A Village, Not on the Map

Me, Posing by a Lazy Group of Goats

I was able to visit a very small village while in Turkey.  My friend, Birim was navigating.  We were heading for Sansara Kanyonu, (a tourist spot) from Birim's lake house, in the small town of İznik.  She doesn't have the language barrier I have with the language. She's Turkish.  It really helped, when we found ourselves up in the hills. The roads were horrible, there were no road signs, and no towns to find people, to ask for help in finding the canyon. 

After about two hours of driving, we knew we should turn around and go back over the nasty terrain we had just come over.  The canyon was nowhere in sight and the bottom of Birim's car kept banging as we drove through potholes, large rocks and an extremely uneven road.  The road was also narrow.  It was scary to think about turning around on it.  Even more scary to think about going back the way we had come.

The Beginning Part of Our Trip Up the Hills

The only help we encountered was a lone, thin man, with a chain saw, in the middle of the boonies. The man I described with the chain saw?  He had no vehicle or cart in sight.  He was in the shade of a big tree, squatting and resting from his work. His small, yellow chainsaw, sat next to him, along with a small stack of firewood. It seemed like a mirage.  No way could this be real. 

When we stopped, Birim asked him for help.  He quickly stood up, walked to the car and confirmed we were not where we thought we should be.  He told us to go back and take the road we had missed, about ten miles back. (another hour and a half back, dodging holes)

We decided we needed to turn around when we got to the bottom of the steep hill ahead, to avoid an accident.  I got out of the car to help Birim back up, so she wouldn't go into the ditch.  Turning the car around was very slow! 

Fortunatley, after a few minutes, the woodcutter came walking down the hill, toward us.  He told us if we continued on road, without turning around, we'd eventually get to a better road, leading to İznik.  We were so relieved.  

He looked pleased he was a help to us. He smiled and said, "İnşallah", turned and walked slowly back up the steep, rocky road. We took his advice and followed the easier exit from the hills.  

The day was sunny and warm, about eighty degrees, in the shade.  I was amazed this stranger went to such great lengths to help us out.   It made an impression on me.  He expected nothing for his effort.  His satisfaction was in helping us.

Children Playing Alongside the Road
(While their mother harvested tomatoes)

A Very, Shy, Young Woman, Tending the Sheep

Soon, we came to a very small village.  I imagined the wood cutter probably lived there.  The old village buildings appeared lived in.  I could see the little plants outside the doors and windows. The neatly swept entrances.  Lace curtains in the windows, with an occasional cat looking out.  Firewood stacked in the shelters attached to the buildings.  There were villagers walking, dogs in the street and a few children playing outside.

Laundry, Drying in the Sun

Notice the satellite dish on the balcony.

We wouldn't have come across this small village, if we hadn't met up with the helpful man.  We would have slowly retraced our bumpy trip back to İznik.  

  

This village we saw wasn't a "tourist" spot.  It wasn't even on the map!  But, our adventure landed us there, by chance.  We laughed several times about our disaster-trip to the "Kanyon", and how it turned out to be spectacular.

Children, Playing in the Shade

Goats, Resting in the Shade
(Two of them resting on a picnic table)