Climbing the Olympos Coast

Now, for all of you who don't know what exactly I like, or should I say LOVE to do in my spare time. Here it is, my rock climbing adventures in Turkey. I have to say, this country is blessed with lots and lots of amazing rock formations, alot of it is unknown and unclimbed. I plan on making some first ascents here in Turkey. Yes rock climbing is dangerous, but still not as dangerous as driving a car around here, people are crazy...

We stayed at the fantastic 'hippie' bungalows, Kadir's Tree Houses in Olympos, near Antalya, Turkey. Lot's of dreads and cool Turkish hippie pants, Lily wouldn't let me buy a pair, she said I looked like a fool... Oh well, next time, maybe after she leaves I will buy them, they will be my bouldering pants.

All of the people here were extremely helpful and most important, the friendliest I have encountered, considering they are complete strangers. There weren't alot of climbers there while we were, but the guides and instructors were very excited to see two Americans coming all this way to their little spot on the coast. It is very new, been developed since 2001, as a rock climbing destination. Our specific bungalow was called the Chilli Bin, all of the rooms have there own name, along with a number of course. Wait till you see the view of our backyard. Well, not really a view, but what is IN our backyard.

Here is me carrying EVERYTHING,


And this is of course, guess who, Lily carrying nothing but her camera and a towel I think...

The is the coolest place I have ever stayed at, check out the solar panels on the roof, it's what they use to heat the hot water, pretty cool and relatively inexpensive they are all over Turkey. The mountains in the backround surrounding us aren't bad either, huh?

Now on to the real reason we came here, the rock climbing...

Lily on the left here, just having climbed her first ever outdoor route, and it was a 5.7, not bad for a first timer, a little frightened but she made it. Me on the right leading a 5.9 I believe, I will not die if I were to fall, note the carabiners attached the rope which are attached to bolted anchors in the rock face.

Not a bad place to spend your evenings after a long hard day of climbing, there are cute little huts with cushions it's so comfortable to lay around in, and the temperature out here couldn't be better.

I love all the old carriage wheels they have nail/strapped to EVERYTHING they can.

Lily, getting ready for her next big climb, and yes another 5.7 she is going to tear it up!!!

This is me at the top of the 5.7 I lead so Lily could take a whack at it! This route is of the 'slab' type, which means the rock face is positive and not slanting out, pretty much a very very steep hill, then there is vertical, after that is inverted then when you completely go upside down it's either a cave or just a roof on part of the route.

Here I am having just climbed a short (23m) 5.10a route, this was my previous best in the US. For those that may find this of interest, I onsighted my first ever 5.10d, hopefully I will break into my first 5.11a. For those of you that don't know how the grading system works, here it is:

5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9 all don't have letter grades with them, 5.5-5.7 is more for beginners there is also lower down to 5.0. 5.8 & 5.9 is a bit more advanced, but once you have climbed for a year it's pretty easy.

Then you get into the 5.10 thru to 5.15a (being the highest rated climb known today, set by Chris Sharma of America) These grades have letters to further break them down, 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c & 5.10d etc. a jump between letter grades is equivalent to jump between the lower numbers below 5.10. So I am climbing 4 grades above what I thought was my best, pretty cool huh...

This is what goes down right on the beach, a little bouldering to make those muscles pump and finish off the day of climbing. I tried to get Lily bouldering, unsuccessful, maybe next time.

Here is the Olympos Beach!!! The mountains are very cool, there is no sand, just pebbles, but the Mediterranean Sea is quite warm, and very clear. Lots of yachts chilling in the bay.

It's a long road back to the bungalows... and it is beginning to rain.

Lily: "oooooo, look a tortoise!!!
me: "that is so not a tortuise, what about it anyway????
Lily: "It's soooooo cuuuute!!!! I want a pic of it!
me: "no way, it's a dirty thing, stay away, grooossssss!!!"
Lily: "pleeeeaasssseee, it's cuuuuuuuute, pleeeaaaaaaaaae!!"
me: "FINE! but don't touch it."

Man's best friend, this guy followed me for awhile... Lily found it to be absolutely adorable. The cat liked her the dog like me, I guess we know what kind of people we are...

This is Lily's cat friend, chilled with her during lunch, I had a burger!!!

This is also the same spot I was bouldering in, very cool.

There is much more unexplored territory for me... Look forward to more, much more updates of me climbing in Turkey.

"It's Istanbul, not Constantinople...

I get to this very very late, I know. I will try my very best to get posts updated frequently, Tali don't hate me!!!

So last weekend, I visited Istanbul with Lily, also from New York City. We stayed at the Kalyon Hotel on the beach of the Sea of Marmara I believe. It was a very good location, being near all the historical sites and all.

This is a photo of the old wall that at one time surrounded the Old City. It is all in ruins, and there are only remnants of what it once was.

One of the great spaces in the World. Except for the scaffolding that was right in the MIDDLE of the space all the way up to the top of the dome, it was quite an awesome space to be in, Aya Sofia.

A view from one of the terraces in Topkapi Palace.

I don't remember the exact number of streets, but I would say 30-50 that make up the Grand Bazaar. It's the largest indoor market place in the world.. I believe. There were lots of man purses and gold, that's pretty much it. It was fun to walk through though.

There are lots of these little alley ways around Istanbul, and always seem to be these cute little places to have lunch, se we made a pit stop here before we had to be back at the hotel to check out then find a taxi to get to the airport. Until next time...

In case you didn't get it from the posting title, this post is for you Tali! u like?

what's next...

I can't say I have had a worse start to a weekend, well at least I wasn't planning on going for a motorcycle ride...

Thursday afternoon, Osman and I drove out to the quarry and everything was going as it usually would go. The landscape was beautiful, as it usually was, beautiful vegitation, it even increases as we get closer to the quarry. The vast land that is clearly used for agriculture, the cows and sheep are always fun. They cross the road and boy are those animals dumb... They look funny too, since they can't really turn their heads so well, they rotate their eyes back at you from the side, its very creepy and comical at the same time.

I would say we were about half way there, when all of a sudden there was a traffic buildup, which was in no way ordinary. As we crept along, we starting realizing there was an accident up ahead. No big deal, considering the first day I arrived I saw a car that had driven off the road, through the barrier railing and down into a valley, no one was hurt of course. This time was different...

As we approached the scene of the accident, the first sight was a body on the ground with a white cloth over it, next was what was once a motorbike which looked like it had been put into one of those car crushing machines at a scrap yard. After that most unpleasant sight, we then saw what it had collided with, it was a small car, no bigger than a Honda Civic. This car looked like it hit a tree, and the tree fell over into the windshield... The bumper, hood, fender windshield and roof were crashed in...

That is a lesson in just how important it is that one wears a helment ALWAYS! You may walk away to live another day...

Riding to Egirdir, 125km...

So you don't get bored looking at the rest of the trip... This was our final destination. The Town of Egirdir on Lake Egirdir.

Often times, it seemed like the road would never end... I felt like quitting three times, but I didn't and it turned out to not be so bad, although I was exhausted like you couldn't believe.

We passed lots of towns along the way, so it wasn't entirely empty, although I really enjoy the vast empty countryside much more, with the mountains grasses, trees and random stray goats!

Yes, hills, there were three that would substantial. The first one came up after about 15km into the ride, maybe less, it wasn't so bad, although that was with full energy, gained elevation of about 250m. The second hill was easier than the first, a bit more gradual, not as much gain. The third, however, was a real kicker. We gained about 350m in elevation and from what I can tell it was alot shorter distance, or could have been the same 4km like the first one, there was one last pitch that we rested for a couple of minutes, then continued, but no worries, we made it and the blazing fast descent was worth all the struggling effort.

Now, I saw this lake as we were on our way down from the high mountain pass, and I was like 'Oh, we are almost there!' Then as we passed a road sign, I came to realize that we were merely half way, the town was 65km further... Oh my...

This was the most satisfying sight... It meant we were STOPPING!!! It actually gave me some extra energy to see the town off in the distance, so we pushed further and made our way to our desitination. Finally!

There is a fantastic beach on the lake that we of course had to go take full advantage of while we waited for our lunch. The water was cold, but let me tell you, it was ALOT warmer than the pool water back at the hotel. It was so refreshing to take a dip after being in the sun for 6hrs straight, yes 6hrs.




That little shed on the left was where we had lunch, a bit late it was about 2pm by then, very good food as always here in Turkey. Until the next ride, that is it for now. Oh and take a look at the best seat on the van back! About a two hour drive back to Afyon, so multiply by three and thats how long it takes to travel by bicycle, that is quite impressive I would say.