The journey to a lonely cave from Trabzon city to the Karaca Cave known as Karaca Mağarası in Gümüşhane province was even more breathtaking and challenging than the cave itself. The path was a long and arduous one with slowly ascending a mountain after another after another.
This experience was even more deathly scary than jumping off a hill for paragliding with height phobia, being on the tip of a mountain on a mountain on a mountain. Yes there was a mountain and a second on it and a third peak with a cave right on it’s tip. The altitude was more than 5000 metres.
The view was overwhelming to the point that I could see the cars below as small as ants and the roads below like threads. I felt so faint and the soles of my feet sweat so bad that I literally prayed that I could return to Trabzon to my friends home safely and hopefully be alive and die another day. I told myself that I’m just tired and that’s why I’m feeling horrified but in honesty the Black Mountains (Kara Dağları) of the Black Sea (Karadeniz) region of North Turkey aren’t called Black mountains for nothing!
The Karaca Cave had the deadly scary view from above but it was extremely majestic at the same time. The cave itself was a perfection of stalagmites and stalactites with the most intricate formations one on top of the other. There were many and pristine with trickles of water forming puddles dripping from their tips.
The cave was not too large but more interesting due to the abundance of the stalagmites and stalactites forming fractal like views to capture and spellbind anyone who reached up the mountain to see it.
A short trip with an angels view from the heaven Karaca cave was a pleasant delight and all the same time spinechilling due to the altitude at which it was located, at least for me!
