Turkey Jeep Safari and More

By Genevieve Richards - The Mediterranean region of Turkey is a true eye opener—gorgeous scenery, interesting natural attractions and friendly locals… and by far the best way to see all this region has to offer is by joining a jeep safari.

Xanthos, by Genevieve Richards

Turkey is a bit of a conundrum, really—it has been called the gateway to Asia, is sometimes classed as being in the Middle East, and, at other times, lumped in along with the rest of Europe. This confusion is somewhat understandable when you consider that Turkey shares its borders with no less than eight other countries, namely: Greece and Bulgaria to the west, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east, and Syria and Iraq to the south.

The Mediterranean coast has a typical Mediterranean climate with hot summers, and mild winters and when I visited in August, temperatures were in the region of 40° Celsius each day—for the first time in my life I wore factor thirty sunblock, and still got a terrific tan!

The jeep safari is a well-known attraction in Turkey and on any given day there can be between one to twenty jeeps per safari company, of which there are five operating in the area, I believe. The jeep safari company collected us (myself and my three friends) from our hotel and took us to a central meeting point where all the guests for the day were allocated space in specific jeeps; this allocation depended on whether a guest was going as a driver or non-driver (some guests wish to drive themselves and their families, while others are more than happy to sit back and enjoy the ride, with someone else driving…I am one of the latter!).

Rock Tombs, by Genevieve Richards

And then, in convoy (and with all hands on horns, it was truly deafening but quite exhilarating too) the safari got underway. After about twenty minutes drive up into the “mountains” we had a briefing session by our guide Semih (pronounced ‘Sammy’) overlooking some spectacular rock tombs in the ancient city of Tlos. We did not visit this example of an ancient settlement—we were told we would be visiting another ancient city later on the tour—but headed straight on to first stop: The Yakapark Trout Farm, or Bolok farm. Bolok is the Turkish name for fish and as you can imagine everyone found it very amusing when we were told that we would see “big boloks, small boloks, and the David Beckham golden boloks.”

This was where we had our first breakfast of traditional Turkish pancakes (Gozleme) before jumping back into the jeeps and heading off to the Saklikent Gorge. Saklikent means “hidden valley” in Turkish and this gorge is the third longest gorge in Europe at 18km long. It was formed after an earthquake and is so steep and narrow in some places that the sun does not penetrate the water, which is absolutely freezing as a result, even in these high temperatures. There are several restaurant areas suspended above the water (river) and the whole area, although somewhat commercialized, still remains quaint and pretty—I loved it there.

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