I’ve been in canyoning training for a long time. We came to Yarımkaya Canyon in Manisa for dry canyon training.. Yarikkakaya Canyon is a perfect training canyon for this kind of training.. What awaited us in Yarikkaya, what we did, what kind of thing did I get myself into again? Here is the Yarikkaya Canyon adventure
A more detailed version of my article published in Hürriyet Seyahat
- Click if you want to read my Ballıkayalar Canyon Crossing Training adventure.
- Click if you want to read my Ayvaini Cave Crossing Training adventure.
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The Legend of Spil Mountain
This time, we will camp on Spil Mountain in Manisa, the city of Princes, famous for its Tarzan, and we will cross the Yarikkaya Canyon the next day.. In short, 83 people are on the way to Spil Mountain to throw themselves off the cliffs with extreme enthusiasm.. Our camping area is Sülüklü Lake on Spil Mountain.. Our tents are taking their place around the lake with bright yellow flowers.. The descents starting from Spil Mountain will end on the Turgutlu highway.
Spil Mountain has legends of course.. The goddess Niobe had fourteen children, seven girls and seven boys.. Goddess Leto only had two children named Apollo and Artemis.. Niobe boasted of her fertility. When Niobe’s bragging angered Leto, she told her children that Niobe should be punished.
Artemis and her brother Apollon killed Niobe’s children with arrows from Mount Spil.. Niobe began to cry at the head of her children and asked Zeus to turn her into stone at the head of her children.. Zeus fulfilled this request and turned Niobe into stone on the slopes of Spil Mountain.. This is how the legend of the Weeping Rock. Legends are full of pain like history. Our campsite in the house of the gods.
Sülülük Göl Campground
We are on the road again in the middle of the night with the KAD Canyon Team. we’re pretty crowded. Our supplies are more crowded than ours. Even the interior of the vehicle is full of bags and materials.. No place to step. I’ve never been to the camp by public transport like this before.. I’m trying to get used to it.
Spring has come to Sülülü Göl at the foot of Spil Mountain. Daisies mingle with the yellow flowers. Clouds dance with Mount Spil. We’re just trying to scatter around and find ourselves a windless place.. For the first time in all my years of camping life, I will sleep on the mat.. -35 I aim not to get cold with my sleeping bag.
After we set up our tent, it’s time to ground some body. There are so many frogs in the lake. They’re bouncing as we approach the lake.. When we saw the first lake, we said we would swim here, but we have no intention.
Loç Valley activists are with us again.. Loç Valley is the reason why I started this sport, the village located at the exit of Valla Canyon.. The people living in this village have never crossed that canyon, but they have been fighting for eight years to prevent it from being destroyed.. They take their place in the campsite with their yellow writing.. The mentality that covers everything with concrete stops in one place and we say that we will be with you until the end, in the hope that Loç will be the first point it stops.
- Yarıkkaya Canyon Sülüklügöl campsite is suitable for those who can camp without a caravan camp.
Yarıkkaya Küçük Canyon
After a short rest break, we set off to experiment in the small canyon.. Nature is my home and spring has come to my home. It’s green everywhere, it smells like sweet. flowers pale yellow. We can’t stop ourselves from throwing ourselves on the flowers.
We make the descents in the small canyon on top of the road fatigue.. This time I don’t want to think about my end. Going back to the campsite at the end of the day is more tiring than getting off the yard.
When we arrived, the food was ready, but when we couldn’t see a fire when we looked from afar, we first fill our stomachs with hazelnuts and pistachios.. We’re going to the campsite near dark.. However, the food was already ready.. The fire was burning with all its beauty. There was also a long queue for food.
My Favorite Song, Turkish and Hot Camp Nights
Ms. Meral, the head of our camp, is at work again. Seeking to feed her babies. This time, I cannot participate while the meal is being prepared.. I’m on the eater team again. While the meals are eaten and the tea session is started, one of the participants takes his saz and the other his bendir.. He starts to sing. It’s the biggest saz I’ve ever seen in my life, though its owner is huge.
Fire, music, smoke that catches my eye, nothing can spoil my mood even though I smell good.. I kept pushing myself while looking for a smoke-free and warm area next to my friend playing the saz.. In between the song is taking me a laugh in accordance with me. I think someone is pushing me too. Turns out I was bumping into him and coming back. Did I mention that your friend is huge?
Actually, on the day we were at the camp, there was the biggest meteor shower that can be seen from Turkey but we are so tired and it’s that early in the morning we will get up so we prefer to sleep. It’s not that I’m out of my mind, but sometimes it can’t all be together.
I jump up and look at my watch when I hear the words of tea and soup near the tent at night.. I fell asleep in the morning and I’m afraid that they left me. It turned out that our tent neighbors had arrived and it would have been nice if they were a little quiet.
Spring is Enough, The Moments I Said Let This Be The Last
Towards the morning my frostbite mixes with my tremors. When you get cold like this, a person takes on a fetal position and stays still.. It’s even more cold. Rose and I are shriveled up. I’m up when the clock rings, but I guess I’m not happy at all.
I get up saying “Enough of the spring, let this be the end”. I’m still freezing. I say, “Do this too, then retire yourself”. I’m cold, I’m sleepy, my neck is stiff, I don’t like sleeping on the floor.
I don’t have time to whine. i have to get dressed. We have to pack the tent. Sleeping bags, furniture, utensils… It doesn’t end with balls.. Carrying items to the vehicle does not end. Finally, when I sit down at the campsite for breakfast, I take a deep breath and I don’t have a trace of my feelings when I wake up in the morning.
When the instructors Şahin said, “I’ll wash my face in the water,” I get a laugh.. What face wash at the campsite. We washed it last time we left the house.. We are completely alone with nature in our camping area.. There is no facility. no wc. There is only a small fountain.
The first time I asked, I got the word “We’ll leave after 45 minutes” from my teacher İbrahim, I mean, it’s always 45 minutes now. Half an hour has passed, but whoever asks, I say 45 minutes left.. We’re falling on the road playing bye. We were divided into 5 different groups.. I’m in the pioneer group.
Yarıkkaya Canyon
Yarıkkaya Canyon requires about an hour’s walk. We aim to get out of the canyon, which we started at around 8 in the morning, around 4 in the morning.. There are also two children in our group.. It is true that they are more courageous and successful than us.
The canyon starts right after the old ruined barn.. With what we’ve learned and practiced the day before, we’re even more fearless rookies.. I’m not looking down. In automatic, I try to take off the octet from my carabiner and enter the rope.
How lucky are the children in our group.. How early do they start life when we try to do this at our age?. When I think of my mother who doesn’t move and my mother who is afraid and my father who doesn’t sit because his pants will wrinkle, I think I have no luck.. It is the fate of a mother like me to have a child who has never had a diaper on these combs.. Such is life.
It’s like I’m in the movie 127 Hours, Somebody Get Me Out of Here
We have to throw ourselves over a cliff, big and small, 27 times.. There are two of them that really look like a horror movie. People question “why am I doing this”. I say, “Sir, how do we get out of here?”. There is a saying from someone that “we’re going to get off”. Come and don’t laugh. My nerves are already shaken, my spring is confused, I’m talking and laughing non-stop.. A rock stuck between two cliffs and we will go down for meters under that rock.. We have no choice but to get out of there.. we can’t go back. Our daughter’s tears hurt me. I can’t get over the trembling of her legs, her drooping lower lip, the beautiful eyelashes she tries not to wet, if I die.
Praise be to those who can hold our other child. My teacher İbrahim says, “If you don’t die in a year or two, you will have a very good life”. He can’t be restrained like that, and he’s too fearless.
Trust the rope, trust the rope, okay, let me trust my God, why is this place so high? Why is there no place to put my feet? My two knees are on the ground, my heart is right in my mouth, I’m descending in my ears saying, “damn it, my friend, somebody get me out of here.” my hair is breaking out. Did I mention I hate negative landings?
Negative landings; the bottom of the rock is empty when you hang yourself down the crevice. In other descents, while landing on a flat wall with the soles of your feet on the wall, this descent is the state of releasing yourself into space at the end of a rope.. Am I right in not loving?
When a person descends one by one, he is relieved that I cannot explain. We are in a cleft between two mountains. The sky is somewhere in the hills. There is the sun in the outside world, but it is not for us. In a God-forgotten place between two mountains, we keep hanging ourselves from the abyss without stopping from the end of a rope.. We are happy every time we land.. Sounds ridiculous when you put it like that, doesn’t it? but it’s not. Our test is with ourselves.
Somewhere there was a fear of heights. Where did he go? Without thinking I keep throwing myself down the cliffs. My words height and fear were unknowingly separated. Thank God
Yarıkkaya Canyon Break
We are taking a break in a large area called the Cave.. Each group goes one after the other. responsible for each other. The second group catches us at the break. We eat and rest. My body doesn’t like to rest and eat at such events.. The more rest, the more body cooling, adrenaline drop and fatigue.
This time is no different.. And whatever I ate, it comes to my mouth every time I bend over.. The second stage is more difficult for me now.. Of course we are tired and we waited too long. It teaches an impatient person like me to wait for life.. There is a place that treasure hunters dig in a place called a cave.. My teachers show. In the past, these places were always dug by treasure hunters.. Did anyone find anything?
At the same time, someone planted a fig tree there and left a note next to it.. He wrote, “Let the passerby water it, we will eat its fruit as the years to come and pass”. What beautiful people there are.
There is also the fact of Ahmet in our group.. The man must have grown up around here.. An Ahmet who refuses to wear a helmet and does not use gloves. The photo Ahmet, in which we said, “You will get me out of here with Gül,” and what reason do we believe in, jumping after him and crashing ourselves into the mountain.
The easiest way we crashed on the ground and bounced our heads on the rocks. Do we regret it? never. Everything teaches us something. Think about your own safety, buy it yourself. Spiderman Ahmet, who took our beautiful photos, descends and climbs back like this.. Love to those who can keep up with the speed. He was sending us kisses from the hills at last. We will not forget you, Ahmet.
27 landings means 27 separate rope entry controls for each person.. Only our group is 16 people. And when we rookies love photography is added to this, we say to the police officer “Sir, safety, we’ll make a photo evil” and they don’t give a fuck about this request.. Will Suat’s jokes “when is the spring new summer, you will write the best me, or I won’t let go” by hanging me in the air? Good luck to you.
Yarıkkaya Canyon Exit
Towards the end of the hour-long pass, my knees don’t carry me anymore. It’s amazing to see the far house and highway through the canyon. It is both so untouched and right next to the outside world.. There’s a life out there and we’re looking from another world. I guess I felt like I was going to live there all the time.
We have an exit from the canyon with their victorious looks.. No such pleasure. All the tiredness, the feelings I felt in the morning, everything is far away. I have a goal and I have the comfort of overcoming one more obstacle on the way to that goal.. What a great feeling to succeed and win the battle with yourself.
To overcome your fears and become nothing and realize how precious what we have in life is… a warm house, a comfy bed, even a four-walled toilet Isn’t that enough to be thankful for?
I’ve never had this much training for any sport I’ve played.. Why so much training when I normally have to learn this sport on the spot and put it on the shelf? I don’t know, but I liked this team and I enjoyed doing something properly.
We really need to thank our teachers for their patience. To transfer 83 people to the canyon, to provide technical materials for all of them one by one, to put them on the rope at the top of the hill from the first day, to be able to cook three dishes in the evening, to direct everyone to the market by giving notes for the infrastructure of these meals, to heal the patient, to prepare breakfast early in the morning and to prepare the teams one by one. into the canyon and finish the activity without anyone’s nose bleeding and deliver them safely to their homes.. This is perfection.
