Doing a deep dive into all the YouTube vlogs about Turkey was high on my list of priorities once I learned about Paul's assignment to Izmir. Hours of my time were spent vicariously exploring the Turkish countryside with my google maps open so that I could easily tag places as "want to visit." (I have alot of tags at this point : )
A favorite vlog series of mine was created by J&K Lovett. So much talent and creativity is poured into his videos! I loved not only learning about Turkey, but also being inspired to improve my (very elementary) filming skills.
(Funny story, before we knew that Paul would be going to Turkey we had an idea that he'd likely be picked up for a year-long assignment. We hoped and prayed that he'd be sent somewhere that a family could either visit or move to easily. Thus, I was low-level investigating the assignments locations in Korea, Portugal and Turkey. Meg watched a few videos about these different countries with me one day and while watching the Lovett's video about a hike along the Lycian Way Meg became enthralled.
"Mom" she stated, "we HAVE to go to Turkey. We HAVE to hike on that path. We HAVE to find those beaches!!"
She says that she followed this declaration up with some pretty intense prayers to God in which she explained her reasoning for wanting to move to Turkey. It seems that she and God were on the same page in this case : )
Anyway, once Paul's orders were finalized and I knew that we'd be at least visiting Turkey for a while, I began to watch all the YouTube videos in earnest. And if Meg was taken with the video about a hike to a beach, I was entranced with a video about a hike through a gorgeous gorge (sorry, couldn't resist.)
So two weeks ago, when I semi-spontaneously packed the kids up and started driving south, one of the few "must see" things on my list of road trip destinations was Saklikent Canyon.
I've never been to "The Narrows" or the slot canyons of western America. But I've seen pictures and they look amazing. I've also been to the gorges in New York State and I loved them. Taken together, I knew that this was one hike that I didn't want to miss.
Saklikent is the largest gorge in Turkey and the second largest in all of Europe. It's impressive, and that's an understatement. We went when the water level was low, being the end of summer. I'm not sure that we would have made it as far back had the levels been higher (as they are in the Lovett's video.) Still, once we paid (in cash! phew! glad I had enough!) and began our walk/hike/swim, I loved pretty much every minute of the experience. Due to some poor planning on my part, we weren't wearing the proper clothes (I quickly realized why so many people were walking into the hike wearing bathing suits) but we survived and honestly, clothes will dry and mud can be washed off : ) Speaking of mud, Brenn and Meg were slightly obsessed with finding and playing with it. Judging by the walls of the canyon, this obsession was shared by many fellow hikers.
Based on other videos, we went on a low day. We arrived on a Thursday at around 2:00 in the afternoon. There were enough people to make us feel safe, but not so many that we felt squished. I wish that I'd had the ability to take my good, DSLR camera with me but again, with three children to wrangle on these adventures, using my iphone still seems like the best option for capturing photos and videos on any given day. I'm still learning how to film in general (Paul says that I pan up and side to side too often...gotta come up with some more angles!) but living in Turkey is providing me with many, many opportunities to practice : )
We made it through the canyon and came back muddy and wet, but unscathed. Even my bag survived, if barely. Note to self, bring the wet bag for hikes that involve water!! Also note to self, remember not to let kids sing at the top of their lungs when in a canyon. A kind (concerned) fellow hiker seemed to think that their voices might bring down an avalanche of rock. Whether or not that's true, I'm not sure, but I probably should try and keep my children from frightening the locals whenever possible : )
Hope that you enjoy the video and pictures of our hiking adventure!
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