I’m done. Bikepacking Sufi Trail (hiking route)

I’m done. Bikepacking Sufi Trail (hiking route)

Now it’s time to leave Derbent as well We have a very nice mosque in this little village as well, it’s not that little it’s a decent size village Here at the cemetery is a good place to stop and show you the new hub It’s a new Shimano hub, the problem is that they didn’t have a Shimano hub that was not center lock so I had to replace the rotor as well It is what it is, I’m back on the road I lost one day and a little bit This is the reservoir of Derbent there’s people fishing Ahh mud Even yesterday it rained in the afternoon We are way up from the water reservoir Let’s keep on climbing The more I go up, the more the trail is getting drier Very, very nice ride this morning I was afraid it was gonna be a rough climb But it’s pretty smooth So far so good anyway The end of the road, unfortunately I need to follow this single track, if there is a single track actually Wish me good luck Yeah There isn’t a single track, we are crossing a field Maybe there will be many many walkers on the Sufi Trail at some point and this will become a single track another little push then we start to go down All right we are at the top, the top of the peak, kinda the top would be there top of our climb I think wow what a view what a view Now we follow the trail down, if there is a trail, all right even this one is mostly done Now I can go back on my bike I don’t see any signpost anymore yeah the hearth there Apparently this is not the right road But it doesn’t matter it will connect down Cow, hello cow The village was not super tiny, but they’ve got nothing Seriously, nothing. Not a tea room, not a Shop, nothing, zero Another pit stop for water. Let’s go This is a pretty good spot to have lunch I will sit on one of these rocks and have my beans Today it’s about crossing the fields Oh my back, my back My back is killing me Let me shut the lamp I don’t see any signs anymore Now I see the sign, fuck me Fuck me Fuck me, I see the sign Oh man, today I don’t have the energy for this, seriously I don’t I don’t I don’t have the energy I left my bike there because apparently that’s not the trail the trail is uh going up here but it’s not marked I don’t know what to do if I look up my map the trail goes up here I’m kinda there, but you get the point Goes like this And the bike is here So maybe the trail goes around like this Let’s see if there is something There is nothing But how do I get there There are no trails on the map the marks are there, you can see them, white and red Oh man, today I didn’t need this today My energy is so low, let me go back to my bike and try to continue on this On this trail and see, where it leads oh man it’ll take me the whole day Oh, fuck me Why today? Today I just needed an easy day Oh man, this was also a little bit of work, a bit more than a little bit Hopefully I can put back my panniers, not having to remove them before I camp tonight I lost the marks, I lost the GPX tracks I don’t know where I am There is farmland, there must be a trail, a road Oh man, I had to cross two wheat fields I hope the farmers will excuse me for the lower yield I’m still lost, I don’t know exactly where I’m going This was a bit confusing, I’m being honest, very confusing I’m trying to push my bike here so that I don’t destroy the field There should be a dirt road somewhere here Should start here somewhere Let’s see if I can follow it Oh god, we’re back On a proper road that was some effort Let’s see if there is space to pass Is the mark there? ride to the light Last push, now the sunset is around 8 o’clock A little bit I’m tired, a little bit it’s steep as fuck, a little bit I have no traction Anyway, those are my excuses for pushing the bike What a view You can start to see the caves in the… I think it’s… I suppose it’s tuff rock and people used to live there I’m glad it’s paved I can go up a bit faster the sun is setting behind the mountain but we keep on climbing What a view guys, what a view Beautiful I continue where? There, I need to go down, that is the road, then up, another bitch climb Almost full moon, it’s a few days away, the sun has set, I think I’m gonna camp here I was gonna continue until it was almost dark, maybe until I was on top of that But I’m tired and I need to sleep tonight, I need to sleep early Good morning Merhaba, I slept like a baby last night, yesterday has been tough, I don’t know why But it was really tough, I think I didn’t process well the day off, but anyway from up there I decided to come down and pitch my tent here It was all good, last day till Konya, let’s go! off we go, leave no trace, even in Turkey Hopefully it doesn’t take me the whole day to do the 40-45 km to Konya Today I feel better, much better. I think the day off was terrible for my legs and my back, two problems. and that’s a good news because I might not be able to take any days off until I get to Iraq my visa is running out Slowly but surely Slowly but surely Already up quite a bit I would say, I would hope once I’m up there most of the climbing is done I think I still have two three kilometers but the biggest chunk should be done That was a long climb but finally on top, finally What a beautiful landscape I love it Very desertic Here are very cold winters and very hot summers it’d be nice if there was a shop here pretty sure there is The shop is closed Oh man, I don’t know where exactly the trail is so yeah I’ll take this road because there isn’t a clear path in there the Sufi trail is there in the middle but there isn’t like a clear trail you’re hunting for the GPS, GPX track, at least I failed to see it anyway it’s just a little bit to the next village this village has a fancy Haman, it’s a thermal resort probably I’m guessing it’s a wild guess guys it’d be nice to have the budget for a Haman day and the visa I’m gonna do a pit stop in this market, get some Ayran, maybe something to eat as well had some cookies, had some Ayran, rested a little bit there, last push, last push to Konya, let’s do it this must have been an old Haman, not sure if it’s in operation or if it’s a museum but it looks beautiful I don’t have a host in Konya, I sent hundreds of requests but no joy in August everybody’s in vacation, at least the people are active on culture Warmshowers, there is like five or six hosts, something like that, I sent message to all of them nobody replied, so extreme circumstances call for extreme solutions so I’ll have to get a room somewhere for tonight because a. I need a shower two. all my clothes either smell by smoke of the tea room and or they’re really filthy three. I broke the bag of my saddlebag so I need to repair it with the seamgrip I filled all my memory cards with footage so I also need to transfer I need to charge my electronics a little bit motherfucker I’ve been tricked by Komoot again I should have not came into this park but I should have continued and then went right on a dirt road to get to the village mother fucker I need to go back man I should have seen the fucking mark on the pole I wonder what they do with those chips of manure and hay I wonder if they use them to burn during the winter in the stove Keep left, what do you mean keep left? where is the single track I don’t know Let’s try to be a bit tactical about this Yes, this is much better This is probably the sewerage of the village Alright, even this is done I think this is the last climb I hope I seriously hope Fucking hell This seems like the best way forward This is the best way forward After the rubbish, the view on Konya Another fucking climb This must be the last one Has to be Konya Look, another fucking wall Come on, why? Why paint like this? To be honest this part to me doesn’t make any sense because there are loads of dirt roads at the bottom of the hill, the crossover I think this one is a bit unnecessary It’s cool for hikers though I guess, because you see the city from the top When the city is so close, it really seems unnecessary to climb back up the hill. slowly but surely it’s trying not to break any more gear I guess this is the way Fucking hell Fucking hell, I wanna cry Yeah, I guess you can walk here, but with the bicycle it’s a… That’s a bitch man No, but even there is fenced up There’s no way out this way Nothing, they fenced the way into Konya I think they will have to change the trail the guys of the Sufi trail I will warn them this must be new So yeah, I need to climb back up again this fucking hill For the second time and go down the other side Seriously, I want to cry. I was so near No, I’m pushed back another time It’s a steep climb, very steep climb My legs are dead See the fence continues up and up 800 meters of pushing up the hill cause My legs are dead plus Here is very steep There’s very little grip There Sand with some Loose rocks on top. I was hoping that was my last climb on the way here But I’m pretty sure now it will be the last climb Because then I’ll go down to Konya Definitely a hundred percent I’m now sure that’s my last climb for today. It might be the last climb ever, you never know. If I can live a few more years to complete my round the world tour, it would be nice If not, fuck it I had a ball Easy, easy Easy You get another view of Konya at least From the top Riding to Konya Right back on the Sufi Trail now, let’s go to the light to Mevlana The center of Konya See, it’s very nice, very beautiful That’s it, this is the light The end of our long, long journey We are at the Rumi’s Mausoleum Mevlana Let’s see if I can cross over But this is it And we are back in the morning I’m going to the museum, I’m going to show you a little bit of Rumi Mevlana It’s free to enter the museum This is the museum entrance But I cannot film inside actually That’s the mausoleum of Mevlana Rumi Beautiful That’s it, this concludes the Sufi Trail the second time around I apologize I didn’t have lots of energy for this Sufi Trail I did the hiking edition which was much more intense than I thought I don’t know what I had in mind actually, but yeah I had a few problems especially with my back and the fact that I was overweight, I was not fit, I had problems with the hub, I also cut this bag, well I had a few problems, I’m running out of my visa so I couldn’t stop in places, I couldn’t enjoy it as much, but I do hope you enjoyed following this part of my journey, it’s a beautiful route I strongly suggest to do it if you are guys, it’s very close to Europe, especially if you’re in Europe you can fly to Istanbul and then flying back from Konya you’re exposed to a totally different culture from the European one, especially when you go into the little villages, like cities, modern cities like Istanbul, Konya also, I mean Konya it’s a very conservative city but still there is all the things that a modern city offers, when you are in the little villages it’s more rural, it’s more authentic, it’s more the traditional Turkish culture and you’re exposed to a radically different culture in a way than what you would experience in most places in Europe, so it’s very close to home and it’s a really nice route, it’s a bit challenging if you do the hiking route but if you do the biking route it’s an easy ride and also if you watch my videos you can also cut out the difficult parts and just go on the paved road where you see that I had a challenging experience but if you’re fit definitely it’s gonna be less challenging than me, also you will have a lighter rig, I have loads of stuff also because I’m going into the winter and I couldn’t, like now I’m going into countries that it’s difficult to post things, receive things, buy stuff and so I’m bringing it with me bits and pieces so I’m a little heavier than I should and you will be much lighter, so definitely recommend the Sufi trail, you can also do hiking you can cycle it, I’m for cycling everywhere but also I think if you like hiking, if you like walking it’s a very nice and interesting route, it’s one of the pilgrimage routes and there’s a lot of history that obviously there are various ways to experience a pilgrimage route like this, I didn’t get into the historic stuff, I didn’t get into the philosophy stuff, the religious part, the mystical part of it but if you go to sufitrail.com they have like a lot of information, they put together a book, it’s a pdf that they sent me, it was like I don’t know three or four hundred pages, it goes through histories of places, information about what there is in this village, accommodation, where you can find food where you can find water, it’s a wealth of information if you go to sufitrail. com Sedat and Iris that they run the site, they are friends of mine, they hosted me in their home when I was in Holland and yeah go to sufitrail. com and you will find all the information that you missed from following my journey that I focus just on the route, just on the cycling and not about anything else Let go of your worries and be completed clear-hearted, like the face of a mirror that contains no images. If you want a clear mirror, behold yourself and see the shameless truth, which the mirror reflects. If metal can be polished to a mirror-like finish, what polishing might the mirror of the heart require? Between the mirror and the heart is this single difference. The heart conceals secrets, while the mirror does not.

Cycling the world – Asia: 12 episode
Back on the Sufi Trail after replacing my hub in Konya, I start from Derbent for the final push to Konya. A stunning climb turns into a push-a-bike over the top, then a brutal valley of steep singletrack, missing signposts, and GPX lines that lead where a loaded bike simply can’t go. By night I’m grinding up a final wall into a desert plateau to camp. Next day, a long, beautiful climb through barren country, then the “descent” towards Konya hits me with more savage ups and downs. Just when I think I’m in, the trail is fenced off and I’m forced back up a vicious climb. At last, I roll into Konya’s city centre and on to Rumi/Mevlana’s mausoleum, the end of the Sufi Trail. I’ve ridden to the light: roughly 800 km from Istanbul to Konya.

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