D77 – 74.5Km
SATURDAY, MARCH 4
N40 20.631 E40 03.245 (1591m – 19 km before Bayburt) – N39 59.014 E40 33.679 (1753m – 17km before Askale)
74.5vkm – 9H47′
It looks like it will be a beautiful day in spite of the -5 degree Celsius temperature and a thin coat of snow that covers the asphalt and cars. Good dry cold with a blue sky are welcome. As Serge says “when you start the day in a drizzle your morale is down in the heel of your shoes.”
Pascal is leaving us for Istanbul to catch a plane that will take him back to Paris. The caravan will find itself with two vehicles and 5 people. The Duponts and Georges will take turns feeding. Serge has a good stride and he is suppler and more airborne than yesterday.
We are expecting to start the ascension of the Kop pass and wonder when it will begin. The relative flatness (a 300 meter rise over 53 kilometers) leads us to believe that sooner or later the climb will be very steep. This portion of the road is a real treat: little traffic, rows of poplar trees and snowy mountains all around us. The light is very bright and at the 9th kilometer Serge puts on sun glasses and applies sun block to his forehead and nose but it won’t keep him from getting sunburned.
At kilometer 53 the ascent toward the pass takes on its real meaning: a 300 meter rise over 10 kilometers. At 15H40 Serge reached the summit marked by a sign and a monument commemorating the memory of Turkish soldiers who died defending the pass during the First World War.
The view is more than grandiose, it’s magic. What a wonderful reward!
English translation by Lee Hecht