At the moment, we’re on the final leg of a bit of a trek around Turkey.
If you remember when we wrote about our Turkey travel plans (so far) for 2013, we said we would go north from Fethiye by bus up to Eskişehir, across to Ankara by high speed train and then we would take the overnight Van Gölü Express train from Ankara to Lake Van in the east of Turkey.
A few train issues later, we persevered and finally got the Doğu Express train to take us east to visit our friend who is currently teaching in the town of Patnos, just north of Lake Van.
Patnos, like many other places in central Eastern Turkey has a harsh winter and it’s still cold – but the weather is on the turn.
We’ve only been here a few days and the scenery has already changed dramatically.

This is our friend’s first year of teaching in the east and she said that when she arrived for the start of term last September, all you could see was scorched brown hills, after the dry summer.
Scorched brown hills became white as the snow started to fall over winter.
And now we’re here in springtime and the white – still topping the higher hills and mountains – is turning green.
And it’s getting noticeably greener by the day – really special to watch. It’s the first time she’s witnessed the greenery, too.
But what’s more special is the red you can see in the photo. This is a sure sign spring has arrived to the eastern side of Turkey.
We’ve just completed a mini road trip of the area – and on early Saturday evening we drove into the town of Iğdır to stay the night for a rest.
Today, on the way back to Patnos, we again drove along the same road, out of Iğdır, and from half a mile or so away, we could see a carpet of red that wasn’t there a couple of days before.

We decided it might be poppies (I was really hoping it would be poppies) so we decided to make a quick stop when we reached the area.
For years, we’ve looked at photos of the region around Lake Van and read about the masses of spring flowers, and to be honest, we hadn’t seen too many until we were driving back today.
This must be the time of year they appear and it’s as though they’ve sprung to life overnight.

It was poppies! Happy days. We were travelling in convoy with friends in another car so we all pulled over to get out and go over to take photos.
It’s impossible to describe the vast open areas, the immense space, the mountains, plateaus, rivers and streams around Eastern Turkey – we’ll let our hundreds of photos do that for us over the coming weeks – and this mass of poppies was a real sight.
And if you read this blog a lot, you’ll be aware that our knowledge of flora and fauna is sadly lacking and, apart from finding out the names of a couple of the wildflowers around Kayaköy, doesn’t stretch much past the wonder that is the poppy.
So again, we’re not sure what these yellow wildflowers are, but these too have burst onto the scene in abundance, lining the roadsides and occasionally partitioning the crowds of red.
We set about photographing these too, getting up close and personal – and then one of our group pointed out the caterpillars that were all over them.
Unlike the processionary caterpillar we see in Fethiye, a quick search online hasn’t given us any information about this little being, so we have no idea if it’s dangerous.
A quick couple of photos was enough for us before we left them to get on with life…and if they all become butterflies around the same time, imagine what a sight that would be.
As usual, if you know anything about either the yellow wildflowers or the caterpillars that so enjoy them, we’d love to hear from you. Thanks!
Turkey's For Life
Monday 27th of May 2013
@ Alan: Well you'll just have to use your fabulous internet connection to upload all your info and have it all online. ;)
Alan
Wednesday 22nd of May 2013
. . with my failing memory that's an awful lot of reference books!!
Turkey's For Life
Tuesday 21st of May 2013
@ Back to Bodrum - Good point. ;)
Backto Bodrum
Tuesday 21st of May 2013
I think we should all take Alan with us wherever we travel. (Failing that - his book)
Turkey's For Life
Tuesday 21st of May 2013
@ Alan: Ha ha. We're already thinking of when to come back. This is our friend's first year here teaching and she potentially has 5 years here. We wouldn't be good friends if we didn't come to see her again. :) Interesting about the caterpillar colours and mineral content of the soil.