Slow-Motion

Spring Mission to Turkey

After another super Skiseason in winter wonderland Norway it was time to get out for some paddling again to warm up for a promising summer 2014. I was stoked to be invited by Serkan Konja to come to his home country Turkey and check out the rivers of the Taurus mountains.  

April is a good time to go because of snowmelt and the Rainseason. This year, unfortunately it wasn’t a lot of both of them. Some Rivers nonetheless are fed by sources that give enough water to keep the level good for kayaking. We paddled 3 of them. The Köprüçay with its upper and lower Section, the Manavgat and the Alara river which offered us a source to sea trip.

Arriving early in the morning in Antalya, I met Tobi still inside the Airport. We went out where the sun welcomed us with 25°C. Soon after Falk also arrived and we got picked up by Serkan and Annika together with our driver Bairam who would drive us around for the next 9 days. Without wasting time we headed straight into the mountains.

View from Raftbase

Our first stop was the Raftbase at the Köpuçay where we could stay overnight and start our first trip down the Raftingsection in the next morning. The Landscape is breathtaking. We came trough a big Gauge where there were coming waterfalls down from both sides. Those were literally coming out of the stone and made this place a unique natural spectacle. It is a easy section to warm up for the coming more challenging sections that Serkan had planed to show us. Like the upper section of the Köprüçay (also named: Akça Sucar) which we paddled the day

 after. 

The upper Köprüçay is a rocky highland creek flowing down quite continuously as one big boulder garden. It goes steep downwards all the way. The most we paddled by eddyhopping and a long neck. It became steeper and the boulders bigger. Time to go out check the next 200m. This time it wasn´t a nice technical line that leads into a boof, like the rapid we scouted before.  We portaged the next bit because the main flow at the end of the following rapid went into a siphon. Everything else was good to go.  Just before the takeout at the first bridge is one bedrock rapid followed by a farytaleboof. This section rarely had been paddled before but should be checked out by everyone who likes it steep and continuous.  Catch some more water and it opens the river further up the valley.

Last Rapid on the upper Köprüçay

The next river we paddled was the Manavgat. Another beautiful Pearl of the Taurus-Mountains and another epic boulder garden. This time set up in a mediterainian forrest landscape with trees partly covering the river and creating a roof. You can imagine how beautiful it looked when the midday sun where shining trough. The river included a fair bit of scouting cause the the Manavgat or „the Labyrint“ is characterized by several channels between big boulders, siphons and the chance of trees in the river. The effort was worth it. We found a lot of fun moves and boofs!!! After another best day on the river we drove to the put in of the next river on our plan, the Alara, were we spend the night in some really nice Treehouses. 

One of many cheeky wee drops on the Manavgat

The Alara offered us 4 days of paddling and can be seen as a source to sea mission. The first day we paddled  „The Box Canyon“ - Section which again offered us a awesome landscape and first class whitewater. The put in was the first highlight. The river comes out of the rocks as a waterfall and marks the beginning of a ca. 60 kilometer long river.  

Portage the Cauldrondrop

Once we accessed the Box Canyon it was clear we will only get out at the end of the Canyon. Compared to the last rivers we paddled the days before, the caracter was different. It is a bedrock run, mostly drop and pool and the high steep walls on both sides where narrow up to 2 meter wide.  In the middle of the 13 km run we had to portage a nasty cauldrondrop. It was quite hard to get out of the low box canyon and back on the river and included some boulder climbing and rope work. After a good hour of portaging 10 meters of river, we got treated with a couple of nice drops before we arrived our first take out. 

The second day on the Alara was the „Turkish Kaiserklamm" named by the first gorge of the Brandenberger Ache in Austria near Innsbruck.  It is the shortest section of the River. Like the “Brandy” the river gets tight and flows into another box canyon which suprieses with some more challenging rapids, quite retentive holes. After the pushy part the valley opens up and it gets easier. 

Turkish Kaiserklamm

The next days program was „The Big Gorge“. Around 30 km of read and run Whitewater in drop and pool style with som flatwater-parts in between. Serkan, had to leave the group to deal with Visastuff. So we explored the section by ourselves. The big Gorge is more open then sections we paddled before but also boxes in a few times. Serkan told us to watch out for a ugly rapid roughly half way trough. It is necessary to go out 200m before the rapid to portage it. Otherwise it gets almost impossible to portage cause of the steep walls that come up on both sides. Of cause we missed the spot and paddle too far in. We decided to portage and found a way to get back on the river without too big hustle. A higher water level could have gotten us in quite some trouble thoe. Then we got one bedrockrapid after the other with partly longer flat bits in between.

Entrying the Big Gorge

Enjoying the landscape on the flatwater-bits

Our last section to finish of the Alara was the „Raftingsection“ before it goes into the mediterranean sea. The mountains that where surrounding us become slowly smaller and smaller and the river flatens out.  A last time we had the chance to enjoy the area with its beauty. From the river we seen Orange- and Zitrontrees. Bayram sitting on the sidebanks waving to us. We made it.

Sleeping at the beach beside the Alara

After a good week of living the nomadlife in the wilderness of the Taurus-mountains we spend the last evening in Antalya to get some city culture. After a few beer and raki in our hostel we met some local students who showed us the good places to go. And we ended up dancing all night long with our turkish friends. 

Too short was the trip, too good the time we had. The rivers, the people, the landscape, the food. It all been amazing! I highly recommend, especially to the european paddlers amongst us (coz its close), to visit Turkey with your boat.

I would like to thank Falk, Tobi, Serkan and Annika for this epic Trip. It was a great atmosphere and a lot of fun with u guys. Also thanks Bayram for driving us on the sometimes quite challenging looking roads. Another big Thank  goes to Fluid and Artistik thanks for your support. 

Out of the footage we collected during the time I cut a 4 minute clip. There is no order of the rivers. I hope anyway that is shows what is going on on turkish rivers. 

Turkey 2014 from Slow Motion on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading and see you on the River. 

Have the best day ever 

Norman