playing ball. We could see dark, even black clouds sitting high on the mountains above us, however we also had quite possibly the strongest headwind we'd experienced since Waterton in Canada. We decided this was a good thing as it was blowing the clouds away. The other benefit of the headwind is it took all our attention, the steep climb was secondary. The wind was so fierce that in the brief moments it was behind us we barely needed to pedal despite a gradient of around 10%. So we battled on.

300m of tailwind before turning back into the face of the beast

The few vehicles we saw waved and shouted encouragement. It started to rain, then hail. On we went. Finally we reached the top. Now the full implications of that wind and rain hit us, literally. It was freezing, somehow we managed to put on a few more layers, and we peered through the thick mist to find the abandoned building. It wasn't there, just bleak empty freezing, rainy, foggy, windblown landscape with absolutely no shelter. We had no option but to descend. Either back the way we had come or onwards. Yeah, obviously we did what we do, and carried on.

The mist was so thick the views were simply a white out. Fortunately as we descended down the mountain side sheltered us from the worst of the wind. Then the tarmac ended and we were on gravel. The rain had washed much of it away and the surface was either mud or rocks, both slippy. The 13 switchbacks are simply carved out of the cliff face. We were so disappointed not to see the jaw dropping views but also pleased not to see just how steep and long the drop was if our tyres lost their grip. It was slow going, but we had to keep going as both of us were starting to feel seriously cold. Tom stopped to take a few photographs, unfortunately I was grimacing in every one. It was a combination of clenching my jaw to try and stop my teeth chattering and focusing on staying upright.

The moment Debs said “I’m not moving until you put that GoPro away and use two hands”!

Eventually though, we relaxed into the ride. It was exhilarating, we got used to the loose gravel, we worked out the best line to get safely around the turns, and though I wouldn't say it was great fun, we did start to enjoy ourselves. Finally we turned out of hairpin number 13. We still had nearly 40 miles to go but we felt confident we could do this, but at the same time the cold was really becoming a serious problem. Then out of the mist we spotted a building! The owners took one look at the state we were in, and dragged us inside, seats placed next to the stove. Our gloves dropped over tea pots to dry out. They served us glass after glass of hot tea, offered food and even a bed for the night. We declined. Warmed through, clothes dry, we headed back out. A miracle awaited us. Whilst we had been warming up, the mist had started to break up. We were able to enjoy the amazing views this road is so famous for. Now we felt the joy, it took another couple of hours to get down but we loved every minute. 

Finally we start to see the mountains around us

Would we return and do it all again in better weather? Oh yes. Tom nearly went straight back up the next day when the sun was out. That feeling has made riding the D915 an awesome experience and that's why it's now number 1 on our top 10 roads of the entire trip.