Olimpos Climbing Festival Oct.24-28, and sucuk!

kahvalti anyone?

Our bungalow hostess in the backround and her grandson waiting for a delicious orange from Bestami

Look like he got ahold of a piece of orange finally! Ahu on the left here, I think he learned the pinky finger trick from me!

Bestami did most of the hard climbing.... pretty much all the time. That just gave Ahu and I a chance to work some fun routes, mostly VI - VII+

Beautiful rocks.

Everywhere.

Bestami, "Ahh, sucuks...!"

Bestami, Ahu and I decided to find a secluded spot off the trails where no one, I mean no one, could even smell the sucuks! :)

Nearby wall filled with VIII and up routes.

Our wall a little bit of cool down before the beach

Another day of climbing, another lunch with... yum... sucuks! Oh, and a Robert Deniro look-a-like!

After lunch we decided to go for a dip in the Mediterranean, Ahu said "Cok guzel" I said "Cok soguk"

It just goes to prove that you don't have to ever worry about not finding a Canadian nearby, very good climbers they were!

Bestami sending something hard here, maybe VIII or VIII+, I can't recall.

On belay, off belay... ahhhhhhhhhhh. No worries Ahu has it under control.

Clip it Besto!

And of course I had to point out each and every SCARY bolt I found in Turkey. Here is a nice one bolted horizontally, sure to unthread the nut if you took a hard fall on this one! Yikes!!! And wow were there alot of bent hangers, I don't trust this Kong company... Fixe all the way!

Hiking Afyon's mountains, Trip 1

At 5am, no one is awake, I mean no one... Even the hotel shuts down. And why wouldn't they, what kind of crazies would be up at this time, and taking photos of the dark empty lobby! :)

A typical sunrise over the rolling mountains in Afyon, but so beautiful, every time...

In contemplation, or just bored from waiting for all the slow guys!

We're always there to help a friend in need, or in the case to help a friend UP! Nice one Osman. There are more, don't you worry, and they will reappear always!

Always ahead of the game, but it's okay, he was the only one still enough to get great shots of. This is nearing the summit.

Besides all the stopping for photos of fungus, we are getting there!

The view looking down from my resting spot, still morning, still just as beautiful.

Hmm, a little tired are we... I think Cengiz is pulling snacks out. :)

Well he was always still, thats not to say his snack wasn't on the move, very dynamic and the endless backround was fantastic.

Shall we head back down?

Cool tree I thought. Near the summit all alone, except for the random grasses and shrubs.

This is how I roll, don't hate!

Location: Finike, Turkiye (about 30-45 min. from Olimpos)

I left Olimpos from my full week of sport climbing, and arrived in Finike in the evening and settled down at the hotel, check out my view. I had dinner with Ismailbey and his wife and two of their friends and of course Ercan (driver) and Yooz.

The next morning we woke up at about 9am and headed out to the boat for our 10am departure. Yooz here untying us from the dock, Ercan is in the Captain's chair starting up the engines, that's right plural... Ismailbey has TWO engines (Volvo Penta)

Goodbye Finike, that's the welcome sign to all the boat goers. It's a very nice little marina.

Myself and Captain Ercan at the wheel.

Once we got about a half an hour out, we got near some islands that had ruins spread out all over the place. This was the only thing that was somewhat complete and freestanding.

Here you can somewhat get a glimpse of the underwater ruins. directly under us there is an ancient city that is part of the one you see on the islands. I wish I could snorkel here but it's not allowed... for good reason I am sure, lots of people here in the water would surely tear it up.

Lots of tour boats cruise by in these waters showing visitors the great ruins of the coast, you can even see an underwater wall. This is what my underwater camera is for, but no I cannot enter... darn...

Chillin' on the deck snapping as many shots as I can...

As we pulled away from the ruins we set out to another group of islands where we would stop for lunch and a swim.

As part of the ancient there is this castle sitting on top of one higher island, still intact and part of a small community that looks to be mostly for accomodating tourists.

Near the sea edge close to the castle wwere these ruins. There is too many to show, but I did my best in selecting the best.

Some even seem to become places where boats dock and people congregate... It's too bad, these 'people' are the ones ruining the remains.

Tiny tiny island of rock, with of course the Turkish flag at its peak. I wonder who discovered this???

Deck hand, or first mate I don't know ship terminology, but Yooz here is dropping the anchor so we can have our lunch.

After lunch Ismailbey and I took a dip. I came fully decked out in my snorkel gear, even the fins. I went for a swim around some of the islands and out deep and tried to swim down maybe 12ft, but it wasn't clear enough.

CRAMP!!!! just kidding... It's time to remove the fins and get out of the water. :(

I can't say I have ever been on a boat like this, I know it's normal but not to me. It had a fresh water hose to rinse yourself off, cool. Didn't have to go back all that way feeling the salt all over you. I even got to rinse off my gear and my camera. I really wanted to take out the power boat, the small one, but we couldn't apparently there was something wrong with the lift... So I didn't get to do any deep water soloing. Oh well, maybe next time, if there is one...

I spotted a cave as we headed back to Finike. I saw alot of these, one on the Olimpos coast I snorkeled into, very cool.

Captain Ercan looking cool here sporting his shades and the polo. He was great, very patient man, he is also Ismailbey's sofur and mine occasionally.

This is where Ercan would be driving if the weather turned sour, but luckily for us it was great, very sunny and a nice cool breeze the entire day.

The 'Amadi,' * Ismailbey's personal boat.

Ismailbey himself relaxing in the lower rear of the boat as we head back to Finike. Why would you drive your own boat when you got Ercan!

I spotted this small cliff that I was dying to swim out to and try some deep water soloing, but couldn't happen... oh well, at least I know where it is.

My turn to drive... HEY no I want to sit here... Ercan kicked me out, only let me sit here for a photo.

Marina yachts.

On the drive back to Afyon, Ismailbey pointed out some of these cool structures carved into the rock, all in the village of Finike.

Ismailbey and his wife wanted to stop by this market to pick up some fresh local produce.

I think it was very popular with the locals, you can even have some chai or roasted corn.