Breakfast consisted of hot tea or coffee, local bread that got stale fast, feta cheese, butter, honey, jam, olives and some fruit. It was up early, pack up gear and take down our tent. While we ate breakfast, the crew would begin breaking camp and loading up the mules and horses before beginning a most charming and astounding routine. One of the crew took out his BAGPIPE, and piped up a tune while the rest of the crew gathered around and began a Turkish circle dance!

The dance steps resembled a Jewish “hora” and it didn’t take long for us all to jump in, get the steps down pat and dance with them…View image… before beginning the day’s trek. This became the morning routine and have you ever heard of a more unusual beginning?

On the trail, through more little hamlets, terraced mountains…View image… across green plateaus…rivers…View image

a morning circle dance in the Kackar Mountains of Turkey 

a trail in the Kackar Mountains of Turkey
…filled with wildflowers…View image…

the Wilderness Travel Group walking through flower filled meadows
…and local women keeping a sharp eye on their flocks of sheep…

sights of rural Eastern Turkey
A typical trail lunch would be eaten in a meadow or shade (if there was any). Dried fruits, nuts, whatever fresh fruit still remained, sandwiches, cold cuts and cheese around 1:30 p.m. Once, we did stop to eat lunch in one of the local yayla homes when we trekked through a village…View image…where the woman of the house insisted on serving Halvah and tea. Of all the desserts, in all the world, Halvah is not a favorite of mine when made from semolina which this huge chunk was. Make this sweet confection with ground sesame seeds and honey and let me at it. What could I do but gag down a smidgen to be polite…

Halvah and tea in a local hamlet, Eastern Turkey 

hostess and Barbara inside the Yayla (hamlet) house, Turkey
…and then it was time to shoulder the backpacks and head back out for another hour or two of trekking…

Sheila and group taking a short break before the end of a day trekking the mountains of Turkey
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