The weather wasnt great at the Black Sea at that time and we only had a limited time so we made the decision to get a move on Eastwards. After all, Turkey is ‘just’ a couple of days’ drive away from Germany and no special paperwork is required in advance. We can come here another time.
It is still spring, after all 
Ordu
A man goes to the sea 
Worth a visit, Ordu
Google threw three route options our way and we decided to take the shortest one, not least because of the fact that it went along the coast for as long as it was possible. We were hoping that it’d be a more scenic road to drive on and not as busy as some of the sections the previous day.
The first part was easy. Drive all the way along the coast down to Trabzon. The road really was beautiful and when the sun came out, it was hard to understand why this region doesn’t capture the same attention from masses of tourists the way the Mediterranean coast does with its over developed shorelines and congested roads.
We were using two navigation devices. One, the built-in from BMW, which had served us well for the most part but we also carried a Garmin Nüvi (had the map updated before we set off) and disappointingly, both of them seemed to have a lot of navigation data such as street names and roadblocks missing the further East we travelled. Once we reached Trabzon, both of these wanted us to head South immediately.
On the other hand, the road signs and GoogleMaps (who we frequently consulted to make sure we didnt run into unexpected hurdles) were suggesting we drive on to Arakli and then take a road South to Askale, via Bayburt. Now, I must admit I hadn’t done much research (exploring the route on googlemaps) including this area so we were just playing along, as long as we could progress towards our next major goal: the border.
So we went to Arakli and took a right turn towards Bayburt.
After a few kilometers of highway standard road with a central partition, the road changed drastically. We were now driving on a single road (wide enough for both travel directions, but certainly not the same level of relaxed driving you’d like to have on such a long journey.
But what it lacked in comfort, it made up in beauty.
And then suddenly, there was snow.
Not fresh snow, thankfully, as were running on summer tyres but there was still snow lying on the side of the road and we were still climbing higher into the mountains.
Did we make a mistake taking this road over the others?
We were about to find out.
(I thought about ending the post here, you know, a little cliff-hanger? But I did promise a LOT of pictures in this post, so here we go!)
Before leaving the last city on the coastal highway, we had refueled. Had an extra can of gas for emergencies and we made a quick stop to make sure the sleeping bag, the blanket, water and snacks were all easily accessible, in case we had gotten ourselves into something where we could be stranded overnight.
There were few vehicles coming either way that passed us.
But GoogleMaps was adamant that we were headed the right way and by now, our other Navis agreed.
Just before we were about to enter a tunnel, we made another stop to have short break. I’ve had worse views for lunch breaks.
Hmm… 
…mmm.
At one point, we were driving well over 2500 meters above sea level and the snow clad mountains and valleys were a sight to behold.
While it was all very pretty, we had no intention of spending the night here and wanted to get out of the mountain range before sunset.
We had to hurry, now that we had spent too much time in the mountains, stopping and taking photos every few minutes (even flew our drone for a bit) that we couldn’t even make a stop at Bayburt, an old city on the Silk Road.
After a somewhat scary descent from one of the mountains, that only had a dirt road to offer, it was pouring down and we were glad to have made it without risking anything.
We were back on the 4 lane highway and speeding down to Erzurum and made it there, just after sunset and headed straight to the city centre to find a place to have dinner.
Check out in the next episode how we decided to drive on, instead of spending the night in Erzurum.
MINI Overland 