TR (2): Kayaking in the pontic and kackar mountains, Turkey (07/2012)

**herr_stoiber** · 10-12-2012, 06:28 AM

So, for me summer is finally over, back home and looking for new things to do. I thought I'd share a short report of my second trip to Turkey this year in order to distract myself from the grey skies and the bleak city outside.

Since my friend Chris was spending all summer around Turkey and Georgia and we had had great fun together kayaking and guiding a trip in May (http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...-May-June-2012), it seemed like the right thing to do to fly over for a second time, have a look at what is the left of the Coruh, and check out the other rivers in the area. Yet with the pressure of booking a flight increasing, the team diminished - no vacation here, no vacation there, and Mathes landing a double in the bike park on his lower arm instead of his wheels.

But, finally, at least Mathes recovered and I wasn't all by myself. Still, with Chris being busy guiding, we were rather limited in terms of running harder stuff, especially more continous rivers. In the end we decided to just go easy, save our hucking ambitions for another time and put our priorities on landscape and scenic runs.

Booking a flight was the next challenge - Turkish airlines first confirmed they can transport our boats, then we booked, then they told us that they can only transport boats shorter than 240cm inside Turkey. Hours of waiting in loops on the phone and several fruitless conversations later we decided to take our chances and simply declared both our boats (ZET Raptor and the big Jackson Fun Runner) to be 240cm. Turns out I didn't even have to pay for my boat in Vienna, both boats arrived without any trouble whatsoever, and on the way back none of us payed for the boats. Lesson learned.

Arriving in Trabzon together after meeting up on the stopover in Istanbul, we were instantly picked up by our car rental guys and started loading the boats. Ten minutes later the phone rings, it's Chris telling us we should get going because they are waiting for us at the put in for a second run. We put the pedal all the way down, riding the coastal highway east, and about two hours later we arrived at the Firtina. Tired but really excited to get wet, we got into the boats..

It's a classic rafting run, crystal clear water, wonderful fast Chilean style class 3 and 4 rapids with holes to avoid or to bomb through. Lining the valley are tea plantations on steep mountainsides.

After the run, we set up camp on the bank of a tributary.

The next day, we repeated the Firtina, but this time we paddled down into the black sea. Halfway down the river we were invited to tea by very nice local rafters.

It's an amazing experience to start out in the mountains and, without any flat water or river regulations, paddle right into the warm sea, small waves rolling in, watching the sunset.

After kayaking, well deserved food:

**herr_stoiber** · 10-12-2012, 06:51 AM

In the evening we drove east, into the mountains. Wherever you go in Turkey at the moment, you drive through huge construction sites and past hydroelectric projects. Last chances to paddle everywhere you look.

We spent the night on the roof of an abandoned building that is soon to disappear in a reservoir. Creepy, with old shoes and blankets spread about.

The next day was filled with landscape and a long run on a river that could have had a bit more water in it.

Another hydropower project on the Oltur river.

We also checked out the Tortum, it seems like a nice run with more water and there's a presumably unexplored gorge up above. We didn't paddle it, as the Coruh offered more challenging rapids for that evening.

We then drove over to Yusufeli, home to all exploration based around the Coruh, and apparently once a place with a vibrant whitewater community. Turns out, basically all of the Coruh is in dams and reservoirs and the only thing left is the lowest part of the river, about 15km of class 3 and 4 whitewater. In summer, there are higher flows in the evening when the dams open. During the day, the Barhal river appears to deliver more water than the mighty Coruh.

Mathes and herr stoiber on the Coruh:

**herr_stoiber** · 10-12-2012, 06:54 AM

Next, we paddled the lower Barhal:

which is a nice 2-3 run. Upper looked great, but being only a group of two we decided to leave it and continue with the "cultural program"..

**herr_stoiber** · 10-12-2012, 07:05 AM

more driving..

and another camp

We headed to the Pülümür valley, which is in the Tunceli region, one of the Kurdish hot spots.

Invited to bbq by an alevite family that didn't give much about ramazan

we didn't really take a lot of pictures on the river, but here is one of Chris a week later when he was there guiding:

Overall, the region is really interesting. Friendly people, you actually see women swimming in bikinis and boardshorts (not in a full dress like on the coast), but there's also military checkpoints with machine guns pointed at you, blown-up trucks next to the road, and warnings not to be out in the mountains at night. A week after we returned, a Turkish member of parliament was kidnapped near Tunceli. Definitely a place to be a bit careful, although as a tourist you are generally not a target of pkk or military activity.

Well, we were impressed and decided to leave the valley for the night. So off we were heading towards Euphrates.

**herr_stoiber** · 10-12-2012, 07:20 AM

Our final stop was the Euprates region. The upper part of this famous river is called Kara Su (black water). There are some roadside class 3-4 rapids next to the highway, but they had some logs and metal in them from roadwork so we decided to head down to the put in for the next day and meet up with Chris and his group for a three day trip on the upper Euphrat gorges. Currently, you can easily get 4 days of self-supported paddling out of the Kara Su. We chose to do one regular day trip and a two day overnighter in the remote lower gorges. You can shuttle using the train if you like.

Getting wet again after a long drive

The next morning at our campsite

running the shuttle for the overnighter in the gorge

dinner at the camp down in the gorge

mathes paddling off into adventure

clear spring water coming out of the walls everywhere

It's incredible: you start out in a warm, greyish muddy river and over time it gets colder and clearer as more and more spring water joins in.

surfing a heavy boat:

between the gorges

mathes and herr stoiber in front of some impressive springs

unfortunately, we then had to go back home.

parting at our stopover in Istanbul, we had an expensive but much-needed beer

... and boarded our flights.

**herr_stoiber** · 10-12-2012, 07:23 AM

photo sources:

http://www.kanumagazin.de/touren/rei...at-und-munzur/
https://profiles.google.com/u/0/115675828307609979530/
https://picasaweb.google.com/1158613...7v0NbksOCurgE#
herr stoiber, Christoph Scheuermann, Salome Fritz, Mathes Fischer, Michel

thanks goes out to Chris (http://www.toros-outdoors.de/) for showing us around and sharing all his knowledge with us. if you're interested in going to Turkey or Georgia (e.g. article (in English), photos) , I can really recommend contacting him. He's got a tour in late fall / early winter advertised (here, in German but just ask him for English details).

our car rental was with www.ozsingerrentacar.com, how had just the beat-up type of car we needed (and it had rails on the roof, so we didnt need a special rack) for the dirt roads and gave us the money we spent to replace an unrepairable tire without much arguing.