Aşağı Ulupınar

After an early start, our diminished group starting walking into the wilderness of the Taurus Mountains. It did not take long for us to leave any trace of green far behind. In all directions we were surrounded by a barren, rocky landscape. There was no defined trail, so had to scramble over the loose stones any way we could. At all times there was a real danger of slipping and breaking an arm or leg.

We walked for hours, always steadily gaining altitude. It really was heavy going and it was made worse by the fact that our guide would give us no meaningful information about how much further we would have to climb.

"How much further will we be walking ?" I asked
"Who can say ?", was his useless reply.

I felt like giving him a shake, but since he was the only one who knew where we were going, I did not want to aggravate him any further.

As we kept walking, the conditions started to take their toll. One of remaining trekkers doubled over and started vomiting from exhaustion. This was not really the outcome I had wanted. I asked again "How much further till we reach camp ?" The only response I got was to point towards the towering mountain that was still several hours away. I thought he was joking, but it turned out he wasn't.

Our group struggled on till lake in the afternoon, before we finally saw the row of tents that marked our campsite. We staggered the final few hundred metres and collapsed in a collective heap.

Although we had planned to continue the climb the following day, because we could get no proper information about how hard the next climb would be, we made the collective decision that, instead of climbing further, we would spend the time exploring the plateau where our camp was situated. It turned out to be a wise move.Read more