Ayder, Turkey. September 2008
I got to Ayder with a lovely group, 6 guys that were celebrating their 40th birthday. The tour, like most of our tours, spent 2 nights at the village. On the afternoon of the full day we had there, I 'deposit' my whole group for a treat at the hot springs of the village and went to meet with a friend. Ayder is a Swiss looking village on the slopes of Kachkar Mountains, facing north to the black sea. It has 300 rainy days a year and most of the summer it still keeps cool which makes it a very touristic place. In fact, during the years more and more people keep hotels and pensions rather than their own place. I met Ayder the first time at the end of the summer of 1993. It had a muddy path crossing the place and it was not very developed. All had changed there but the atmosphere stayed the same. It is a place to visit withut a spesific plan. Endless possibilities going up the mountains and any kind of accommodation one could ask for.
That was my second season guiding in Kachkar and I knew the routes we were using during our tours, but I felt like I know too little. Mehmet my friend promised to take me to a special place and he kept his promise very well. We went up to a Avuzor Yayla (a temporary village used only during the summer time) that I had never been to before. It was a beautiful afternoon and after guiding nonstop for several weeks I finally had some time alone. Climbing up the steep road there was this one single moment that I cherish. We stopped in a good view point looking at the thick forest and for one split of a second, the sun went out of the clouds sending one of its last rays for the day, touching the trees with soft light. Then it was gone. Collecting itself to light the other side of the world and I felt that I miss the moment a little before it was gone. Someone once told me that happiness is being nostalgic about the present. I was a happy person that afternoon, surrounded by all the beauty of the world.
The next morning I took the group up that road. Mehmet was suppose to join us but he said yesterday was just too perfect. The air was as clean as only high mountains air can be, visibility was amazing and we took great photographs. But it was just as he said it, yesterday was just too perfect.
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