Turkey consists predominantly of rocks with few lowlands found only by the coast. About a quarter of the land area is located 1,200 meters above sea level with less than 40% of the area lower than 460 meters above sea level. It is not surprising that there´s a vast number of crags a valleys literally inviting several extreme sports. The highest peaks are in the East, where also the highest Turkish mountain, Ararat (5,165 m) is located. In the North lie Pontic Mouintains running east west, parallel and close to the Southern coast of the Black Sea. If you go to the south and further southeastward, you will get to Taurus Mountains ranging between the coast and the Anatolian Plateau.
Such a mountainous land is a home of numerous BASE Jumping spots. One of the popular ones is a cable BASE in the Dark Canyon of Eastern Anatolia region, district of Kemaliye. Kemaliye is ethnically a Kurdish area, which is surrounded by old mountains and baking hot desert. With the river Karasu (Euphrates) below flowing south, this picturesque location makes it for a fun day to spent at. Actually, the Turkish government has constructed this incredibly unique BASE object in Kemaliye to become an extreme sport center in Eastern Turkey; hundreds of meters of metal cable, strung between the two cliffs approximately 1,200 feet above the Euphrates River. There is some kind of a hybrid looking ski-lift-chair attached to rollers, which are rolled out into the center of the canyon. From there you can dive in. There is a small landing area at the bottom of the canyon provided you do not fear water. The river is calm and quite clean patrolled by a safety crew in case things go wrong.
Chris "Douggs" McDougall is a professional BASE and skydiver from Australia. Chris currently lives in Switzerland from where he makes trips to the finest European BASE locations. He is one of the best athletes of the sport with 7000+ skydive jumps and 2880+ BASE jumps in all disciplines in more than 40 countries around the globe to his credit. He was the first ever to perform a BASE jump in Kuwait in 2013, won BASE Jumping and skydive World Championships, and holds the World record in a 300-person sky-diving formation. And have I mentioned he is also a wingsuit pilot with more than thousands jumps behind? Douggs, as everybody around him call him lives and breathes adrenaline… he is a force of nature. With his punk attitude and insatiable desire for fun and adventure, Douggs fully embodies the wild and free spirit of BASE jumping. Take a look at his BASE adventure from above-described location, the Kemaliye cable BASE.
Source: www.basedreams.com. Thanks to Chris McDougall. All images are property of Chris McDougall. Video: Youtube
