We were making good time on our way to Amasya, and so decided to take a detour to a river delta that Pedro had meticulously mapped out in his birding notebook. The thickening clouds made the air cool and moist, a wonderful respite from the blazing heat of the east. We were in farmland that bordered the Black Sea, somewhere in Samsun, and while I watched Pedro get out of the car with his telescope in hand, my mind wandered back to all the places birds had taken us on this journey. I would have never gone to Demirkazık, Akseki, or Doğubeyazıt— places that now hold in my memory as favourites, places I had never heard of previously. And here I was, looking at a herd of water buffalo silhouetted against a watercolour sky, while Pedro was being invited by a curious and friendly farmer to visit his house when we return.
