A tranquil journey of yoga at the heart of Mediterranean.

I have just come back from another uplifting, elevating and soothing yoga journey that I have experienced at One Yoga Festival in Turkey. Not only I have practiced some strong yoga asanas, I have stepped my foot into so many different styles, get fed very healthy, had some of the best sleep with the refreshing mountain air and met so many nice people that passes each other good energy and many laughters.

The third One Yoga & Wellness Festival has taken place on 15-21^st of July at Babakamp which is located in Mount Babadag in Fethiye.

This fantastic camp is located at 1300 feet high up on a plateau at Babadag with a fascinating view of Mediterrenean. You are in the middle of the forest where all you hear is the voices of the crickets, birds and the crunch of the summer sun. You can choose to stay in either wooden or stone houses with private bathrooms or Nomad houses or tents with sharing facilities. There were many guests arrived from different parts of the world bringing their ethnicity, cultures and different experiences.

And we had the pleasure of meeting very valuable teachers, educators from around the world and mostly Turkish professionals who kindly offered and shared their experience and styles and add different aspects to the yoga and wellness world.

Many different disciplines like Hatha, Asthanga, Vinyasa, Yin, Tai Chi, Yoka, Qi Gong etc were offered by different instructors, as well as wellbeing, self-awareness, meditation classes took place and made the whole experience a ‘Union’

In between classes there were workshops you could join where you make new friends and improve your knowledge about candle, incense making, accu-press massage, sound journey, somatic experience, Sutras and Philosophy studies.

Your day started with a strong Yoga class where you face the magnificent Babadag view in front of you listening and witnessing  the awakening of the nature.

Then we had a very satisfying open buffet Turkish breakfast. I can be very proud as a Turk of our fabulous breakfasts where you can treat yourself with a feast of fresh vegetables, variety of cheese, olives and fruits accompanied with a proper Turkish tea prepared in Samovar.

You are free to choose whichever yoga class or workshop you want to practice during the day and also there is the freedom of doing nothing, maybe just sit beside the pool, sunbathe and read your book.

After the classes and another feast you have for dinner, every night there was an open fire where you can feel the earth’ s elements in your soul, listen some great music from some masters like J Pool, Yasemin Vollmond, Alemyst. The cacao ceremony and Ecstatic Dance experiences were so relieving and I was impressed with myself of being able to dance freely and madly for 1.5 hours at night time after two cups of Cacao. Considering I had practiced almost 6 hours yoga that day prior to that.

I should not forget to mention the view of the sky during the night. With the high altitude and not having any lights around you, when you lift your gaze to the sky, it is a matter of minute to feel yourself as a part of the universe. Last year we even had the luck of seeing Starlink satellites passing above us which added a different touch to our practice that night.

Once more I had such a good, comforting experience where I could focus to inner me, to nature and recharged fully that gave me a huge uplift.

Thank you Babadag and many thanks to the organisers, to Babakamp team and all the teachers for such a splendid experience.

If you are interested to join next years One Yoga & Wellness Festival, or other festivals they organise. Or just would like to go there on your own for a quiet break check out;

www.babakamp.com

Namaste