Ran's adventures in Turkey & Kalymnos

Istanbul and home

2008-10-22T17:47:00.001-07:00

OK, as is probably obvious, the last few entries have simply been updated from home, but I thought I would finish up the blog to make it complete.

The last day in Istanbul, a friend was able to show me around a little in the Taksim Square area. After some lunch under the Galatta Bridge, and a nargile (a Turkish hookah), I was invited to join a group of expat teachers for a fancy dinner on the asian side of Istanbul - a fine finish to my stay in Turkey.

The public transport in Istanbul is very good, except that for some reason it stops running around midnight. Normally, it is very easy to catch the metro out to the bus station and/or the airport, both of which are well out of town. After midnight, however, the options are limited. This is a little frustrating since numerous flights seem to both arrive and depart at ridiculous hours of the night. In my case, I just missed the last metro so rather than spending $2.80 getting to the airport, I had to fork out $40 for a ride in a taxi - and even that required Joel to bargain in Turkish for me to get the 'day rate' for the taxi, whose fares go up by 50% after midnight.

Regardless, I had a good last day in Istanbul and made it to the airport without any further trouble. Unfortunately, this still involved a lot of waiting around for the actual flight, and then I had to wait around for another 6 hours in Frankfurt so I wasn't expecting to get much sleep.

In the end, the finish of my trip was pretty draining:
* Overnight bus to Istanbul (got about 2 hours sleep)
* staying up all night in Istanbul getting to the airport and awaiting my flight.
* 6 hour layover in Frankfurt airport
* all day flight from Frankfurt to Vancouver (no sleep on this one either)

P.S.
I managed to maintain quite a bit of energy throughout this whole ordeal, but it started to catch up to me shortly after getting home.
I am writing this final entry from home as I have taken the day off sick today, and will probably need one more day to fully recover. (which is why I may not have gotten in touch with anyone since returning) I have posted a few more climbing photos, but have another set of non-climbing photos yet to upload. Will keep you posted.

- Ran
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Turkey blog: http://raninturkey.blogspot.com/
Turkey photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Turkey

Climbing photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Climbing
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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."
- GK Chesterton

Ephesus & Pamukkale

2008-10-22T17:22:00.001-07:00

Since I spent an extra couple of days in Kalymnos, I cut the end of my trip a little short, leaving enough time for Ephesus and Pamukkale (two of the prime tourist attractions in Turkey), but not much more than that.

As it turns out, I saw both Ephesus and Pamukkale in one day - and this is not as rushed as it sounds. Ephesus is best seen in the morning before the tour buses arrive and two hours is about right for a fairly leisurely tour. The ruins there are quite stunning, particularly the old library and the expanse of the roads laid in marble. The theatre is dramatic, but I have seen so many of them by now that its effect was not as great as it may be to others. It is interesting to imagine it in its heydey in all its glamour as a thriving city.

By the time I left, the streets were filled with tourists, emptied regularly from the dozens of tour buses that visit on a daily basis. This is a good time to head back to Selcuk, catch some lunch and find a bus to Pamukkale, about 3 hours away. By the time we arrive and check into a guest house in the late afternoon it is actually a perfect time to visit. Pamukkale is the site of a strange natural phenomena where warm water emanating from hot springs somewhere in the hills deposits calcium carbonate in travertines - shallow terraced pools that look surreal, particularly in the evening light. This site is actually open 24 hours and catching the sunset from here is a highlight.

Nearby, there are also some warm ancient pools where the Romans bathed. Here the pools are deeper and clear, with fallen columns lying visible in the water, giving a hint to the more extravagent setting that bathers would have experienced in its prime. Arriving after dusk, this section is technically closed, but I was able to wander in and go for a swim. Being after hours, it lacked the glamour evident earlier in the day when you can sip drinks and bask in the sun surrounding the pools, but I didn't pay to get in so I can't complain.

Further up the hill there are the ruins of Hierapolis, where yet another impressive theatre can be found amid other ruins, most of which are difficult to distinguish.

From Pamukkale, there is a night bus to Istanbul, where I will meet up with a friend for the day. My flight is early in the morning (5:55am), so I will probably simply stay out late and head to the airport in the wee hours.

- Ran
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Turkey blog: http://raninturkey.blogspot.com/
Turkey photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Turkey

Climbing photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Climbing
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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."
- GK Chesterton

Kalymnos (in retrospect)

2008-10-22T16:51:00.001-07:00

Upon arriving in Kos (the first Greek island accessible from Turkey), I inquired about a ferry to Kalymnos and was told that a catamaran was just leaving. I bought my ticket and rushed to get on, but it had already left (I got my money back). Luckily, there was another ferry at 4pm leaving from another village along the coast, so I was able to grab a bite to eat and head out there by bus with lots of time to catch it. Originally, the internet research I had done had found only one ferry for Kalymnos that left at midnight, so despite missing the 11am catamaran, I was relatively happy that I would actually be arriving before nightfall.

Once in Pothia, the main ferry port in Kalymnos, it is a simple matter of catching an hourly local bus to the other end of the island. Masouri is where most of the climbers end up staying. It has a small spattering of bars & restaurants, many with attached studios for rent.

Upon arriving and walking down the single one-way street I almost immediately found Ingrid, a climber who I knew from Vancouver. As it turns out she arrived the same day, as did another couple from Vancouver who I had climbed with before - Tony and Miriam.

Micah, the Californian I had met in Turkey who I was meeting up with in Kalymnos, was not expected to arrive for another day, but an hour or two after I arrived we ran into each other on the street - it turns out that he was on the Catamaran that I had missed (he had caught it from Rhodes where it originated from)

To top it off, while heading back from the beach later that day, I noticed in the back of a pickup truck someone who looked a lot like Cynthia, another woman who I climb with periodically in Vancouver. As it turns out, Cynthia also arrived on the same day, though she was staying in Myrties - the next town over - for her first week.

In the end all 6 of us (5 separate parties) arrived coincedentally on the same day. Of course we were also all stoked and ready to climb the next day.

Within a 15-30 minute walk of Masouri are enough climbs to keep one occupied for weeks, including one area called the Grande Grotta - an arrestingly stunning cave 80m high scooped out of the side of a cliff. The climbs in here are pretty steep (in more ways than one), starting out around 7a+ (5.12a), They begin slightly overhanging and getting steeper and steeper until you are going along a horizontal roof, though only on the harder climbs do you actually get this high - most are at least 7c/7c+ (5.12d/5.13a)

On the very right side of the Grotta there are a couple of routes which avoid the steepest part of the cave, but are still overhanging. Two routes in particular are particularly popular - one 40m 7a (5.11d), and another shorter but very sweet 6a+ (5.10b)


From Climbing

To the right of the Grotta is another area where we spent some time called Panorama sector. As the name implies, the views from here are spectacular, though this is a little redundant, as you would be hard-pressed to find any climb on Kalymnos in which both the belayer and the climber did not have stunning views.

On my rest day, I visited the small port village of Vathi on the east coast of the island. Here the water, protected from winds, is great for swimming, and there is an interesting stretch of rock along the shore that you can boulder traverse along fairly easily for more than 250 metres. At the far end of the traverse, there is some tougher bouldering above the water that allows you to get a bit of a feel for deep water soloing,

More Detailed Beta:

The accomodation was more reasonable than I was expecting, with nice double rooms with a kitchenette and a balcony overlooking the ocean for 18 Euros per night. 25 per night will get you a place with access to a swimming pool as well. We ended up getting a room that wasn't anything special, but it worked well for us because it was actually divided into two sections so we felt like we had two singles.

Scooters can be rented for about 8-10 Euros per day, or an entire car for about 35 Euros per day.

Food is sensational and you can have a nice entree of swordfish or lamb casserole for about 7 or 8 Euros. Greek salads are fantastic and huge for 3-5 Euros. A lot of the food also seems to be local which is nice, particularly at Harry's Paradise in Emperios, where the owner prides himself on supplying all of his restaurant's ingredients from his gorgeous garden.

Interestingly, the rock itself ranges quite a bit in character.

The first day we went to 'Poets' sector, which is more traditional limestone (if there is such a thing) Vertical, with enough features to keep it interesting.

The Ghost Kitchen was one of the areas that you pretty much need a scooter to access. It had some fantastic routes. Not as steep as the Grotta, it had some very interesting tufa climbing at more accessible grades (6b - 7b) (5.10c - 5.12b)

Odyssey is another classic sector with numerous routes of all levels. We primarily spent one day in one small section of this sector, but nevertheless found 2 or 3 fantastic routes - particularly Dionysis and Calipso (7a+; 5.12a)

Syblegades Rocks, closer to Myrties has more crimpy vertical climbing (a nice change after all of the tufa climbing). It has some very nice routes ranging from 6a to 7a.

Besides these areas, we visited The Grande Grotta, Panorama Wall (both described above), and Afternoon Wall (just around the corner from the Grotta, it gets shade in the afternoon when the Grande Grotta is putting up with the full brunt of the sun)

On our last day, we returned to the Grotta to do the ever-popular routes on the right had side (they are usually quite busy, so we had not been able to do them previously). This turned out to be a good decision, as these were certainly among the best routes we did during the entire week. I had been fairly happy with my climbing all week, generally on-sighting everything below 7a (5.11d), but I was struggling a bit with my endurance, seeming to always need at least one rest/fall on anything higher. Luckily, Micah, climbing slightly stronger, was generally able and willing to lead up the 7a+/7b routes that I otherwise would have felt not quite ready for. Happily, I managed to break through this barrier on the last day by leading and flashing the 40m overhanging Trella (7a; 5.11d) - a definite highlight for me.

- Ran
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Turkey blog: http://raninturkey.blogspot.com/
Turkey photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Turkey

Climbing photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Climbing
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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."
- GK Chesterton

brief update on climbing in Kalymnos

2008-10-16T23:29:00.001-07:00

The climbing in Kalymnos was fantastic. Lots of variety and a great location with panoramas overlooking the Mediterranean from almost all of the crags.

The 'scene' is a little more enticing than in Turkey, where the climbing is just as good, but the place where you stay in Turkey is a little isolated.

The food in Masouri (the small village where most of the climbers stay) is excellent and quite reasonable, so I was also very well fed over the past week.

Interestingly, I ran into 4 people that I knew from Vancouver (3 independent parties).
To make this even stranger, all of us, including myself and Micah - the Californian that I had met in Turkey, managed to arrive on the same day.

I am on my last couple of days now - plan on catching a night bus back to Istanbul tonight, so will hopefully see many of you again shortly.

Cheers,
- Ran

latest photos

2008-10-04T09:02:00.001-07:00

Strangely, Facebook uploading seems slightly less problematic from here than picasa uploading, so for those of you who have access to Facebook, you can see some of my more recent photos (in the new Turkey album - previous Turkey shots appear in the Travel section, but I reached my limit on that album it seems)

For those of you who refuse to sign up to a social networking site primarily overrun by people who were not even born by the time you started your degree.... you may have to wait.

Ciao,
- Ran
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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.
An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."
- GK Chesterton

Towards the Aegean Sea

2008-10-04T07:35:00.001-07:00

Moving west from the Mediterranean towards the Aegean Sea, I have spent the last few days based out of Fetiye - a nice town, despite its fairly large size. Dinner is an experience at the local fish market where you can pick out whatever fresh seafood you want and take it to any restaurant where they will cook it up for you and serve it to you with garlic bread and salad for about 5 bucks.

Withın an hour or two by bus I have thus far done a 2 day hike on a (better marked) section of the Lycian Way and hiked up the Saklikent Gorge - a stunning narrow gorge that you can walk / climb / scramble up for a couple of hours. Some sections are quite tough as you fınd yourself typically chest deep ın cold water at the base of a short but awkward waterfall trough of a metre or two. Climbing involves doing whatever you can to make your way up. The rock itself is limestone, but it is polished smooth by the water, making headway more difficult than it sounds. The polishing action also turns the water into a grey mud from the particulate matter that is continuously being washed downstream.

The Lycian way hike was a gorgeous hike along the coast and down to a couple of magnifıcent beaches including the inspiringly named 'Butterfly Valley' - hundreds of metres below the ridge where the hike continues. At the end of the hike you look down upon paragliders who soar in circles down to the world-class beach area of Oludeniz which stretches out along the Mediterranean far below.

My last stop is in Marmaris, a slightly touristy, but not unpleasant town halfway towards Bodrum, which is the launching point to the Greek Islands.

Unfortunately, it looks like I arrive in Kalymnos very late at night with no leads on the accomodation front - the first night or two should prove to be interesting. I am hoping to either meet up with someone on the ferry or, as a last resort, wander into a pub, hoping to find some climbers willing to have me couch surf for the first night. It appears that the accomodation there is mostly rented apartments - well suited to groups, but not so great for individuals. Hopefully, I will be meeting up shortly afterwards with Micah, a Californian climber I met in Geyikbayiri, who arrives a day or two later.

Cheers,

- Ran

The longest 'rest' day

2008-09-27T02:52:00.001-07:00

For those who have known me for a while, you will be happy (or distressed) to know that the unsuspecting 'epic' is still alive and well and rearing its head every once in a while.

The plan for my last 'rest day' in Olympos was rather simple - a modestly challenging 25 km hike along the Lycian Way beginning at the next town 18 km away. I would start early and hitch to Andrasan around 7AM and begin hiking early to make it back well before dinner at 7pm. I was told by a few locals that there would be traffic at that time, and it there would be no trouble finding a lift.

Unfortunately, that is not quite how it worked out - I ended up walking the full 18 km along the road to Andrasan without getting a single ride! Originally, I had decided NOT to do the section from Olympos to Andrasan (16km), opting instead for the slightly longer section beyond that (25km), though I now wondered about that option now that my departure was so delayed.

Andrasan Beach

At Andrasan the hike begins at the far end of the beach - another 4 km to the beach, and about 1-2 km more to the far end where the trail starts. I walked out to this section and along the coast for another km or two to at least see that part of the trail I had intended to hike, but decided to return to Andrasan and simply hike the section back to Olympos after all - simultaneously making the logistics of returning in the evening a bit easier.

Asking around, I was able to identify where the trailhead to Olympos started, and found a large park sign in Turkish but with the identifiable word 'Olympos' on it. A clear trail to the right headed along the coast as I expected and I confirmed with a Turkish man nearby that this in fact was the path to Olympos. The trail was very clear - in fact it was essentially a dirt road covered in pine needles, so I wasn't too concerned that the typical 'Lycian Way' markers (red and white striped marks appearing periodically on rocks or trees) were not around - they were hardly necessary.

Things were going quite well until I hit the first fork in the road about 8 km in, with no visible markings anywhere in sight. One of the paths was more clearly trodden so I opted for this one, but was a bit suspicious at this point. A km or so later I encountered another 2 or 3 forks, however. This time, the choice was not so obvious and again no markings were in sight. Luckily at this point a German traveller was coming up behind me on a bike, so I was able to ask him for direction. Imagine my surprise when he told me I couldn't get to Olympos this way - the Lycian way was to the left back at the Andrasan trailhead.

I was now facing a return to Andrasan that would leave me having hiked over 40 km prior to even reaching the start of the trailhead!

Determined not to suffer the hitch back to Olympos, I decided to continue my plan B, and still attempt to return along the trail as long as I was able to find the start by around 2:15, figuring that would give me more than enough time to finish before dark. Arriving back in Andrasan shortly after 2, I scoured the area for the actual trail, heading left at the big sign rather than right, but finding no clear signs after following it for 10 minutes, I had to turn back. Finally, I managed to find a small Lycian Way 'marker' spraypainted faintly on a telephone pole on a road a few metres down from the big sign that I had first noticed. It had a subtle arrow pointing left along the river, so I followed that and eventually found a follow up marker though this new path was far more dubious than the original. It was unbelievable to me that this apparently world class hiking trail was marked so poorly, while a dead end road to a land-locked beach sported a huge sign and a well trodden trail.

after my 40 km warmup, I just have to over that distant mountain...

Regardless, I followed the 'markers' as well as I could - sometimes not encountering a marker for a few hundred metres, which was alarming when the only apparent trail wandered through farmer's fields and around abandoned tool sheds. I lost the trail numerous times - sometimes reaching an area with no obvious trail, and other times finding 2 or 3 indistinguishable trails going off in different directions. In either case, the marker was often a few hundred metres down one of these paths requiring me to run back and forth searching in frustration. Luckily, there also seemed to be an 'X' painted onto a rock in a few places, which indicated that this was NOT the correct path. This certainly saved my ass a few times and eventually I always did manage to pick up on the trail - but I was losing valuable time. After a couple of hours on this trail I was becoming committed to continuing since it would be dark by the time I returned if I was to turn back now. I figured, however, that once in the forest I would encounter less of the ambiguous trail sections that I typically found when I hit (for example) a labyrinth of unmarked goat paths. Unfortunately, even after a couple of hours, I was still finding small shepherd huts where the trail dimmed substantially.

After 3 hours on the trail (at which point I thought I would be almost done), I was pretty fully committed to continuing, yet I hadn't even reached the high point yet - and the trail was moving up quickly through the forest. Suddenly, I came to an area where there had been a considerable forest fire. All of the trees were either down and half burnt or, if standing, completely charred on the outside. Here I lost the trail entirely, and was unable to pick up on anything resembling a trail further along. In desperation, I clamboured upwards, clawing over the carbon-encrusted logs and branches, hoping a nearby peak would yield me some views that would point me in the right direction. After scrambling through the blackened bush and climbing up periodic outcrops of rock for about half an hour I was well off the trail, and only managed to see further peaks in the distance. Looking around, I could not even tell whether the trail would have headed to the left or right of the main peak in front of me. Desperate to gain height from which to see, in a few places I carefully scaled steep sections of rock 20-30 feet high. While climbing one of these sections, I was about a third of the way up when a large chunk of rock broke off in my hand causing me to essentially hurl a softball-sized rock into my own face. I managed to keep my composure without falling, but only because I had been carefully '3 point climbing' just in case of such an event. It did cause me to reassess my situation and it was looking grim. I was about 3.5 hours up the mountain and it would start getting dark quickly in a little over an hour. Resuming my climb to the top of this peak, I was no further ahead, judging there to be at least two wide saddles - one way off to the left, and one way off to the right. Based on the topography I guessed that the trail would be slightly more likely to ascend to the right, and my only chance of finding the trail would be to go as high up on the ridge as I could and attempt to traverse until I found something resembling the trail. I was having grave doubts by this point, however, and felt I was running (literally) on borrowed time, so I set my alarm and gave myself 15 minutes to find the trail or some obvious sign. At that point, I would have to admit defeat and hightail it back down the mountain as fast as I could, though this would almost certainly still have me scrambling around in the dark for hours. Realistically I felt at this point that I was royally $£!@'ed with darkness imminent and no pending leads. I scampered as quickly as I could and as high as I could, traversing through the burnt forest, my hands and face by this point covered in soot (and a little blood). My goal was to find the saddle and hope that it was localized enough to bring me across a section of the trail. This was presuming of course that the trail did cross the saddle I was heading for, and also that the trail would be better marked at this point than it had been further down the slope. My biggest worry besides missing the trail altogether was of crossing the trail without recognizing it - a definite possibility. With a glimmer of hope remaining, I slid and climbed along the side of the mountain for a final few hundred metres. as my time slowly ran out. With less than a couple of minutes left on my watch, I spotted a saddle with a bit of a clearing and I headed for it, praying for the tell-tale red and white striped marking. Rising to the saddle, I spotted what might be a trail, and with heart pounding followed it for a dozen metres to a rock with a red and white stripe casually marked on it. YES! - Boy was I pumped. Despite having hiked at this point for over 50 km and 11 hours straight with only a 15 minute stop for lunch and my water long gone, I was riding on adrenelin now, and virtually jogged down the remaining trail to attempt to reach Olympos before dark. Luckily the trail on this side of the mountain was well marked and I found very few ambiguous sections. In the end I trotted into the guest house a few minutes after they started serving supper - almost exactly 12 hours later than I had started out that morning.

I believe that this is the longest hike I have ever done in one day with a pack - 58 km in one day ! - (possibly 60 km with all of the backtracking and route finding).

Climbing at Olympos

2008-09-25T12:50:00.001-07:00

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.

Climbing at Geyikbayiri

2008-09-20T04:19:00.001-07:00

Getting out to the premier climbing area - Geyikbayiri - proved relatively easy. An 8am minibus out of Olympos had me in Antalya in about 1 1/2 hours. The bus driver dropped me off on a main street where I waited (somewhat worriedly at first) for a bus to Cakirlar - a small cluster of houses outside fo Anatalya (neither 'village' nor 'suburb' is really appropriate in this case) From here there was apparently a daily bus at 1pm to Geyikbayiri, but after about 15 minutes I decided to just start walking. A sign indicated it was only 6km away, and I thought I could hitch. The sun was sweltering - it being mid-day, but I had my Ipod and was excited to be within striking disance. In the end I walked aobut 3 km before being picked up. A few km further down the road, I spotted some clean vertical cliffs right off the road and figured I must be close. Sure enough around the next bend was a sign for the JoSiTo's - the climbing camp where I was booked to stay for the next 4 or 5 nights.

I hadn't expected to get much (if any) climbing in the first day, so I was happy that I had arrived so early, and that a couple of local part-time staff (Boju and Sibel) offered to take me out to the local cliff after lunch. Once out there I soon met Micah, an American chef from California, and Christian & Steffi. Christian was a super-nice guy from Austria who was working as a dog-sled tour guide in Finland with Steffi (from Switzerland).


Christian		Micah

The camp itself is a beautiful secluded acreage. My 'bungalow' was very basic but I had a nice big, very comfortable bed, and the view out my front door was a stunning cliff dotted with climbing routes only about 50 metres away. At night a cool breeze flows through the windows, allowing me the first really good sleep I have had since I left Vancouver.

The most popular climbing area is also only a few
100 metres away - 'Trebenna wall' is in the shade all day and has dozens of routes to play on of all levels. The sun is scorching, but in the shade we only have to put up with the humidity, which seems to get worse in the late afternoon. The vegetation in the area is very dry, covered sparsely in cactus-like plants and grasses, thorns of which have the unfortunate habit of working their way into your shoes. There is a local river, however, which provides an endless supply of drinkable water and a small (though very cold) pool for having a refreshing dip.

The rock itslef looks very much like the Thailand rock - Limestone cliffs, featuring caves, tufas & a variety of textures ranging from sharp stucco-like pockmarked walls to polished marble. In the end, I climbed for four days straight, and returned to Olympos for a well-deserved rest day. (and where more stunning cliffs await if my fingers are up for it)

PS (there seems to be a minor problem uploading photos from my SD card here... will try another internet location to see if I can put a few more up...)

Bonus day - Sept 14, 2008

2008-09-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

What a great day !

A bit of frisbee on the beach; a little volleyball at one of the guesthouses; a little climbing with a couple of women that work at the guesthouses here; a (full) moonlit swim; some barefoot deepwater soloing (pretty easy and no more than about 8 or 10 metres, but I don't think I have the guts to jump any more than that); a caual stroll through some Roman ruins (not particularly impressive, but it sounds god on the list)..

I also got a couple of leads on potential climbing partners back here next week so am eager to return. (It has the added bonus of the nearby beach - somehing that Gerikbayiri lacks.

Today is (was) the last day of my first week in Turkey. I am hanging out in the shade of a restaurant in Olympos on the south coast, a short walk from the Mediterranean.

Last night I arrived on an overnight bus from Cappadocia and unwisely decided to head down to the beach shortly after my arrival. This of course means that I spent the worst possible time of day in the sweltering sun (noon - 2pm) The sun stroke hasn't hit me yet, but I suspect I may regret my carelessness. There are no climbers here now - I am a month early it seems - there is actually a climbing festival about a month from now. I have managed to find a couple of women who work at a local guest house nearby who want to go climbing after work. We will only have time for an hour or so, but it will be my first time on Turkish rock.

Today is actually a spare day between Cappadocia and my booked stay at JoSiTo - a camp for climbers in Geyekbayiri - the area in Turkey best known for climbing. I head there tomorrow via a handful of bus connections and/or hitch-hiking attempts and hope to get some shaded climbing in over the next 5 days or so - but that will be next week's news.

Cappadocia in hindsight

2008-09-14T06:16:00.001-07:00

While in Goreme, I stayed at a guesthouse which is rather appropriately called the Flintstones Cave Hotel. It is relatively quiet - possibly because the main tourist season is essentially over. There is a swimming pool here as well as a pool table which both seem to be underutilized but a nice touch. Upon arrival I met a couple of Norwegian travellers (Andi & Valentina) who were heading to Damascus to study Arabic for a few months out of personal interest ( Steph - some like-minded souls ! - I will pass you their emails - I am sure they would love to chat with you) Interestingly, I also met another couple here from Poland (Lenc and Baisha) who are also heading on to Syria. Baisha also used to climb so she was able to give me some good beta on potential opportunities to climb & travel in Poland. It was a bit anticlamactic the next day when both of these couples and another couple of women from England all left a day before me, leaving the Flintstones cave virtually deserted.

Basia & Valentian with the Pasha Bar staff

On my last day I booked a tour, thinking it would make it easier to see a few of the harder to get to places, while reviving some socializing opportunities. The tour was actually pretty decent though at first I have to admit suffering from 'tour group envy'. As I watched every other tour group in a convoy of about ten each dispatch a dozen or so young attractive women from all over the world, I found my group composed entirely of old men from the US and Dubai. (Steph - don't say a word !)

One of the highlights of the tour was the underground cities, built originally around the 4th century as Christians sought refuge from intolerant Byzantine Romans. The cave I visited at its height apparenty housed 10,000 troglodytes up until around the 10th century when the Ottoman empire took over with a little more religious tolerance. (correction from earlier post - it was the cave houses that were 4000 years old and not the underground city)

The same day we visited a monastery built into the side of another of these miniature mountains of sandstone. From one hall I followed a dark tunnel around a few worners and encountered a ladder. I had my torch with me so I followed it up to an opening in the roof which became a narrow spiral chimney with small handholds scraped out just enough to enable a nimble-bodied person to ascend steeply along this almost vertical tunnel. Periodically the chimney would open up a little with a window out into the valley far below. Each time I reached one of these landings I wanted to go up 'just one more flight'. Of course, I continued this until I eventually wound up about 10 stories up at the very top of the mountain. This was a definite highlight that is certainly not on the official tour.

Next stop - a night bus to Olympos (south coast) for one day before a week of climbing near Antalya.

The Santa Claus route to/from the top of the monastery

Istanbul -> Cappadocia

2008-09-11T05:57:00.001-07:00

Well, I finally arrived in Istanbul after an exhausting flight from Toronto via Frankfurt (what a messed up airport !) with not a blink of sleep.

Arriving in the morning, I was able to wander around the city a bit, roaming down cobblestone alleys and along the waterfront boardwalk. I even managed to take in a mosque on the first day (the Blue Mosque), though I was desperate for some sleep, and not wanting to throw myself too much out of sync I tried to stay awake during the day.


Blue Mosque

The second day in Istanbul I took in the Archeological museum - lots of sarcophogi and marble statues - and opted for a night bus to Cappadocia. (hoping to spend another day or two exploring Istanbul on the way out) Due to my earlier sleep deprevation, I was able to sleep pretty much the whole way, and arrived early morning in Goreme, where gigantic cones of sandstone the size of multi-story apartment buildings jut out from the earth. The 'multi-story apartment building' size metaphor was not lost on the early settlers here. They scraped out living quarters from them long ago, using them for housing.

4000 year old housing project - Cappadocia

Just out of town there is a whole city of churches hewn into the rock - quite amazing to imagine dozens of monks hunkering down in the stone dining hall where huge benches and tables are also hewn from the existing sandstone. Strangely, many of the entrance ways are dotted with graves, which are open and covered over with grates so the public doesn't fall in (!)

Tomorrow I hope to check out entire underground cities used by troglodytes as long ago as 4000 years back. Hot air ballooning is also big here though a little pricey.

In general Cappadocia is much more laid back and conducive to relaxing and soaking the local culture in - even if the specific sights here are a bit unique to the area.

I managed to upload a few photos onto picassa, so you should be able to have a peek at some of the things I have been looking at during my first few days in Turkey.

see http://picasaweb.google.com/ran.guin/Turkey

Prelude to Turkey - cottage 2008

2008-09-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

Prior to Turkey I am spending a week in Toronto, on my annual visit to my Dad and Muskoka. The labour day weekend turned out to be one of the nicest in Ontario. (It seems we swapped weather systems over the summer with mostly rain in Ontario while Vancouver was enjoying the unprecedented dry heat wave for the better part of July & August)

Richard (my closest friend going back to grade 2) was able to join me at the cottage for the weekend and we managed to paddle over to the beach and spend a few hours hanging out in the hot sun.

On the way up, I picked up a new digital camera and got a chance to try it out for the first time.

(See Photos <- link)