Climbing at Olympos

The main climbing cliff at Olympos is stunning.  As you hike through the forest and come over the last rise, you come level with the middle of a seemingly flat 40m tall wall of rock, tipped just slightly backward from the vertical.  Most of it looks smoothed out as if by a trowel, with lumps & pockets exposed as if the cement hadn't quite been mixed properly before application.  Unfortunately, there aren't many climbers here, so finding belay partners is a little trickier.  One local who works at another guest house is keen, but she often works during the day.  To make matters worse, my fingertips are getting thrashed so I am not able to climb too hard even though most of the best routes are on the edge of my ability.

Cenet Wall, Olympos

I took a couple of rest days by heading north to the Koprulu canyon and hiking a section of what is called the 'St. Paul Trail'  It follows a steep river canyon for a while before ascending the canyon walls and into a surreal valley of what are called 'fairy chimneys' - unlikely looking pillars of pancaked rock similar to the ones found in Cappadocia.  The trail meanders through these towers and arrives finally at Serge - an ancient city that once had a population of 20,000 (a few centuries BC), but now is home to only a few dozen poor farmers.  There are not even any tourists here to generate any extra income.  Amazingly, among the ancient rubble strewn all over the place (it is quite normal to find 2 metre long columns - a metre in diameter - lying about), is a huge stone (what else ?) semi-circular theatre that would have seated thousands in its day.  The back row seats must look down 15-20 metres to the main stage.  Meanwhile, mud and thatch houses with chickens and goats in the backyard use a 100 metre long, 5 metre tall, 2400 year old wall of stone like a picket fence - to keep the goats in.

Fairey chimneys

Trail marker

ancient theatre in Selge

 
The weather is starting to turn here.  A few days after I arrived they had their first rain in 5 months.  Since then it has poured a couple of times and rained lightly for  a few more.  With my raw fingers, it is time to move on west to give them a week to heal up before being put to work again in Kalymnos.