The day of the yaylas greets us with a beautiful sunrise over the mountains of the gorge. The small market across the street is stocking loaves of bread out front, and Ayder women are shopping for supplies there. A young woman, wearing her headscarf with sequins tied in the fashion worn here, opens the flap of the tent across the street and enters the hotel. She works in the breakfast room. Some people here for their summer stay live in tents, while most appear to live in their small wooden houses that rest on stone foundations.
Ayder is yayla #l. After breakfast we start up the mountain to visit yayla # 2, Asagi Kavran, and yayla #3, Kavran. The hazelnut pickers, who wear baskets with a unique design so they can pick and toss over the shoulder with efficiency, precede us. We ride in minibuses. Our driver, Ahmet, lives in a fourth yayla. On our way up he shows us the beehive barrels high in the trees. Beautiful mountain greenery, wildflowers, and white water streams and falls are treats that cushion our bone-breaking ride on the narrow, rutted mountain road. The gorge walls cut by those waters look to be at least forty-five degree angles, and the lid of clear blue sky above makes it all a breathtaking place to be. No wonder the people choose to escape up here with their children and cattle each summer. We are told that this weather, a heat wave, is the exception. Clouds and rain usually prevail and provide the lush pasture for the short weeks before cold and snow return.
Waterfall on the road to the high yayla
picture by Vicki Oldberg
