Awaking at about 07.00 the train was travelling slowly through the most picturesque scenery that we had so far encountered. We were following the course of a river ponderously winding our way through shear gorges carved out of the rocks. But despite the beauty it was barren and the small villages were still poor and simple yet perhaps in their simplicity they had much more than us, a faith in Allah they see more perhaps to live for that we for all our prosperity have.
The weather is a great deal colder and with the snow on the hill tops and the climb ahead into Ezerum already in the morning we were imagining the snow that may lay there.
During the night the small modern Diesel loco had disappeared. In its place was a steam train. The pace of the train had dropped considerably but not to be biased against sentimental lovers of the ‘golden age of steam’ it is obviously due to the mountainous winding region over which we are at present passing.
Almost Christmas although hardly feeling like it. A few carols would go down very well at the moment but hardly a chance of that. One can compare the wilderness with the mad shopping scenes that are taking place back in England. Grabbing and shoving with no feeling for the true spirit of Christmas. Ideal place really to contemplate the mystic course of Christmas but the frame of mind is too important.
As we climbed through the mountain villages it was soon apparent that we would be late into Ezerum. Every little village was a stopping place and to them it was one of the events of the day. Nearly the whole village gathered around trying to sell anything that had to the passengers, bread water etc. The children were the chief barterers and it was obvious that they did not attend school. I suppose they consider it enough to learn what their fathers have done before them and continue in his footsteps. It will be a few years yet before transport into these parts will enable these people to have the same facilities as those who live in the larger towns.
At 01.00 we were still grinding our way through the hills at a snails pace passing the small villages that stood with building, grouped hovels around a Mosk always the best building in the village with one small minaret rising above the buildings.Now and again we fell into a fertile valley where the standard of building was a little better but o the whole is is an existence of struggle against poverty. At the stations small boys shout for papers because up here they hear no news, they know nothing about the outside world.
As we climbed further into the hills with the time already approaching 02.30 the snow began to get deeper and the water more frozen. The scene became more desolate giving a feeling of a vast void of dereliction.
The two hippies on their way to India called into the compartment and asked us if we knew how we were going to get to India from Ezerum saying that they had a list they would give us when we eventually arrived in Ezerum. We have already seen them sponging in the restaurant car and we wonder if this is their approach to do the same thing with us.
At one point we stopped right out in the middle of nowhere to drop off provisions. We coulds still see a village set high up on the mountainside and it is of course the only contact that they really have with the rest of civilization.
It was also of interest to note the railway system. Single line with no signals but at various points they have waiting loop lines for by-passing where I presume the first train just waits for the others to pass. A good cheap system but only workable where trains are very few and far between.
As we neared the Russian boarder travelling in a north Easterly direction army lamps become more and more in evidence. The buildings were a little more sophisticated and at one camp football posts protruded from the snow. But the scenery around the camps were as bleak and barren as any we had passed on the first day out of Istanbul.
diagram of route from diary
At last we arrived at Ezerum at 05.00 five hours late and in the bitter cold we struggled with our luggage to a hotel that looked decent without costing too much. We also found to our surprise that the Tourist Bureau was still open, a shabby establishment in both appearance and service. We discovered that a bus would leave for the boarder at 06.00 in the morning but it appeared that we would have to wait here for a through bus to Trabriz in Iran where we would be able to get a train to Tehran. But we were able to ascertain that on Wednesdays there would be a bus going straight through to from Ezerum to Tehran and weighing everything up this would work out cheaper bearing in mind that we may have to stop over either at the boarder or Trabriz waiting for connections. We would also be able to visit the student Tourist Bureau to whom we carried a letter from the Devil.
At the bureau we met up with another bunch made up of two Americans (I was late to realise the one was a Canadian and not American as I originally thought) and two Persians who were on their way to Australia. They booked into the same hotel and agreed with their plans and later we had dinner together in one of the cleanest and cheapest hotels that we had encountered since arriving in Turkey. It gave us a new feeling of confidence to meet others who were on the same route.
That evening we had coffee cooked in our room on the stove together with Christmas cake which Dorothy’s mother had given to them before they left. We had bought eggs for breakfast so with this in mind for the next day we turned to bed.