An island in the mountains; Macahel

After my two days in Batum, I crossed the border from Sarp. The taxi drivers on the Turkish side annoyed me before by asking more money they should so this time I made sure about the money I should pay. But this time they tricked me once more by squeezing me in a taxi full of people. There are some places in earth which you should never ever take a taxi and Turksh side of Sarp border is definetely one of them. Choose minibusses in the border or take a bus from Batumi bus terminal which take you to the Turkish towns if you ever be there.

The destination I was going was Macahel which means wristle-hand in Georgian. This is a place located in Turkish-Georgian border with its habitatants all Georgians. The region is actually a valley which consists of 18 villages, a referendum was made in 1920's asking the residents which country they would like to join. 12 villages chose Georgia and 6 villages made their choice for Turkey. Now the 6 villages stayed within Turkish border, upper Macahel, has turned into a spot for eco-tourism for the last 10 years with many efforts of the people which come out from this region who reached important roles in the society.

The village can be reached only from the small town Borcka with minibusses leaving from the town in the afternoon. When I reached Borcka I was still upset and angry with the taxi drivers in the border and was not expecting any genuineness from the people of the region. But on the contrary the people were so polite and kind in Borcka. In the minibus I traveled with two imams of the villages and young guy still in the high school. They told me about their diffcultuies of transportation between the villages and the town especially in winter times. Actually they did not need to tell at all, the road we traveled was telling everything. The valley can be thought as U shape with the open side looking at the border. Behind the valley 3000 m's Karchal mountain is rising like a wall and heavy snow hardly gives way in the winter time. Even it was end of May there were snow in the peaks and around the road there were piles of snow where snow light does not reach. Actually Batumi is the town where the villages were connected before the border regulation, as these villages chose to stay in the Turkish side actually they chose their destiny to be isolated from all benefits of civilization, and lived isolated from the town 6 months of the years. But this isolation is not a totally negative thing, later on I heard the chorus of the village earned the first price in folk music competition in Tblisi, Georgia as the regions music stayed one of the most authentic and pure folk music because of this isolation.

In the road we passed by we saw a car broke down and two couples were transfering their packs to one of the minibusses. Later on I met them again when I reached to the hotel I was going to stay. They were touring Balck Sea with a rental car and now this rental car broke down in the way where the nearest garage was two-three hours away. Trying to reach the region with an ordinary car is definetely not a wise thing. Another middle aged couple I met afterwards, who toured Turkey whole their life, also told me this was one of the worst roads they had taken till now.

The hotel I stayed was built by an environment organization in the biggest village of the valley, now run by nice, middle aged couple. Now many citizens of the villages are running small pensions and later on I realised even though I had better stay in those small pensions which were more authentic and located on higher grounds within the forests.

Next morning the hotel owner described me how to reach to the Maral water fall. During the way I could better undertsand why the region was named Macahel (wrist-hand), the main valley was splitting into small valleys like the fingers of a hand. Even so much isolated from the rest of the world the villagers were speaking very politely and cheerful. I did not feel any disturbing stares all through my stay. During my walks many times I were invited to their houses for a rest and a drink. Georgian is still spoken widely and for the older generations still Turkish is a foreign language.

On the way I saw many types of trees and flowers and scent of the flowers was so beautiful. The region is home to 1200 plant species and from bear to wolf, wild goat, dear many wild animals can be seen around. I slept for one-two hours on the grasses later on I was told by the locals what I did was dangerous and deathes from snake-bites happen time to time in the region.

Second day I took a walk in another valley. One thing I really love about tracking in Black Sea mountains you do not have to carry water in these walks. Water comes out from the rocks, between the trees, from everywhere and it is cold, clean with a good taste. Then these waters flow to valley bed and form a creek flowing through the forests which is a classical view of Black Sea mounatins.

On the way I saw some villagers dealing with their bee hive. The hive has just swarmed and they were placing the worker bees and the queen bee to their future hive. The region is also famous with its honey owing to the rich plant life around and taste of the honey is also not same as everywhere as an indigenious bee species, caucasian bee is living in the region. Now there is also a big effort to protect and keep this speices pure.

After they were finished with the bees I was invited to the village house, there also I met with a film coordinator who was touring the valley with his jeep for an art movie they were planning to make. When finished, it would be the last film of a triology and first two got many awards in the festivals. It was suprising to meet a film maker when you thought you left whole world behind. I also met with one of the imams I traveled with while coming from the town. He remembered that I was electronics engineer and shyly asked my help for the amplifier he bought for the mosque. He could not install it and there was not anyone who undertsand these sort of things in the village. We installed the amplifier after an hour work, I was a little nervous cause in the case of failure my whole reputation in the region as an nature-lover electronics engineer would be destroyed.

The imam was very grateful and he invited me to his house for lunch where he lives single. There I understand how difficult is the life of these people. His house was far in the mountains and his kids were going to boarding school of the region, and he himself was staying single for the job he has. So harsh geography splitted the members of a family in that way. We exchanged contacts and he told me I should not stay in a hotel next time I would come but would be his guest.

Next morning I left the valley. Even in the minibus I got invitations for my next arrival. So there is now a place now with its genuine, kind people and wonderful nature which I should come many more times.

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