Couple ditches city life to live in mountains

BURSA

A couple who decided to ditch city life four years ago is now living a secluded life for the last two years in the outskirts of the Uludağ Mountain, a well-known winter tourist attraction and a center of nature sports in the northwestern province of Bursa.

City dwellers Mehmet Uğur Tekin and his wife, Sema Tekin, who were once private-sector employees, live in a wooden cottage in a remote mountainside.

“Four years ago, we started searching the right plot for us to settle. It took a year for us to find this region,” said Tekin about his new home some 2.5 kilometers away from the center of Dağdibi neighborhood.

After buying the plot, it took another year to build their wooden cottage.

Speaking to the state-run Anadolu Agency, the couple said, at first, they were thinking about using the cottage at weekends, but then the idea changed, and they later decided to move there.

For two years, the couple is living an isolated life in the mountainside with a dog, cat and chickens.

“Of course, there are difficulties in living in nature, but the residents of the neighborhood were very friendly to us. We are very happy,” the husband said.

In time, life in a cottage gave the couple a new idea to make a living. As they found out that there is interest for camping in the area, but it lacked a camping site around, they decided to construct one.

“We have constructed four wooden cottages and have formed a camping site here. There is a huge demand, and we are working with full reservations for the last two years,” the husband added.

Sema Tekin noted that the change of life was based on their love of nature sports. “We were spending weekends in nature. But we saw that weekends were not sufficient for us, so we decided to live 24/7 in nature.”

When asked about the difference between living in a city and a mountainside, she replied, “City life is, of course, comfortable. Here, physical strength is important,” she said.

“We are physically exhausted, but we are happy and so delighted to be here,” she added.