The spur to visit the area had been given by Dr Nuri Guldali, a Turkish geologist whom we met on the LUSS 'Turkey 1989' expedition. The doctor kindly provided us with an as-then unpublished 1:50000 geological map of the area to further whet our appetite. Since the major problem with caving in Turkey is the restrictions on purchase and possession of large scale topographical maps, this map proved invaluable (see Map 2).
The expedition aimed to be as lightweight, yet mobile as possible: fly to Istanbul, hire a car and fill it with everything that would be needed (except caving gear) whilst in Turkey. This was thought to be far cheaper and more fun than dragging everything over from Britain, especially as anything from carbide and zoom batteries to gas stoves are available locally.
Upon arriving in Istanbul we found to our horror that car hire costs are way in excess of anywhere else in Europe! If you plan to hire a car in Turkey, do so in advance from the U.K., in which case savings of 70% can be made.
As a direct result of this, it was decided to wholly rely on the superb (and amazingly cheap) Turkish public transport system and complement this in the more remote areas by hiring 'Taxis' and 'dolmus' (minibuses) as and when required. Although this approach at times restricted our movements overall it proved to be an excellent method of getting about and supporting the local economy, instead of Hertz and Co.
Being situated adjacent to the Black Sea, the area's climate is distinctly maritime with regular and impressive storms in the summer, and pleasantly cool when compared with the rest of Turkey. When combined with the relatively low population and the steepness of the limestone hills (rising to over 1200 m) the result is hundreds of square kilometres of primary beech forest with incredibly dense understories of predominantly rhododendron, awful for walking through and even worse for looking for caves.
The nature of the vegetation above the valley floors therefore greatly restricts any casual 'shaft bashing' and caves can only be easily located by utilizing the villagers' extensive knowledge of the local magarasi (pronounced maaras). Knowledge that was readily shared, it proved to me to be a most pleasant if somewhat limited way of finding 'new' cave.
Upon arriving in Cide, a major town where just about anything can be purchased, a dolmus and driver were hired to take us to the small village of Derebucagi where we were told a guide could take us to Ilgarini Magara, the only widely known cave in the area. Whilst in Cide we also had the great pleasure of meeting Cevdet Usta, a local chemist who spoke fluent English and helped us greatly throughout our stay in the area.
After an initial mix-up with the army at Derebucagi, and a return to Cide, we finally got the official 'all clear' and were allowed to camp in the old school yard where we were daily plied with food by the villagers.
The locals told us that Ilgarini had been visited a few years ago by a Turkish/Italian film crew, however, no other leads were available and it sounded damned interesting anyway. A three to four hour trek (depending on stomach:rucksack weight ratio) led us to Ilgarini, area 1, at 1200 metres (see Survey 1). Looming from beyond the trees, first we saw the impressive entrance funnelling into the hillside, then the overgrown remains of a (defensive ?) wall cutting across the narrow track. Due to the density of the vegetation outside, camp had to be set up inside the entrance of the cave itself.
The cave consists of an upper and a lower section and is at present the fourth deepest in Turkey. It also contains a large amount of archaeological remains, especially in the upper levels. These consist of several building-foundations and walls, a well which proved to be the only water source, and, zigzagging down from the upper level, a set of stone ramps which led to the remains of a building that we were told was a church.
This in turn was surrounded by numerous human skeletons, presumably exhumed from their nearby graves by grave robbers. Apparently the majority of the building in the cave date from the Roman/Byzantine period whilst small pieces of carved bone found point to the cave having been occupied millenia before this.
Below the only pitch, human remains were again found, secreted away in side passages, and the cave continued downward in calcited breakdown areas and spectacular if somewhat soot-blackened formations including an 80m x 40m section of gours, before leading to a disappointingly small soakaway sump.
Two more caves were also discovered in the area around Ilgarini, Skull Cave (Kafatasi Magara) being the most interesting. A large yet unapparent entrance that necessitated abseiling down to, funnels down to where a row of (originally) standing stones bar the way. Inside the entrance a large chamber is found, this too containing numerous earthworks and human burials, generally in a better state of preservation than their counterparts in Ilgarini.
Due to the isolation of Ilgarini and problems with water supply, three volunteers (Walt Holland, Steve Chapman and Ian Benson) remained at Ilgarini until they had surveyed and pushed it, as long as they received enough regular supplies from down in the valley to sustain them. The remainder of the team happily trekked back down the hillside.
From 30th June to 8th July 1990, Turkey celebrated the religious festival of Kurban Bayrami. During this period public transport is virtually unobtainable and shop-opening is limited, everyone returning to their home villages from the larger cities to celebrate the 'Festival of the Sacrifice', eat and be sociable. On the days immediately prior to, soon after, the festival the transportation network is packed, and inconvenient.
This said, however, the presence in rural areas of large numbers of western-language proficient Turks, and their cultural openness, over this period, provides a good opportunity for questioning the locals about possible leads.
The next village that camp was moved to was Acina, 3 km south east of Derebucagi, and well situated for exploration of the huge gorge which cuts through the Akkaya plateau south of the village.
Resurgences were finally located 2 km up the gorge on its west wall, area 2, after a mixture of scrambling and swimming. Unfortunately although these issued a great deal of water, it came from numerous small cracks in the rock which proved too small to enter, this ended our small exploration of the large, uninhabited areas on the southern edge of Map 2.
After an especially social series of Bayrami house-calls, a splinter group of overfed speleologists were obliged to perform a Turkey - England World Cup Final run through, allowing the Turkish team an unlimited number of substitutes.
Result, Turkey - 7, England - 10, a funny old game..
Camp was then moved to Calkoy, by-passing the granitic area 3, in which was said to exist some small caves. Whilst camped here we had the great honour of experiencing a Black Sea summer storm which turned our camp-site into a river, flooded the tents, ruined the curry and greatly diminished our carbide supply.
From this base, complete with PTT, a bar and two cay houses, exploration of the lower slopes of the area's impenetrable upland forest was masterminded, resulting in the surveying of one very pretty resurgence cave, Unone Magara in area 5, which, like Ilgarini's upper levels, is calcite-blocked at its farthest reaches but however also contains a large and promising upstream sump.
A number of other minor entrances were located in area 4, usually scorpion-filled, and a very impressive, but unassailable, phreatic tube, God's Hole, in area 6.
With the Bayrami finished, and our numbers reduced to six with the departure of Don Kenyon, Jo Topham and a mountain of unwanted wetsuits etc. on the Istanbul-bound dolmus, mobility was less of a problem, and after a day or so running down the last few leads, a move back to Cide was afoot. Here to consolidate our position, draw up surveys, and investigate the northern edge of the limestone outcrop, area 7.
One breakdown terminated cave of some 100 m length was located, Hacet Kayasi, containing two rock windows overlooking Cide and some good formations, but it was hardly the system the locals had promised, with stories of getting lost in the labyrinthine passages. Little else being found here.
A lift in the back of a pick-up took us to Gideros, an idyllic fishing village and location of a well known sea cave, with the possibility of further discoveries in the surrounding limestone hills.
The village cay-house became our home at Gideros and, whilst the weather was too rough to visit the sea cave, a further entrance was shown to us by the cay-adam (tea-house proprietor) up on the hillside overlooking the bay, Findik Magara (see Survey 3). A very interesting stretch of fossil cave which finishes in large phreatic passages inundated by sandy deposits.
After a further storm the weather eventually settled and the long awaited sea cave was reached. This turned out to be a great disappointment being little more than a deep hollow in the rock.
From Gideros we made our way back west along the coast to Zonguldak stopping at villages and towns along the way. However no serious leads were encountered in this period. After Zonguldak, some days were spent at Eregli, a heavily industrialized port, where a number of interesting archaeological caves were shown to us by the locals in the brecciated rock.
There is little doubt that many more caves remain to be discovered in the limestone around Cide. However, it is almost certainly a waste of time, if not an impossibility, looking for them in the densely forested uplands without large volumes of defoliant.
However, many more villages in the areas beyond the boundary of our map remain to be visited and the knowledge of the locals will yield many more cave entrances. This huge area of limestone has been virtually untouched by 'foreign' cavers apart from a visits to Ilgarini Magara.
The major problem with caving in Turkey is the lack of decent maps as any large scale topographical maps are restricted by the army. You may be able to receive help in this respect from:
M.T.A. (Turkish Directorate of Mineral Prospecting),
Genel Mudurlugu,
Jeoloji Dairesi,
Ankara.
which possesses a great deal of geological information on all parts of Turkey.
Most gear for the trip was hired (at very competitive rates) from the LUSS Tresviso and Dead Mountain Expedition Pools.
In Turkey;
Dr Nuri Guldali,
The Turkish Army at Cide especially K. Rifki
Ayan, Y. Cevdet Usta, Hasan Bay and the villagers of Derebucagi, Acina,
Calcoy and Gideros.