We had heard that this river has been run many times by German kayakers, and it also appeared in their Canoe book – so it was time for Turkish paddlers to discover it too. I followed my river passion and came down to the SW corner of Turkey with some friends and 2 journalists to explore this river and did the first Turkish descent in Oct.1993. We paddled a 13 km. section. It was an awesome class 3-4 pool and drop section, about 12 rapids. Next day we continued downstream to explore another 13km. excellent for family trips. We named this class 2-3 ‘R1’. Of course the upper part became known as ‘R2’ .

Three years later we had a chance of running a section even further upstream which was technical class 5, known as ‘R3’. All three sections offer us gorges, forest, springs, and beautiful camp sites. The turquoise water was so tempting all the time.

The Dalaman River is a favorite of Russian kayakers, the German national kayak slalom team, Czech, British and Dutch paddlers. I would consider that the Dalaman has one of the best class 4-5 river sections in Turkey. It is a world class small river, great for one-day or two-day trips. Multi-day expeditions can be done when the water is high. However, the fourth biggest dam of in Turkey is being built on this river. The ‘R1’ section is already gone. So, in a few years there will be no rafting sections left.

Written by  Vedat Vural.

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