TURKEY - a report from a birdwatching trip to Central ... - Netfugl.dk

We have booked on Turkish Airlines Copenhagen-Istanbul-Adana,
which brought us closer to the birding hot-stops than a chartered
flight to Antalya/Alanya would have done. Cost for a return ticket
Copenhagen-Adana is recently around 500 Euro´s; the cost for going
anywhere in Turkey from Europe is about the same, using the
extensive net-work of the national career.
We hired car from Adana. A total of 4200-4600 km´s was covered on
each tour. Petrol is rather expensive in Turkey, equal to prizes
in Western Europa, but other costs are lower. In 2006, the tour
was arranged through Istanbul-based AK Travel & Tourism, and a VW
Transporter with driver payed for. This was only partly
successfull, as the Istanbul based driver from Dogubayazit and
onwards behaved angry and hardly collaborate. Maybe he felt like
an alien in the Kurdish areas If so, he should have hesitated in
taking the job! Note that you are expected to pay extra tips to
drivers, which we felt a bad value for money.
Accomodation is easy to find in larger cities, where we have used
hotels with private facilities. The cost for a triple room was 30-
60 Lira in 2005 (most extensive near tourist centres and large
cities), slightly higher in 2007. However, cheaper accomodation
can be found in a number of hotels if you are willing to exclude
the confort of WC and shower – note that shared facilities
includes “eastern style” wc = stinky bathrooms, left uncleaned for
unknown periods!
May is outside the tourist season, and accomodation rather easy
to find in major cities. In remote areas accomodation is sparser,
but in many birding areas very good alternatives are found. Below
I list recommanded accomodation in the best, off-the-beaten-track
birding areas:
Demirkazik: In the village of Cucurbak, two pensions specialize
in touring arrangements. Of these, we recommand Hasan Safak´s
pension, which offers twin rooms and half-board accomodation
(dinner and breakfast) and early morning tractor tour to Cimbar
Bogazi for snowcocks and other Aladag specialities. The prize was
60 Euro´s per person by 2007. Hasan know the area and its birds
better than anyone else. Contact safakpansion@hotmail.com for
booking.
His brother, Ali, leads a similar pension opposite to Hasan´s, but
albeit being a character he is more of a trekking than a birding
guide. In 2005 he lead us back from Cimbar Bogazi by foot though
the impressive, but trekkingwise difficult gorge leading to near
the mountaineer´s lodge, without warnings – if taking this tour
mountain footwear is absolutely essential, as it will include some
climbing through the “miniature Hilly Step” (=a notorious passage
at Mount Everest!). Alternatively, the mountaineer´s lodge could
be used, but not all birders are treated well here. Having said
that, we had only good memories from our 2006 stay here.
Sultan Sazligi: This great area lies about an hour´s drive from
the nearest accomodation in Nigde. Much closer - in the village of
Ovaciftlik – is a good pension, Sultan Pansion, which offers
accomodation and can arrange guided boat-tours. This is a perfect
base for exploring the area. Twin rooms costed 40 Lira per person
in 2007, not including dinner and drinks, which was somewhat
overprized. Contact sultanpansion@hotmail.com for booking.