![\"Uzung\u00f6l'de](\"http:\/\/www.uzungol.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Uzungol-gezi-rotasi-748x498.jpg\")
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The Haldizen river creates Uzung\u00f6l, a lake in the heart of Trabzon. Bringing life to the Demirkap\u0131 plateau and energizing the azaleas, it collects several tributaries before emptying into the Black Sea.<\/p>\n
If you survey a city from a hilltop, you see that nature\u2019s domain, with its green cover, begins right outside the city limits. Scattered clumps of dwellings and vast, unrestrained nature\u2026 On one side the cities that are regarded as centers of building, economic growth, progress and, for some, \u2018security\u2019; on the other wilderness, where nature rules supreme. But somehow we, who centuries ago lived in harmony in nature\u2019s bosom, have been alienated from nature and from ourselves. These at least were my thoughts as I walked along the road from Uzung\u00f6l to Demirkap\u0131 (formerly Haldizen). Behind me the towering white peaks; where the white ends, the highland meadows; and in the dense forest cover below them, the village of \u015eerah with its old wooden houses, and the lake known as Uzung\u00f6l, like a blue-green dream.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a scant half hour since I passed the sign saying 12 km to Haldizen and 17 to Bal\u0131kl\u0131 G\u00f6l. On my right stretches a green valley where walnut, chestnut, spruce, beech and fir trees line an ebullient white-water stream. At every turn a new rivulet joins its fractious waters, creating large and small cascades and merging with the waters of the Haldizen river. We soon get used to the waterfalls, and our journey is transformed into a rainbow of color permeated with the fragrance of azaleas, crocuses, orchids and cowslips.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the azaleas that really bowl me over. White at the start of the road, they begin to change color with the rising elevation, turning first an enviably beautiful purple and, finally, yellow. Their sweet scent is an added boon.<\/p>\n
Finally I come to a fork in the road. The road on the left goes over Arpa\u00f6z\u00fc plateau to Anzer (Ball\u0131k\u00f6y). Two springs join the river at the turnoff. One bursts unexpectedly from a rock. How and whence it originates is a mystery, but its waters are sweet and icy cold. I cross the bridge on the right and continue on my way. The houses in the lower district of Demirkap\u0131 plateau have already come into view. We have left the valley now; the dense forest gives way to broad meadows and wild flowers. The wooden highland houses, all built exactly alike, are shrouded in silence, the only sign of life being the smoke curling up softly from their chimneys.<\/p>\n