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"It is written in the Koran that in heaven water will flow beneath your feet. The Ucan 1 Waterfall is like seeing heaven while living on earth." That is the highlight of the description Dilek is going to give her mother, who was ill and had to remain at home, of her visit to the Ucan 1 and Ucan 2 waterfalls in the vicinity of Antalya's Gebiz sub-province.
When we arrived outside the club building of TODOSK (the Taurus Mountain Sports Club), it looked as though a small bus station had been established. "Friends, today we have more than 200 people on seven buses. It's a big crowd. In order not to cause confusion, please don't forget me," our guide Faik told us and repeated the warning in English to 20 foreign guests on his bus. The convoy of seven small buses set off at 8.00 a.m. with a first stop at Gebiz, 47 km from Antalya. Here needs were met for food, drink and so forth which had been overlooked in the hurry of leaving home early.
From Gebiz, there are two roads, an upper and a lower one, leading to the Ucan Waterfalls. The road which runs below the waterfalls from Akcapinar village eight kilometers from Gebze is very well-known. The road we took, though, was unknown and difficult, hard to find without a guide. A short time after taking this road, we were forced to ford a wide stream which flows from the waterfalls. The buses took us straight across in a style which made jeeps unnecessary. A Norwegian tourist sitting next to me, seeing the red earth road, the green forests on either Side and the white of the snow on the peaks of the Taurus Mountains, said it was very like northern Norway. As we were thinking we were climbing to the summit of the Taurus instead of the waterfalls, Kozan village appeared before us and all the buses stopped at its entrance. As we got off, the children and old men of the village surrounded us. For whatever reason, there were no women around. The villagers were trying to understand why more than 200 people should descend on their hamlet of just 20 houses at 9 o'clock on a Sunday morning. From here we were to continue on foot. After everybody, including dogs, had drunk, washed their faces and refreshed themselves with the icy water flowing from the village fountain, we set off under the guidance of the villagers. Amongst our local guides was the village imam, Mustafa. Because, despite all his efforts, Kozan's economic situation was progressively worsening, the young imam Mustafa lived far from the village in Antalya and this was his greatest concern. In the hope that the increasing traffic of visitors to the fountains would provide a solution, he provided us with information in such a way as to render a professional guide unnecessary.
After an hour's walk amongst wildflowers, especially Manisa tulips and daisies, we arrived at Ucan 2. The beauty of the waterfall and its surroundings made everybody forget their tiredness. As we began our picnic meal in front of the extremely pleasing panorama of the waterfall, photo-hunters like me gave way to the excitement of trying to get the best shot. One photographer friend guaranteed the job by using three different cameras with black-and-white, color print and color slide film. Somebody who was so overcome by the beauty of the scene that she neglected to look in front of her escaped lightly from an accident when the inside of the tree trunk she struck with her foot and which then fell on top of her proved to be hollow. Despite all the guide's warnings accidents such as thisstill occurred. The small pools formed at the bottom of the waterfall made some of the group lose their senses. I was extremely jealous of those who, filled with the joy of spring, plunged into the water in their underwear. However, as somebody who had previously survived pneumonia, I consoled myself by taking pictures of them. Two hours later the group gathered again and we set out for the Ucan 1 Waterfall, three to four kilometers below. This provides an even more magnificent view than Ucan 2, flowing over a wider area and from a greater height. Two hundred people took turns to shoot their souvenir pictures.
Because the vehicles which had brought us were waiting in Kozan village, we had to climb back up the way we had descended. But never mind. Seeing heaven before death was bound to have some difficulty attached. On the way back I asked a Danish yachting couple which was more beautiful, the seashore or the land. "The countryside is more beautiful with all kinds of waterfalls, rivers and lakes," they replied. Tommy Madsen and his wife, who have been staying on their yacht "Helena" at the Setur Marina since October 1996, have, under the leadership of their friend Gisela Bacher, visited historical sites and beauty spots around Antalya every weekend. Some of these visits have been made with TODOSK. Gisela pointed out that sightseeing with TODOSK is different, explaining, "They give to others journeys of discovery they themselves have made previously. In particular, TODOSK takes people to little-known places where few tourists go." In fact, never mind the tourists, very few Antalya citizens realize that these little pieces of heaven on earth exist so close to their city. Ucan Waterfalls: Like heaven on earth
by: Hasan Ustun, Antalya- Turkish Daily News |
