Uzungol Excursion

Tea factory and sweet shop

Today I did an excursion to Uzungol, a picturesque lakeside village with the lake formed about 500 years ago due to a landslide blocking the outflow of water.  The trip came with a few other inclusions.

I reported to the tour office at 1000 and departed soon after.  We collected an Algerian couple en route beyond the airport and heading inland.

We stopped at a tea factory in the town of Surmene where we were welcomed by a couple of dancers before given a short lecture on tea.  With perhaps all guests Arabic-speaking, mainly from the Gulf, the talk was in Arabic.

I could understand the various types of tea:  red/black, green, matcha and white.  I didn’t realise there is a white tea that’s not black with milk!

They say here that white tea and matcha uses the youngest shoots whereas green tea the next from the tip and then black lower down.  I recall it wasn’t the case when I visited the tea plantation in Sri Lanka.

We sampled black and green teas followed by a mulberry infusion which I loved.

A short ride away back to the coast and then inland at the town of Of, we went to a shop selling lots of Turkish sweets and other produce like honey (and more tea).  There were lots of Turkish delights and other sweets for sampling and I had to control myself here.

This appeared to be a substitution for the handmade knife factory but I wasn’t complaining.  So much good sweet stuff for free!

Continuing to Uzungol

We headed further inland and ascended, with the road following some very pretty gushing streams.

We took a side road and parked near some food shacks and wandered to a little artificial waterfall that was created from a small dam of sorts.  It was quite pretty especially with the autumn colours in the background.

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Our van pulled into Uzungol around 1300 and ascended up the mountain slope to get to a viewing platform (that came with no charge, unlike the glass one from two days ago).  Incidentally, the platform is accessible from the valley floor as well.

I was rather disappointed with the view because the tourism photos had a better angle which could only have been taken by a drone.  In late autumn, part of the village was already in the shadow.

With today’s viewpoint and the somewhat lack of one at Sumela Monastery, I’ve come to realise that drone photography in tourism websites/brochures creates a new level of disappointment for travellers.

We were dropped off outside a restaurant for some time and given over 2 hours, with a report time back there at 1530.

I walked around the lake and ate my sandwich, made from the hotel breakfast buffet.  The village was messy with road works and pavements being redone.  As it was low season, many shops (especially eateries) were closed and even the public toilet too!

The sun disappeared behind the mountain around 1400 and it started to get cold.

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Expensive way to keep warm

Close to where we had been dropped off, I still had an hour till pick-up time.  With the outside temperature at 9 degC, I was now in need of some warmth but wary of prices in the eateries here.  They’re pretty exorbitant compared to the city.

I settled into a café and paid TRY210 (over NZD10) for a café latte in the warm surroundings.  I had seen instant coffee elsewhere was about half that price but wasn’t ready for it back then.

I hate it when prices are out of kilter with the local norm and here, they’re trying to make the most of the Arab tourists.  That cup cost more than a meal in town!

Heading back

On the way back, the bus stopped at Hapsiyaş Bridge built in 1935.  The wooden bridge was quite pretty against little bursts of the autumn colour.

I was dropped off at 1715 outside the tour office.

Dinner later, turned out to be disappointing.  I hadn’t had a durum or roll-up kebab yet this trip.  It was very sparingly filled with chicken.  For a bit more, I could have had a good meaty meal back at the place I had patronised the last two nights.

Hapsiyaş Bridge, built in 1935