Phil Price from UNITED KINGDOM writes:

I went to Altiparmak (also known as Barhal) in late September 2014. We stayed in the Barhal Pension at a very reasonable rate and were well looked after by Ali Delioglu and slept comfortably in one of the rooms there. We traveled from Erzurum earlier in the day. The weather was cloudy, cool(15 C in Erzurum) and breezy. The journey took about 4 hours, initially along good dual carriage way roads that later changed to normal, or in some places, single track roads. The scenery was magnificent changing from very dry treeless terrain to thickly wooded mountains creating narrow valleys with rapidly flowing rivers.
We went to check the area out for a walking holiday next year and were provided by the pension owner with a set of pamphlets identifying way marked day walks. In addition the owner informed us of guided walks organised locally that could be undertaken from the pension in the summer months, which we're hoping to do next year. Time meant we had no chance to do any walking, let alone experience the higher peaks so cannot comment.
We drove back to Trabzon via Artvin and Hopa along a very impressive set of valleys before hitting the coast.

2014-10-19