Catergory
People's stories
Country
Turkey
Year
2017
Camera system
Canon 6D
01 —
The "island" of Gölyazı
During my long stay in Turkey in 2016/17 I was lucky enough to see many cities from north to south but the one that has remained in my heart is the "island" of Gölyazı, located a few kilometers west from Bursa, connected by a single bridge to the mainland, it is located within Lake Uluabat.
02 —
A real treasure for local fishermen
Lake Uluabat is vast from 135 to 160 km2 (depending on the water level), despite this width it is a shallow lake reaching a maximum depth of 3 meters, a real treasure for local fishermen who are the fortune of villages such as Gölyazı.
It is precisely for this reason that I have chosen to find out more about the fishermen who have handed down the art of fishing for generations.
03 —
Hence the idea of 24h with a fisherman.
Despite having become a popular tourist destination, I was lucky enough to talk to Mehmet,
(tall, always looking straight at the horizon and a few words at the beginning) invites us to sit down and drink a cup of Turkish tea (Cay) immediately starting to tell us how since childhood his life has been marked by the rising and setting of the sun.
Of how he has been doing this job for 30 years now and is the 4th of a lineage of fishermen who have handed down the family boat, I notice that he begins to melt a little more towards us and invites us to dinner with the family since we have to have dinner and go to bed early.
The next day he gets up before the sun and begins to baste the nets with which (hopefully) to catch enough fish to be able to see again during the course of the morning, once on board still a bit stunned and tired we begin our navigation towards a area full of bamboo and aquatic plants.
04 —
Another cup of Cay.
He tells us how his father used that spot for years to fish and all the advice he gave him from a young age, after about 4 hours on board we return to shore where Mehmet begins to clean and carefully sort all the catch of the day and he has his sales stand on what will be.
In the space of a few minutes, people begin to arrive, tourists, locals, neighbors and not only, all arrived with a single purpose: to buy the fish of Gölyazı (where the best fishermen live according to many).
Between one sale and the next, evening arrives and we just have to leave Mehmet between greetings and yet another cup of Cay. We leave this city that lives and pulsates in the middle of Lake Uluabat.
