After more than 2 weeks on the Black Sea coast, it was with some trepidation that we headed inland into the high mountains of eastern Turkey. There was no soft introduction; the road from Trabzon climbed relentlessly from sea level to over 1800m, where we were spared any further ascent by a trip through the Zigana Tunnel, the longest in Turkey at 1.7km. The change in scenery has been amazing; lush coastline and short, sharp hills have made way for long, remote mountain passes and wide open plateaus. The plateaus are incredible; almost totally flat for miles around and inhabited only by sheep and shepherds, you could almost be cycling across some English moorland if you ignored the snow capped peaks on the horizon and the fact that you're nearly 2km above sea level.

Erzurum, our first major stop in the region, is most famous within Turkey for its harsh climate, and at almost 2000m altitude it certainly isn't Costa del Sol. It also sports an interesting range of Ottoman, Seljuk and Mongol architecture, making a welcome change from the Black Sea coast. Erzurum is noticably more religiously conservative than elsewhere we have been in Turkey. Many women can be seen sporting the chador, the full black Islamic dress, and more disturbingly the beer has virtually disappeared from the shelves of mini markets. It was only after half an hour of increasingly frantic searching that we were able to locate what appeared to be the only off license in a city of 400,000 people, in order to stock up on beer for that night's Juventus - Arsenal match. There is also a huge military presence starting in Erzurum and continuing all the way to Dogubayazit, with regular army checkpoints along the road and lines of tanks sitting in fortified bases. With Kurdish seperatism to the south and Armenian border disputes to the north, the Turks clearly aren't taking any chances. Still, we couldn't help but feel that the eight heavily armed and humourless military police that leapt out of their van to challenge us as we were packing up camp one morning was perhaps a touch excessive. Maybe there really are three Kurdish guerillas cycling around on touring bikes somewhere, and it was just a case of mistaken identity, or perhaps they'd seen the photos of us fraternising with the Armenian army in Kosovo.

Eastern Turkey receives fewer tourists than pretty much any other part of Turkey, and this was noticeable in people's reactions to us. In Agri, a friendly group of students invited us in for some tea, which quickly led to dinner and an invitation to stay the night - it was fun to experience a bit more of Turkish home life, particularly dinner eaten kneeling around spread out newspaper on the kitchen floor! Living costs are also rather cheaper around here, meaning we can escape from the cold and rain with a restaurant lunch every day without blowing the budget. A particular favourite is kofte, lamb meatballs which once ordered are hacked from the lamb carcass hanging outside, minced up and then grilled on the barbeque whilst you wait.

We are now in Dogubayazit, 40km from the Iranian border, and are still awaiting visa authorisation from Tehran which has been proceeding rather slowly due to the recent Iranian New Year celebrations. Not wishing to lose too much fitness whilst we wait around, we have in the meantime set ourselves a little mountaineering challenge of climbing nearby Mount Ararat, the highest mountain in Turkey at 5137m and fabled to be the final resting place of Noah's Ark. We will start the ascent tomorrow morning and weather permitting hope to reach the summit in three days. It will be nice to have a break from the bikes for a bit!