Following an antique mountain trail to the god of weather in Turkey

Mar 16, 2010, 11:26 GMT

Kapikiri, Turkey - The sound of a donkey's braying merges with 'Allahu akbar' (god is great) loudspeaker-borne prayer calls of the muezzin, while women in the village of Kapikiri set up their stalls in front of the bed and breakfast inns. On their tables are crocheted covers and pearl necklaces.

The village on the northern shore of the 15-kilometre-long Lake Bafa in western Turkey is waking up to a new day and preparing for the tourists. The visitors will be coming to see the temple of the goddess Athena and the 6.5-kilometre city walls. But some are also here in order to head off to the Latmos Mountains, which nowadays goes by the name Besparmak ('five fingers') and lies some 150 kilometres south of Izmir.

Mithat Sercin is a trail guide. The young man has grown up at Bafa Lake. There are no route markers, no hiking maps and no signs, and yet Mithat appears to know each and every fork on the trail. One hiking group are carrying backpacks, while a second group has donkeys to carry their luggage. The tourists lead the donkeys.

One such tourist, Wiebke, admits that this 'is quite strenuous because you have to adjust to the animal,' in her case a donkey named Kara Fatma. 'One donkey might be a bit dreamy and more cautious. Then there are donkeys which simply start barging ahead and might even bump you if they want to go faster,' Wiebke says.

Once upon a time, Bafa Lake belonged to the Mediterranean Sea. But over time what was originally a gulf became cut off from the sea as soil was washed up, forming a barrier. By the Middle Ages a lake had evolved. Today, the water level of the lake is higher than that of the sea, so that a number of antique buildings have become submerged.

By afternoon, the mountain hut belonging to a woman in her mid-50s, Hatice, has been reached. The dairy woman is wearing harem pants and sunglasses. She was born on the mountain pasture and has lived her entire life here, in a two-room dwelling.

'I live with the seasons,' she says. 'In the summer I get up early and go to bed late. In the winter, I get up later and go to bed early. The best thing here is the peace and quiet. I get really dizzy when I'm in the city.'

Near Hatice's house is a hidden cave in which images are painted on the walls. Several reddish figures can be made out. In all probability they are of the god of weather who was worshipped on the summit of the mountain Tekke Dagi. A number of temple ruins and the Stylos monastery from the 10th century can be found nearby.

In the evening, hikers sit around outside Hatice's house, eating vegetables which were cooked over an open fire, and drink raki. The aniseed schnapps is thinned down a bit with fresh spring water.

Donkey driver Mehmet is playing a melody on his 'cumbus,' a lute instrument, and sings a song of unrequited love.

The next morning, after a Turkish breakfast of bread, cheese, tomatoes, olives and cucumbers, the journey continues. The next destination is the village of Bagircik. Gradually, the landscape changes: instead of olive groves, the hikers make their way through pine forests. The next morning in Bagircik begins with the wake-up call of the village muezzin.

The trail then heads yet higher as the hikers seek to conquer the highest point of the Latmos Mountains. But now the wind is blowing strongly - too much so to permit the hikers to go the final stretch to reach the 1,375-metre Tekke Dagi summit.

Trail guide Mithat advises against trying to reach the summit under the conditions and so the group heads back down to the valley, along a trail lined with pine trees, stone oaks and sycamore trees.