The Sultan Murat plateau is a yayla, one of the high summer pastures of the eastern Black Sea mountains, and the word is worth knowing because it explains the whole landscape. For centuries, families from the coastal villages have driven their cattle up to meadows like this one each summer, living in wooden huts while the grass grows, making butter and cheese, and returning to the lowlands in the autumn. The yayla at about 2,200 metres is wide, green and treeless, with a bowl of peaks around it and clouds sliding across the grass.
This part of Turkey sits in the Kaçkar region, where the mountains rise steeply from the sea, catching the damp air and keeping the slopes green. Rain is frequent, mist is common, and the meadows are thick with flowers in early summer. The lower slopes are covered in dense forest and tea gardens, and the high pastures above are crossed by streams and dotted with wooden huts with steep roofs. In summer, festivals bring crowds of visitors to the yaylas, with music, dancing and the sound of the kemençe, a small bowed fiddle that is the local instrument.
The road up from Çaykara is a classic mountain climb. It begins in tea-covered valleys, then climbs through spruce forest in a succession of bends, narrowing and steepening as it nears the plateau. Surfaces are mixed, with good asphalt in places and patched or rough sections elsewhere, and fog can drop in minutes, reducing visibility to a few metres. Livestock wander freely, and herders' dogs can be bold. The season is short: the plateau is usually accessible only from about June to September, and snow can close the road outside that time. Mornings are often clear, with cloud building after noon.
At the top there are small cafés and stalls selling local honey, cheese and hot tea, and you may be offered kaymak, a rich clotted cream, with honey and bread, which is a Black Sea speciality. Services are basic, and fuel must be bought before you climb. Çaykara, about ten kilometres away, has petrol stations and shops, and you should fill up and carry warm clothing, since temperatures at this height are cool even in midsummer.
Linger a while and let the clouds roll across the grass. The scene is quiet, wide and a long way from the busy coast.