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05.30 The shepherd wakes me up. He wants to speak. The reason he was affright last night was that he believed that I was a guard to catch him. It is forbidden for sheep and goat to come on the plain. They have to stay on the hillside, while the grassy plain is for the cows. He has a few oversized dogs with him, but they don't care us at all.
At 07.00 we depart towards ARMUTLU. Soon we walk next to the swamp.
The swamp is in fact a shallow lake with enormous reed fields in them. The local people use the reeds as building construction material. They sell the reed to other places. To do their work in the swamp they use flat bottomed boats, which look like wide canoes. Many of these boats are found on the shore. Few are still usable, most are sunken or are pulled ashore with holes in them. All the boats have an old oil barrel in them. Probably to place the reed standing in it, but this remains un-conformed.
Gürkan walks again not very pleasant and wants again to give up the walk. He plans to take a bus from the next possible place.
The entrance of ARMUTLU village shows a few courtyards with enormous stags of reed and tezek. A sign of a mixed agricultural farm: reeds from the lake and tezek produced by a large herd of cows. The mountain side next to the village is only suitable for goat. The dry plain is for the cows.
A man we meet calls us for a tea in his field. In his field stand all kind of fruit trees. His wife prepares the tea. We sit under a cherry tree full with the best looking cherries! The man is called Mahmut Avşar and tells us to eat as much as we want. That is a mistake of the first order! Anil and I eat an unbelievable amount of cherries. So much that soon all the fruit is gone between the ground level and 2 meter high. We change to a next tree and start to feel slightly guilty about it. I take a photo of Anil with hands and mouth full of the fruit. We stop eating and start to drink the tea.
Bad luck for Gürkan there is no transportation between here and the rest of the world. That will be to days later. He doesn't want to wait!
As we continue there is some panic near a farm. A woman has seen a large snake and the men run to kill it. That happens and an innocent snake lost its live. It is indeed very long, but not poisonous.
The village has some stone and mud brick houses. There are also minor structures made of reed.
The pad on the map is shown straight up the steep side of the mountain and that is how it is! A path goes pretty steep up and becomes a track. The surrounding is very beautiful if you have time and breathe to notice it. As we go over the top a heavy rain falls down. We take shelter with 5 persons under the same miniature tree and get wet. It takes not too long and we continue. A Taktak comes from behind and offers to bring us to the next town. I have to say no... Anil says a few bad things in Turkish. The same people we pass later when they are cutting grass in a field. They overtake us again in their Taktak and are almost over a hill when they return. They come to tell us of a short-cut that will spare us 5 kilometer. We trust them again and follow their instructions. A path goes indeed straight down towards the village. Straight down means here literary 'straight' and 'down'. The path is very steep. At the bottom of the hill there is a rest again. The boys want here a long rest. I don't agree, with the village in sight it is nonsense to stop in an empty forest and have another break again in the village. The discussion starts again between Douwe who has similar ideas as I and Burak and Gürkan. I can't stand it any longer and sit at some distance from the rest. When a reasonable period of time passed I stand up and walk away without calling them. Without looking back I walk straight to the village. I pass a very deep and dirty pit filled with black water. This pit is situated at the edge of the village. The mountains have also thick layers of black gravel. Is this some kind of primitive coal mining?
At the entrance of the village YUKARIKASIKARA I look back and see that they also started to walk when I started and they are almost near me.
We find the teahouse next to the mosque and we order tost and drinks. In a bakkal we buy cold drinks of a brand we never heard of. It isn't bad if you don't know what it is supposed to be for taste.
A boy comes with a young owl. The animal likes to sit with me. The boy wants 500.000 TL for the bird. I have no chance to get it alive in Ankara and here it will die probably too. I give him the money and tell him to take care of the bird. He doesn't understand this behavior.
We are in a large village and there must be transport, so I carefully don't speak about leaving anymore with Gürkan.
On the way out we see a few large houses of which half the top floor is a terrace.
The way down to the plain of the EĞRIDIR GOLU is long and full with up and down going Taktaks. A few times rain starts and we are twice lucky to take shelter under a tree and a balcony.
The road over the plain is endless and boring. Everything is wet of the rain.
A couple on a tracker stop to fill our hats with cherries.
Although everything is wet, we are totally out of drinking water when we reach the other side of the plain. Fields full with trees but there are no people around and there are no wells.
Exhausted we come to the corner with the road to YUKARITIRTAR. Here is a small house with a man. He gives us water from a hand pump. It taste as well. We rest here and see the long road going up hill. It is a 300 meter climb and it gets dark already. We agree with the man that he will bring Gürkan and our packs to a high point. That is necessary because Gürkan walks now really very difficult. They leave in his Toros and we walk as angels so light up hill. Soon we are at the spot where he left Gürkan. It makes a difference for him. We take our packs and start to walk. Not much later a tracker comes and Gürkan asked to come with him. That's fine to me he needs it. As the tracker passes we see that also Burak is standing on the back of it. He didn't need it at all! Douwe shows his energy by running up hill next to the tracker. Anil and I get already sick by looking at it.......
The three of us we walk endless up while it gets darker. We hope that the two boys have arranged some thing in the village.
This hope evaporated as we come just before the village. The two sit next to the road and are waiting for us. This is too much for me and I get angry.
We come near the teahouse and place our packs to the outer wall. It hurts me now too and irritations are not only in my mind. It is time to 'powder the nose'. We are wet of sweat and there is no tea but they start to make it for us. I have long conversations with the men about our walk, my person, etc.
They understand that we can't go further tonight and they offer a room for us to stay.
After the tea we walk with a boy to a house. It is an old house and is used for guests. It has one room with a stove in it. There are pillows along the walls and carpets on the floor. One lamp on a cord gives the light. When we sit the men come to welcome us again and tea comes in and slowly the rest of the dinner appears on the floor. It is a meal of cheese, yogurt, beans, salad, helva, irmik pudding.
The few men stay till late in the room and speak with us. We drink a few glasses tea. Finally the men are leaving us.
There is no place to wash ourselves, so I do that outside on the balcony. In the dark that must be possible and anyway I do not care anymore about that kind of things. Washing is a must otherwise you will get problems the next day.
We sleep on the floor of the room. All the clothes and bodies smell a bit. We lay out the sleeping bags and have a, for me, uncomfortable night.

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Statistics
From the starting-point = 312 km
To the end-point = 157 km
Walked today = 26.8 km
Total km = 357.8 km
Group members = 5
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Day 20, June 20th , Sunday: sunny and very warm

YUKARITIRTAR - AFŞAR

I wake up at 06.30 and sit on the veranda and write in my notebook. After sitting and writing: I sweep the floor and prepare it for breakfast, I make hot water for tea on my petrol burner. Afterwards follows short walk through the village for some nice photos, alone this time; Anil can stay and sleep a few minutes more.
When I return the rest wakes up and we sit in the morning sun on the veranda. Smoke and a nice smell come from the neighboring house. A few women are baking bread, they sit on pillows on the floor of a large rectangular space. It is not a real room, the roof is not attached to the walls, there are no windows and it has an earth floor. It is the baking house of a family. An mud plastered circular fire-place, of about 30 cm high, carries the metal baking plate on which the yufka-type of bread is baked. Two more women sit opposite each other and prepare the dough and roll with a stick dough-balls to large flat shapes. The flat dough is given, hanging on the stick, to the baker. This way nobody has to stand up. They make a large pile of bread and they use it over more days.
After cleaning the house we leave the village. We try to thank the people but can not find anyone, except one old man. He did not even know that we were there.
Behind the village we climb, at 08.00, the mountain in the direction of TOKMACIK. When we are at the highest point I phone home. It is 'father-day' and have to speak with Khaan, my son. While doing so I get a nice father-day gift as a hornet 'bites' in my leg. That is always something you do not forget, the hornet will be sorry too, since I was able to hit it and when it fell on the stony ground I placed my 'size 44' on it and turned my heel a few times.
I immediately spray with my special 'anti-insect bites spray' and have no problems.
A beautiful nature and easy walk follow as we are at the high elevation. Over a wide dirt road we walk at 1400 meter as if it was at sea-level. At 10.50 we walk over a wide two lane road leading into TOMACIK, a large village. Here we are invited for tea by a man on a tractor. We follow him to his farm, just at the edge of the village. In his garden we sit under trees and have plums, drink ayran and tea and eat bread, cheese and yogurt. The man had worked in Germany. He had an accident in a coalmine and became an disabled. His hand and feet are of an extra ordinary size. His wife and son carry the tea and the food to us but are no part of the lunch party. After an hour we walk through the village without our packs, they still stand in the garden.
The village has many, for me, interesting houses. It also has a large bakkal. It has bottles of Konyak and we want to take one. This stuff makes you feel blind after a few glasses. But when we want to pay the shop owner warns us that the bottle contains lamp-oil. That is a bit of a disappointment we can say. There is also beer but it is not cold since there is already a long time a power-cut. Beer is too heavy and warm beer is not drinkable so we do not buy anything.
After picking up our packs we walk in the direction of ÇALTI.
It is very hot and after a few kilometers we have to stop and sit under the trees. We sit and sleep here for about one hour. Then the sound of a tractor came from behind. A farmer with his wife and son came towards us. They did not mind that we were here and he started to speak. After a while we continued our walk. No too far away we saw the first houses and a large school building of ÇALTI. A long street with a row of farmhouses brings us to the center of the village. This place is marked by a large pond with a well on one of its sides. The well is made of large old stones and some of them are clearly spoila and look like if they come from a church building. This large and shallow pond must be the birth place of millions of mosquitoes!
The corner of a house shows more fragments of a Byzantine church building, decorated stones are reused in the wall.
We have enough attention of the many children who are swarming around us. A boy shows us the easiest way out, we are stopped by a cloud of bees. There is something wrong in a beehive and they all came out. With the mouth closed and the eyes half closed we walk through it.
A new long road is ahead of us. We walk and see halfway two boys and a mobilette. They walk too, the petrol of their transporter finished. I have extra petrol for my burner but since they do not ask, there is no need to offer them.
This long straight road to the south-west bring us to KÖKE. There is here not much of extra interest to photograp, but there are a few teahouses around a square. We sit in the teahouse opposite the mosque and we drink many glasses of ayran. I had something like 5 of them. The teahouse has a shop in the back and we buy packets with salty chips. We need to keep our salt and minerals at a good level!
Sevgi phones that they are in YALVAÇ and have to wait for a minibus to GELENDOST. She asks if she has to bring something. I used more films then expected so I order two more films if it is possible.
After the evening session in the mosque there is an announcement that cherries will be taken in for 4.000.000 TL a kilo. Anil and I calculate quickly how much money we have eaten in the garden of the man in ARMUTLU!!
From KÖKE there is a road to AFŞAR that is not on our map. On the way we get more cherries and we eat and eat till we feel round and full.
Sevgi writes messages that she and Rado are now in GELENDOST but the last bus to AFŞAR has left already, what to do? The two places are only 5 kilometer apart so maybe a lift or a taxi can be the solution?
We come in AFŞAR and end up in the teahouse. It is full with men and the Jardarma is looking for someone. They have no interest in us and we can sit and drink. With Anil and Douwe we walk through the village. There is an old hamam and some other old houses. As we return to the teahouse a car arrives and Sevgi and Rado come out. They pay the man, who seems to be the muhtar of GELENDOST who also seems to be taxidriver after 17.00! Anyway they are here! They sit and drink something. Then we ask where we can make our camp. A man tells us that we can do that at the football field of the old school. There is water in the schoolgarden.
We move towards the school. İt is really an old school, the building is in a bad state and is used as a depot of some kind. Next to the school is a toilet block for boys and girls but the toilets are broken and the doors are missing.
On the football field are boys playing football (strange?) and there is someone with some sheep. We choose a place at the edge of the field not too close and not too far from the school. We set up the tents and we see that Sevgi has a different type of tent. She tells that when she went to Praktiker, only a few days ago, all the tents had finished except these. They are more difficult to set up and need pins in the ground.
Rado is happy to be back again and happy to be out of Ankara.
We eat some mushroom soup and it is dark already, the school is occupied by some workers who seem to live in it but do not mind that we take water from them. Our toilet is in the bush behind the tents. And the term 'Vişne Höyük' is introduced.
The night is humid but I sleep. Others in the group hear animals around the tents, I hear nothing at all.
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Statistics
From the starting-point = 326 km
To the end-point = 142 km
Walked today = 21.8 km
Total km = 379.6 km
Group members = 5
Group members in the evening = 7
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