Ayder's glacier lake, thermal spa and diverse flora make this high alpine pasture in the eastern Black Sea region a destination for every season

I discovered that at Ayder time and distance cannot be measured by the normal reckoning. For four or maybe five days I have been in places where concepts like kilometres are obsolete and where the metric system has not yet penetrated. I am as near to my house in the city as the roar of a waterfall and as far as a puff of cloud. Here time seems to be measured in the semicircle drawn by the sun in the sky and distance in how far a pasture can be reached with a burden on your back. Here, in the Eastern Black Sea's misty high pastures beneath the cloudy summit of the Kaçkar Mountains is Ayder, the land of thermal mountain springs. Here there is no time; time is only dreamed of.

A LAKE COLD AS ICE
I don't want to take any more rest breaks. In honour of the ancient summit which once more has brought me above the clouds, I dip my corn bread into a dish of hot muhlama.