| I
looked out from Giresun Castle on the peninsula. Enchanted by the
sight of the town in |
| the
glowing light of the late afternoon, I scanned the view in every direction.
The castle |
| was
filled with people strolling, picnicking, seated in the tea gardens
watching the sea |
| and
the town, and children playing. It is thought that the castle may
originally have been |
| built
by King Pharnakes I of Pontus in the 2nd century BC. Although some
of its walls |
| are
today in ruins, it is still magnificent. At its highest point is the
monumental tomb of |
| Topal
Osman, commander of Atatürk’s first guard regiment.Giresun Island
appears tiny |
| from
this high vantage point. Traces can be seen of the ancient walls which
once ran in |
| a square
around the island, and of the Monastery of St Phocas, Archbishop of
|
| Sinop.Saklıkent,
literally the Hidden City, lies 45 kilometres northeast of Fethiye.
One of |
| the
world’s narrowest and best concealed gorges, it impresses all who
see it with the |
| power
of water, the element in which life on earth began. I for one reckon
that the secret |
| temples
in the Indiana Jones films have to take second place to the magical
beauty of |
| Saklıkent.
Here daylight filters down through the narrow fissure to create delightful
plays |
| of
light on the sculpted rock, while the stream running down the gorge
bed completes the tableau. |
| |
| The
stream pours so fiercely from the narrow gorge mouth that the only
way to enter is |
| along
a walkway pinned to the west wall above the level of the water. Beyond,
the stream |
| calms
down, and the first kilometre or so are negotiable even by childen
without |
| difficulty.
Then the going becomes tougher, and ropes have been fixed to the rock
walls |
| to
assist in climbing the rocky obstacles on the gorge floor. A few kilometres
further on |
| progress
becomes almost impossible, but that is enough to see the extraordinary
beauty |
| of
the walls and passages shaped by the flowing water.At some points
it is necessary to |
| wade
up to the waist through the stream, so if you want to explore far
into the gorge there |
| is
a price to pay in terms of wet clothes and shoes, and those who wish
to reach even |
| further
up the gorge would do well to come equipped with diving shoes or plastic
|
| sandals.Visitors
who enjoy trekking might wish to explore the gorge from the summit
|
| rather
than the floor. For this equally adventurous alternative take one
of several paths |
| east
of the gorge. The climb to the top takes about an hour. Walking along
the upper |
| edge
of the 700 metre high gorge is a thrilling experience, although the
gorge floor is |
| only
visible from two places.he Karaçay river which rushes noisily through
the canyon |
| suddenly
bursts out of the cliff onto the flat plain, where it converges with
the Esençay |
| before
dividing again into several streams. |
|
| On rafts moored to the banks of these gently flowing branches
of the river are several |
|
restaurants nestling amongst greenery. Here you can enjoy
a delicious meal of fresh
|
|
trout and the local pastry known as gözleme. At the
mouth of the gorge local villagers
|
|
have set up market stalls selling honey, olive oil, thyme, sour pomegranate
syrup, carob |
| syrup
and other homemade produce. Altogether
the Saklıkent Gorge is 13 kilometres in |
|
length, and the only people known to have got from one end to the
other are the |
|
BÜMAK-ATLAS team and a group from TPAO led by Beşir Erkman. Both teams
used professional climbing and caving equipment to complete their
respective expeditions, |
|
which took two and a half days. They commenced at the far end of the
gorge and |
|
travelled downstream. The most difficult part of the journey was apparently
descending |
|
the 50 kilometre waterfall halfway along the gorge.The gorge runs
along the dividing |
|
boundary between the provinces of Muğla and Antalya, and is so well
hidden that it |
|
remained completely unknown until its discovery in 1989 by a shepherd
named Ekrem, |
|
who followed some stray goats here. The gorge was declared a national
park, and an |
|
asphalt road was built to its mouth so that visitors could enjoy this
spectacular natural |
|
feature. Even in the height of summer when the sun is blazing hot
elsewhere, in Saklıkent |
|
Gorge the heat does not penetrate and the mountain stream is cool.
|
|
|
From spring until the end of August conversation in Giresun
centres around the nuts,
|
| which
have become so much a part of the local culture that there are riddles,
stories and |
| songs
about them. In one local folksong a lover declares, ‘My darling, not
even a |
| hazelnut/Would
I eat without you'. |
| Maize,
cabbages, green beans and other vegetables are grown in everyonles
gardens. |
| No
meal in Giresun is complete without cabbage, which is made into soup
and numerous |
| other
dishes and served with corn bread. Nettle stew and pickled beans are
among the |
| other
specialities of the local cuisine. Last but not least are anchovies,
which are the |
| most popular fish throughout the Black Sea region and
cooked in a myriad ways. |
| Anchovies
are no longer found in their former abundance,
however, and it is to be |
| hoped
that they do not disappear altogether, like Giresun’s enormous horse
mackerel. |
| When
I saw these fish in an old photograph I refused to believe that they
were horse |
| mackerel
until convinced by the accounts of some elderly people. These fish,
equal in |
| size
to bonito, have not been seen for the past thirty years. |
