Turkyie D915 by Bicycle

This is a guide to cycle the "famous" D915 from Of on the black sea to Bayburt in the south crossing the Soğanlı Pass. All the information is from our ride at the 5th, 6th and 7th of July 2025.

Starting in Of the road is divided with two lanes for each directions. It follows all along more or less directly the river Solaklı Çayı. Until Cumapazarı there are no difficulties. Shortly after there is a first tunnel (T1 Tüneli, only direction south a tunnel), which we cycled through. As we came to the next tunnel (T2 Tüneli) right before Dernekpazarı, we crossed over the portal to get to the small road direction Gülen. We camped after the restaurant right beside the old road.

It is possible to cycle up the old road and then cross the northbound part of the main road to get directly to the town of Dernekpazarı without having to pass. Like this you also don‘t have to cycle trough the other tunnels until Çaykara.

In Çaykara there are some shops (for example A101 and a bakery and a lot more).

Until the junction leading to Uzungöl the road has 2 lanes. One northbound, one southbound with mostly a small shoulder to cycle on. At the junction the main road goes to Uzungöl, the D915 goes right (not like on the map). The big blue signs only show Köknar and Karaçam. Bayburt is only a smaller white one.
bvb
There is a sign that the road is closed between kilometer 49 and 57. It seems to be there the entire year and was definitely not true. There was no road closure ond the way at all.

With this junction the trafic on the D915 falls to almoste none.
The way to Köknar is sometimes pretty steep, probably the steepest parts of this ride.

The road through Köknar is narrow and winds trough the houses. There is a roadsign to Bayburt which can be misunterstood. Stay on the higher road. Don't cycle down to the river.
In Köknar there is a market in wich you can get most of the stuff. (We took way to much food with us.) There is also water and, of course, a Cay-Evi.

Shortly after (we slept another night at a roadworkers camp, we took it slow because of an injured knee) you will get to Karaçam, where there is more or less the same stuff as in Köknar: Cay-Evi, Market, Mosque, Toilet, Water.
Also in Karaçam there is a road sign which leads to Byburt, buts its not the D915. Stay on the slightly bigger higher road and check your maps.

After the town the road is still paved and and not that steep. The next four switchbacks are also paved and easy to ride. Maximum 1 Kilometer after the fourth switchback the pavement ends and the road is now hardpacked gravel. At around 1600m above sealevel the road crosses some streams and one side of the road was quite washed out. There is a touristic cafe with a big flag of turkie.

washed out road

At 1700m, where the road switches to the orher side of the valley, there are some buildings and some newer construction of a hut which looked touristic. Probably there will be some cafe or so. There is also a toilet.

Afterwards the iconic part of the road begins. 13 switchbacks in one steep hill. But the steepnes of the road stays moderate (max. around 6%, exept very short parts around the corners). The switchbacks have a numbering counted from both sides.

on top oft the switchbacks

view out the valley

You will get the best view (to take pictures) after the 13th switchback at the part where the road is partly carved in the rock.

After this lookout point you will cycle more to the west and the landscape changes rapidly. The hills get rounder and less rocky.

After two more switchbacks you will start to see the big wind turbines. Around 1 or 1.5km before the pass the pavement starts again. The road gets pretty flat and with good wind you can almot sail to the top. (2330m ond most maps. On our GPS altitude model ~2370)

The ride down is all paved and a fast downhill. You will get trough the village of Kılıçkaya where the road is slightly smaller, but the rest is wide and in good conditions. There was a strech of around 1.5km after Kılıçkaya where there are construction works of the road. The rest to Bayburt is easy. Just follow the signs and the road.

Also Check out travelblog post about this road.

Entering Karabakh by bicycle via Sotk pass

You don't need a Visa in advance for Karabakh. You just have to register in Stephanakert.

We entered Karabakh via the Sotk pass from Vardenis and Lake Sevan. At the Top of the Pass there is no Checkpoint or Bordercontrol.
The Checkpoint is about 17km and around 800m of beautiful downhill after the pass.
There you have to show your passport and say where are you going. We said Stephanakert and then we had to name a hotel where we gona stay. You don't have to go to this hotel, they don't check. Our passports got scanned and somehow registered and we got a small paper with the adress of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where you have to get your Visa. (Azatamartikneristreet 28) It was no problem that we did not go to the Minestry the same day. We camped besides the road on the way to Stepanakert.
We got our Visa at Saturday at around eleven o'clock. It was a 10 Minute thing. You just have to fill a form, where you gona stay (It's still not mandatory to really go there.) and which cities you are going to visit. A photo is not needed.
You have to pay 3000AMD (cash) each and get a registrationpaper clipped in the Passport and another paper which you need when you leave Karabakh.

The exit of Karabakh was a thing of two minutes. We came to the Border Control Point (which is at the last river befor the real border) and just had to show our Passport an the guy took the registration paper and we cycled off.

Shakristan and Anzob-Pass

If you plan to reach Dushanbe from north, from Kujiand you have to pass to major mountain ridges.
The northen one is the Shakristan-pass. There is a tunnel. It's 5km long and the northern portal is at around 2650masl. The southern is almoust 100m higher. So it's a clim direction south.
We cycled trough the tunnel. It's totally OK to do that. There is ventilation, light and a concrete street surface. But even there is light inside, turn on your bicycle-light. At least a backlight that the traffic coming from behind can see you.
The old road over the Shakristan-pass is closed because of a mudslide. This information we got from other travelleres and from the military standing there, where the old road goes of the new one.

Getting dowm from the Shakristan-tunnel brings you to Ayni. Some Kilometer after Ayni you will go right over a bridge and then the street follows a breathtaking gorge towards the next tunnel/pass combination at Anzob.
There is a tunnel but it's totally not recomended to cycle trough there. There is water on the ground (10cm or more), almost no light, no real ventilation and a damaged concrete street sruface. All cyclist we met took a car or a truck trought this tunnel. And for some it took almost an hour for this 5km.
Because of this informations we decided to take the other option and went for the old, offically closed, road over the pass.

There where the new road goes crosses the river and goes up to the tunnel we got of the good road and took the pretty small road following the river on the north side. You will pass some smaller villages and before the climb to the pass really starts there is the village of Anzob. We saw some small shops but didn't check them out. We filled our water from a fountain in the village. After the village go over the bridge and short after the street starts to climb.
Anzob is aorund 2100masl. We made it up until 2550masl where we found a very nice place to camp. Its there where the road goes to the western side of the main "stream".
We rode over the pass in middle of July and there were some snowfields left in the last part of the road. But they were melted good enough that at least a meter of the rad was snowfree. When you get to the pass on 3375masl you will see a small farm and a meteostation. We were invited to lunch from the family living up there to do the meteo stuff.
The road surface on the northern side is mostly gravel but good pressed and expect some meters it was driveable for us. Only in the last part with the snowfields it was wet and because of that a bit harder to ride. And there are even some asphalt parts.

The southern side, our downhill, has more asphalt and that's the side where the family living at the pass is coming up with a Lada Niva. It took us almost 2 hours to ride down the aprox. 20km down to the new road coming from the tunnel. I would say it's also possible to ride the pass in the other direction. You have to push your bike probably some meters more but most of the pass should be driveable too.

The hole pass is, from my point of view, a good alternative to the tunnel if you have enough time and power. I think untill something pretty big, like a landslide or so, the contition of the road will stay pretty the same.

Visa for Turkmenistan

To get a Turkmenistan-Visa we applied in Teheran do the first step.

Teheran
You need all the following things:
1. A copy of passport of applicant (colorcopy, it doesn't work with b&w copy)
2. A copy of Uzbekistan visa or Kazakhstan visa (colorcopy)
3. Filled up application form of the embassy (you get it there)
4. A written request adressed to the visa section of the Turkmenistan embassy:
 Including:
  **Fullname( of applicant)
  **Entry date
  **Exit date

We added that we would like to catch our visa in Mashad and wrote one letter for there people.
There are written opening hours, but as we were there they opend the first time 40minutes after the time and then they opend 2 times more the last time at 12.30 (opening hour at this day: 9.30-11.00)



Mashad
In Mashad we got our visa with filling out a form we got there and one picture. We delivered this and the 55$ at 9am and got the finished visa at 1pm. Write on the application forms where you want to enter. This is mentioned on the visa and is binding. (We met a german guy and a swiss girl who have to cross the border direction Asgabat.(Howdan))

Visaverlängerung in Esfahan / Visaextension in Esfahan

Visaverlängerung in Esfahan / Visaextension in Esfahan
Für alle die die vielleicht irgendwann im Internet suchen, wie die
Visaverlängerung in Esfahan funktioniert, berichte ich wir heute
11.6.2013 die Verlängerung beantragt haben.

Wir nehmen das Taxi von der Innenstadt zum Police Department of Alien
Affairs/Passport Office, (Rudaki Street, N32.63006 E51.63269) und sind
um 7 Uhr morgens schon da. Um ca. 7.15 werden wir eingelassen und geben
dabei alle elektronischen Geräte ab. Im ersten Stock melden wir uns beim
Schalter 15 (persische Nummer, aber englisch: Visa Extension and
Reception). Wir haben inkl. heute noch 5 Tage unseres Visas übrig. Wir
sagen, dass wir mit den Fahrrädern reisen und nach Teheran und Mashad
möchten. Der freundliche "Schaltermann" geht zum Chef (Raum 12) und
diskutiert ziemlich lange. Es sei "Election-time" (am 14.6 sind
Präsidentschaftswahlen) und sie hätten viel zu tun. Als er rauskommt
heisst es grundsätzlich nein, aber wir könnten im "Deparment of Foreign
Affairs" (wir bekommen einen Zettel mit der persischen Adresse: eine
Strasse westlich der Hauptstrasse, ca. N32.65671 E51.66675) einen Brief
holen gehen.
Mit dem Taxi fahren wir dort hin und werden zu Mr. Aslani im ersten
Stock verwiesen. Er spricht fliessend englisch schreibt uns den Brief
(auf persisch) in dem steht, dass eine Verlängerung von 2 Wochen möglich
ist. Mit dem Brief geht es wieder zurück an den Schalter 15 im
Polizeiposten.
Vom Schalter 15 in den Raum 12 zum Chef welcher etwas weiteres
draufschreibt und einen Stempel drauf macht. Zurück am Schalter 15
werden wir zur grünen Box im Hof verwiesen und wir kaufen (5000 Rial)
dort eine pinke Mappe mit dem "Application Form". In der Mappe ist auch
beschreiben was es alles braucht für die Verlängerung:

Pass
Passkopie (ID-Page)
Passkopie (Validationpage, wohl meist das gleiche wie oben)
Kopie des Visa inkl. Einreisestempel
2 Passfotos
Einzahlungsbeleg der Bank (siehe Tipps)
Brief vom Beantragenden (wir haben den Brief vom "Deparment of Foreign
Affairs" benützt)

Diese Unterlagen geben wir, nach gut 5 Stunden in den Fängen der
Behörden, am Schalter 15 ab. Zuerst heisst es: "Come back in two days".
Wir hacken nach und bekommen die Auskunft morgen (12.6.) um 10 Uhr.

12.6:
Wir sind um 9.45 da und bekommen ca. 45 Minuten später unsere
Visaverlängerung. Es ist ein Stempel im Pass, auf welchem steht, dass
das Visa bis 30. Juni 2013 verlängert ist. Das heisst die 14 Tage wurden
an unseren schon bestehenden Tage angehängt. Und nicht vom
Beantragsdatum aus gerechnet.

Tipps:
1. Kopierladen hat es direkt gegenüber des Polizeipostens (1 Kopie 1000
Rial)
2. Bank
2.1 Die Bank "Melli Iran" ist etwa hier: N32.62330 E51.62160, (vom
Posten in Richtung W, dann links (S) und bei der nächsten Kreuzung
rechts (W), auf der Südseite der Strasse)
2.2 Die Kontodaten erhält man als kleiner Zettel am Schalter 15.
2.3 Die Person am Schalter weiss was machen, wenn man mit dem Zettelchen
kommt
2.4 Kosten: 300'000 Rial pro Person.
2.5 Ein Einzahlungsbeleg pro Person.
2.6 ein Pass dabeihaben beim Einzahlen.
3. Taxi
3.1 Wir bezahlen maximal 50'000 Rial für eine Taxifahrt von oder nach
Downtown
3.2 Immer zuerst nach dem Preis fragen. 5 bedeutet 5000 Toman also
50'000 Rial


Für alle die auf einen weiteren Reisebericht warten: Er ist in Arbeit
und kommt wohl noch heute...