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Day 7, June 7th , Monday: Partly clouded and warm
TABAKLAR - ALANCI
In the morning Sarp and Duygu are doing slow as a kind of protest. I do if I don't notice it. The valley is beautiful and looks like on one of these Japanese drawings of mountains and pine-trees. Hours later we pass a few houses that might have been the imam's abandoned village. A long climb bring us to the top of a mountain range at 1343 m. Douwe studies the map. After a short rest and reanimation we go down. We can see a long valley with a straight road and some chicken farms along it. However this view resembles no pattern on the map in this area. While going down we hear a large dog barking and some think that it is following us. The beast however stays high on the hill. As we go down we come to a village that is called ÇAMURLUK. We talk to some villagers and they don't invite us immediately; so we ask the magic question: is there a bakkal where one can buy some food. A man tells us the sad news: there is no bakkal. He invites us to have lunch in his garden. As we walk towards his house we pass some old houses and my interest is now on high alert. This seems to be a village that has many complete old houses.
We sit in the garden around a table while the woman of the house prepares a large 'breakfast' type of lunch. It takes a long time but the boiled eggs, cheese, tomatoes, etc taste well. After lunch some prefer to lie down and sleep, while I and the Çavuş go for a photo session in the village. Later we are joined by Rado. The houses are large with most of the living areas on the first floor. Some rooms are located on the ground floor. Most houses are made of a timber-frame and an infill of the frame by standing wooden elements. The wood work is over plastered, but these days the maintenance is absent and the plaster falls off the walls in most cases. In some cases no plaster remains at all of these houses some details are taken of the doors and windows a drainage pipe and its connection. The backside of the house has a stone part in where the animals were kept.
Another house has some rooms at the ground floor and on the second floor. The house is now not used anymore and the windows are barricaded with wooden planks and sticks. From one of the corners hangs still a line with dried peppers, but they hang a few years too long in the sun! On the sidewall are still some parts with wall-plaster in situ. It can be seen that the wooden planks have deliberately 'pitted' with a hammer-like tool to get an uneven surface to be able to attach the plaster more solidly.
The ovens for bread baking are outside the houses. The ovens have their own covering structures, a small barn-like building that has a gable roof over the oven's dome. Inside we see a square stone structure with a dome made of small stone fragments and clay. No chimney is visible here.
The storage buildings are large and again made completely of wood.
An example of a farmhouse is made of a timber frame of which the ground floor is completely filled in with stone. The first floor is filled in with wood, once plastered. The ground floor is completely used for the farm work, animals and storage, while a staircase goes up to the corridor with at the end a washing place and a toilet, these two wet places protrudes together outside the line of the building. The washing place with a wooden spout drops the water far from the house-wall. The corridor gives access to two rooms; a room with a chimney and two windows, next to the chimney two in the wall sunken cupboards. The other space is a smaller room with a later addition in the wall: a hole through which a pipe of a hearth was placed. The whole inside of the second floor was plastered with a circa two centimeter thick layer with a white-wash over it.
We return back to the house where we had lunch because my only film will soon finish. On the way back we pass a shed made of horizontal placed planks, a shed with in front pilled up firewood that covers all except the doorway. The building next to that of our host is made of logs and planks. The village school is now out of use and is slowly collapsing. Towards the back of the village are many more houses in different conditions, they have a central bay with one central window and two windows on both sides next to it. There is also an old teahouse now in disuse. The house in the back has two small windows next to the door. The house has wooden, spouts these are long, protruding hollow sticks to drain the dirty water of the household far from the house-walls. One street has three such houses on a row. The last house seems unused but has a modern satellite disk. On the side one window is blocked with wood, on which a plaster layer can be seen. Next to this house is an ambar: it is a square wooden box type. To fill it one has to be on top of it. To prevent people and animals going there the way up is closed by a door. The stairway is next to the storage-box, connected to it and with wooden walls. A roof of metal sheets has to prevent it from getting wet in this climate with its frequent rainfall. We pass a house with a door made of many small, reused pieces of wood.
After the village tour we return to our hosts and take their photos while sitting in the garden, they seem to like a formal photo, but my famous trick makes them laugh and gives a nicer plate.
The woman explains how she bakes bread in the oven that is attached to the house; it can be operated from inside one of the rooms, while the oven itself stands outside under a protecting roof. They make in one baking session bread for about twenty days and can keep it good and 'more and less' fresh. All the dough preparation and baking tools are there together but the room is too dark for a photo. The bread she gave us during lunch is round with a hole in the middle a type that I know to come from a tandır, but that is here not the case.
We leave the village at about 13.00 just as the call for the prayer goes over the village. Our host gets nervous but stays with us missing his afternoon's praying session. He brings us to the entrance of the village and we say: "good bye!" I promised to post the photos soon.
The track that shows on the map became recently the main road, leading to the chicken farms and much farther away towards MUDURNU. We fill our waterbottles and walk this road towards the south. And a turning we follow the old road towards the west. At a rest Sarp and Duygu announce that they need medical treatment of a kind I can give but I'm not asked for. It seems that the fungi type of irritation between the legs becomes a bit too much. Had they listened to me and had they read the pack-list, they should have known that jeans are no so good to walk in. Anyway, they want to go to NALLIHAN at the end of this road. They want to see a doctor. They also take money from Douwe to buy a disposable camera, they take Rado's sunglasses for repair and a few more things. We plot a place from the map to find each other again and agree to meet again at the bridge just behind the GOKÇEKAYA BARAJI. The day of this meeting is Wednesday at some time around noon. They stay behind and take a bus or lift.
We follow the road towards the west and come to a tank full ice-cold water. Douwe is the only polar-bear in our middle and takes a jump in the tank. The rest sits around and look.....
The next village we reach is SIFYANLAR. Here we try to buy some food in the bakkal. It is closed and we have to wait for the woman, who runs it, to open the door and the shop. Once open, there is not much to buy and there is no bread. We buy a few bottles with gazos which we drink immediately. Douwe and I have a walk though the village and again I take photos of the houses. Here there are combinations of stone and wood used at the first floor of living houses. Barns made with a timber frame and mud brick. The same type of bay house exists here as earlier seen in ÇAMURLUK. Along the stream, at the boundary of the village are lots of storage buildings. Also next to the stream is a bake-house of the same type as in ÇAMURLUK. After our return to the group, bread has been delivered by some friendly village women. The bread, is very large and heavy. Gürkan and Anil carry the bread to the next campsite.
We continue our way towards the west. The next village that is said to be "only 4 km away" seems never to come. It is getting almost dark and the group members have enough of it. In the end we enter ALANCI, the village is full with people and most of them are staring at us. Hostile is not the right word but such a feeling comes close..... Near a house we ask a few men where we can camp and they show places far away again. We want to stay close by and in the end we can make camp on the other side of the 'highway'. It is there not really flat and in clear view of the road. It is also is a very dirty place and there are many flies and mosquitoes. While setting up the tents a car stops and a man comes to look at us and to speak with us. After a short visit he leaves again.
Rado receives a phone call that "mother wants Rado to return home".
We will ask when the bus in the Ankara direction will leave in the morning.
There is no water near our campsite and we have to take it from the village center. We speak here again with some of the men and get our water. Also we get the information about the busses. There is one at 07.40. Just wait on time near the mosque.
As we walk back towards the tents we see a Jandarma van parked next to the road. Two Jandarmas and the man who was the visitor speak with the boys. It is again a short visit because Burak pulls out a card that shows that he is the son of an active serving colonel in the army. "If the Jandarma want to speak to his father?" There is no need! And soon the blue van is driving away with the Judas who thought he could do some good work for them....
We prepare food, as always makarna with tuna fish, and as always the boys try not to clean my cooking-pan. The macaroni sticks to the bottom of the pan and is very difficult to clean. Burak is very good in using the pan and giving it to the next person so he does not has to clean it.
A nearby erosion gully is the camp's toilet and the place where Anil dumps his wonderful dinner. The next morning shows that even the dogs did not want to eat it!
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statistics
from starting-point = 82.2 km
to end-point = 386 km
walked this day = 19.3 km
total = 110.9 km
group members = walking 6 - touring 2
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Day 8, June 8th , Tuesday: Partly clouded and warm
ALANCI - FAKILAR
Nothing happened in the night and in the early morning I took a photo of the camp.
We don't wake up very early because we have to get Rado on the bus. We pack our things but give a few items for Ankara like my machete and my small knife. Of the last is a screw of the wooden handle lost and it is now difficult to use, while Rado has my other knife, the third one. So we switch them. I also drop a large packet of macaroni near the mosque, it was the same tape as what Anil couldn't cook last night.
We see a bus pass a half an hour before it is time and we are afraid that that was the bus. We wait near the mosque and the bus really comes and more or less on time. Greetings to Rado and there goes the bus. Only five of us left now.
The night before we spoke to the villagers about going up the ridge behind the village, but they said that it was hard to do and difficult to find, since the paths were out of use and probably overgrown or with fallen trees etc. So on their advice we continued towards the west.
We walk over the empty road and after 5 kilometer we reach a petrol station in DEDELER where we have breakfast. And we buy al kind of food and sweets for the future. A few forestry workers explain us how to continue.
We walk towards a famous Chicken Concentration Camp, where no one escapes, a kind of 'Turkish Chicken Run'. In this factory all kind of chicken products are made. On the outside a stream of blood makes Anil almost ill. After this factory we follow the Karaçay Dere through a friendly landscape with storks that are sitting on the side of the stream. During a rest I treat the foot of Gürkan and it seems better for the moment, an act of confidence since my last help during the trainings walk Güdül-Beypazerı ended in the evacuation of Gürkan by tractor! The valley is surrounded by the high and almost vertical rock cliffs. But the stream has to go out somewhere and the map shows a gap in the rock-wall. Towards the end of the valley is nothing to see but suddenly a narrow passage shows, the rock is cut away almost vertically, in the valley where the water passes is a shepherd with his sheep.
Just outside the passage we have our longer lunch break. Hot water for coffee, tea or soup is made. As always the boys want a longer rest then possible, something that became an endless discussion point throughout this walk.
The road turns east towards HASANLAR an old village with many wooden and interesting houses. When Anil, Douwe and I enter the village we notice that the perimeter is made of storage buildings, just on top of the slope. Combinations of building materials are used here, some storage buildings are made of wood, others of timber frame and mud brick or a combination of these. The first impression is that nobody lives here, since there is no one to be seen. We see houses with the ovens attached to the outer wall of the house, an indicator that the weather can be very different here in the other seasons!
Ambars are again made of wood and have a protective roof of planks without any other covering material.
Finally some people are seen. There is even a teahouse that is open during the day. That happens not often since usually everyone is on the field and there are no customers for tea.
A strange shaped and huge wooden frame stands against an ambar wall. We ask the owner of the house, who is staring at us through the window, what it is. He comes out of the house. It seems to be the frame of a loom. He gives some other information about things I know already, but give a comfortable conversation. After shooting more pictures it is time to go on. For that we need to find out where our two computer friends are, who seem to have disappeared. They don't show any interest in these old villages and stayed on the road, now they are gone. While searching for them a man in a car with driver comes to us to speak. He pretends to be important but in the end he is a Turk Telecom man looking after his workers. He thinks clearly that we are mad. I hope he could also sees clearly what I think about him. We find the two boys sitting in front of a chicken-farm, drinking tea with the farmer and his wife. According to their stories you can better deal with chickens than with students, since he seems to earn many times more then I do.
We continue towards DEMIRHANLAR, GPS 36 320425 - 4456132. This is also an old village with many wooden en stone houses and depots. In this village the small balconies have some decoration in the form of cut-out motifs in the wooden planks of the balustrade.
We ask our way to the next place: FAKILAR. The usual 'short cut' is explained to us, but they inform us already that it is difficult to find the beginning of this road. So a boy comes with us and he runs though the fields and up and own hills towards the path. I have some problems following him, since my ankle hurts and in general I'm a bit tired.
The boy shows the road and returns to the village. We have a rest at the beginning of this path. If it has been a road then it is a long time out of use. A passing farmer with his wife at the back of his tracker explains us that we don't go up but stay flat and that we can be there before five in the afternoon. We start to walk and it goes up immediately and not childish too! A walk that never seems to end. We pass nice green fields and steep hillsides. At some point my eyes catch a familiar picture, a sherd on the ground! We stop and start to look for more. Soon we have a few hands full of sherds and they seem to be all of the Hellenistic period. They seem to come down from the hillside next to the road. I warn my companions that it is forbidden to take sherds with you, even these very small rotten pieces. So a photo of the diagnostics is taken on a piece of wood and a general shot of the site is completed with a GPS reading: ........ We continue and the road goes endless up. More sweat, rests and sweets, more upward road. Finally we come to the highest point from where a 'shorter short cut' goes to the village. But we don't want to risk anything and follow the path we can see. This path is certainly not a short cut and we follow the side of the mountain more or less at the same elevation. We turn and turn and finally see the village. It is almost 20.00 and it is getting dark. We have to hurry not to enter the place in the dark in our military - terrorist outfit, that may scare them too much. We hurry and enter the village. Some people stare at us and we ask for the muhtar. He lives near the mosque. As we come close some activity stops our walk, there are many men and boys looking at the telecom people placing new cables on the posts. Here is also our muhtar. He seems not too interested but is busy with the telephone wires. We explain to the many people around us what we are doing, it is more difficult to explain 'why' we are doing it! I show the whole map on the floor from coast to coast. After a while when it gets really dark, we are asked to follow a man. He brings us up hill to a house. The walk to there is not funny anymore, we are really tired.
Outside the door we take off our boots and it becomes clear that we have been outdoors for a while. My socks are probably the most smelling part, but the rest is not fresh too. I wear my shorts and feel a little uncomfortable in them in this domestic surrounding with traditional people.
The house seems to be his house and he has a wife and two children. Also his father is there and it never became clear who lived in the house and who did not. But it does not matter much since we had one large room for ourselves. In the room was a stove, a 'sofa', a TV, a telephone and one bed. We sit around and he and his father start to talk. That is something he, Metin, is very good at. Endless are his explanations about the World, the history of Turkey and Anatolia and much more. That is the price of a free house and finally his small daughter brings us the tea. After the tea a cloth is placed on the floor and a low table is set up on it. The dinner comes in. I only remember a few things I don't like too much, like beans and some kind of rice. It's not an 'a la cart restaurant', so don't complain Coockson! The expression: "beggars are no choosers" is here in the right place.
I see a nice bowl with a sort of compote made of apricot. This is of course for after dinner, but I manage to eat the whole bowl before the rest finishes their meal. It stayed not unnoticed and a second bowl is presented by the host. Polite as I am, I finished that one too!
Sitting on the ground with the legs folded is something I never could do, not after but also not before my accident. In my Syrian campaigns I had the greatest difficulties to sit polite with the legs under me and the feet not showing towards the middle of the room. Later the people who knew me let me sit or lay as was most comfortable for me. I seem to be not a Lastik Adam!
After dinner the endless talking continues but now is poor Anil the victim of his attention, while the other Turkish boys stay carefully out of the conversation. This talking comes very late to an end and I can go to the toilet to wash myself, something that is really needed as some skin irritation tells me.
Back in the room the bed is mine: the advantage of being the teacher and being old. Douwe sleeps on the sofa, which is a nice word for this very hard object. The boys sleep on the ground. The wind blows around the house and it is very cold outside. Good we stay in here after a day of 24 km..
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statistics
from starting-point = 97.9 km
to end-point = 371 km
walked this day = 24.1 km
total = 135.0 km
group members = walking 5 - touring 2
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GPS Coordinates of places and archaeological sites in Turkey
