The Scent of Green: Pokut, Turkey
The Black Sea mountains are like the Alps of Turkey. Majestic and only accessible during the summer months. Winter brings 6 meters of snow and hard core skiers get dropped in. It’s tough to get to and tough to live up there, but people do. And they are deeply proud of their land. Their villages are called yaylas (literally mountain resort), and they sprinkle the mountains. The yayla we visited was called Pokut. It is a rare gem that has remained rural, traditional and very sparsely populated.
We stayed at Pokut Evi (http://pokutdogakonukevi.com/). The house is placed on the top of the hill and run by an older couple, who both were born and bred in yaylas. We were housed, fed breakfast and dinner, and embraced with full heart. All the houses are made from wood and stone. They stand on land nobody owns because you can’t own the land up there. You loan the land from the land for a while according to a verbal agreement with everyone there. It is family and history, and it protects that earth.
Most people go to this place to hike. We could not hike far with Ruya because of the weather. We went just before the season ended, which meant rain, though we were lucky and had very little of it. But we couldn’t go too far from rain cover. So we walked within an hour radius of the yayla and explored two hikes into the forrest. Our reason for being there was the atmosphere. The air was pristine. Our eyes were pummelled with green. We got our nature fix before heading back to our current base in Istanbul, which is full on city.
Ruya got to meet cows. Many of them, all wearing bells. The cows were beautifully decorated and fed us milk each morning. Ruya spent hours pondering the cows as we stood surrounded by them. She also met chickens and roosters, ate the freshest trout, walked the moss clad paths and reorganised all the slippers in the house we stayed in. She preferred the lilac kind and liked to place them near the stash of food she located in the pantry. Everyone thought we were crazy to have a baby there and with us travelling. But they also doted on her and thoroughly enjoyed Ruya’s mischief.
The Black Sea people have a certain quality to them. More aloof, harder from manual work and rural living. The women are renown for how hard they work and you can see it in their bodies. The woman who hosted us was in her late fifties or sixties and carried a huge tank of water multiple times a day. At the same time I observed how they took rest. The work was balanced with periods of long contemplation. Just sitting and looking. Being there reminded me of the value of a pause, how much hard work just doing that can be, and how productive it is in ways beyond the usual description.
They are people who have a deep love for their land. We spoke to many owners who refused to sell to buyers wanting to establish large hotels. Their sense of wealth was the pristine nature around them. Their food is hearty. Being vegetarian is unusual, and in a close by town like Rize we could only find salad and a soup that did not contain meat. Ruya and I did sampled the trout, but mostly we went vegetarian. Luckily our hosts improvised some traditional dishes veggie style. The classic traditional dish there though we ate. Its a cholesterol bomb and terribly delicious, made from butter, milk and a special melting cheese. Butter is profuse in the region and like nothing I have seen before. Huge barrels of it and pure gold in colour. Honey is also abundant and local. Our hosts had hives near the house and the chestnut honey had a distinct taste - not very sweet, intense and with a slight tang at the end.
So we ate, we walked, we watched cows, we smelled the air, we gazed at the view and we watched Ruya chase after chickens.
Getting there takes time and a few transits. But compared to six years ago when the family went up on mules - a journey of nine hours - its easy. The nearest airport is located in Trabzon. After that flight we caught a two hour bus ride to Ardeşen. Our hosts picked us up from Ardeşen and drove us up the mountain. You can only get up there with a four wheel drive and it takes about an hour. Its incredibly bumpy but somehow Ruya managed to sleep some of the ride. On the way back we broke the trip up and explored the various towns on the way including Çamlıhemşin and Rize. Each town was less and less rural. The green still visible, the coast surrounding, but nothing like the expanse we had seen.
Taking a toddler on any lengthy journey can be a challenge. But Ruya handled amazingly well. I made sure to feed her on the way and packed lots of snacks. At each stop I got her on her feet and let her run around. She would take off with glee. I let her sleep when she wanted and ignored any idea of a schedule. By the time we arrived she had slept enough to eat and go to bed later. She woke early during our stay, with the light. She felt natures clock.
We tested some gear during the trip. Our frogs - Frogg toggs - worked amazingly well. It is a very light weight rain cover and I wore the jacket and pants. I was able to wear my comfy leggings and a patagonia jacket underneath, keeping dry and snug. Ruya wore a patagonia jacket and we all had our SmartWool socks on. I put my lightweight Merrell barefoot trail shoes to the test. They are breathable and you can feel the earth under you. The grip is excellent and they are like a glove - weightless. They get wet but dry quickly. If it was really cold I would not use them but for mild weather with a pair of warm socks they worked great. I dried them under the wood stove each night and put them in the washing machine when I got back to our Istanbul base.
Would we go there again? Yes, for sure. This is a return to nest. There are rumours of a new airport in Ardeşen within two years, and once that happens tourism will greatly increase. That means we can get there with greater ease. But before that happens we shall savour the pristine quiet and lack of people. Those kind of places are what we hunt.
