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.

Some Climbers in Olympos

I was strolling along the one road in Olympos that leads straight to the coast when I stumbled upon these climbers at Horguc. I think they were from Spain, from what I could hear. I haven't climbed here, but sure would like to. I hadn't found a climbing partner at this point.

Then, just as I was going to leave Horguc, I met a few Turkish climbers, one was Bestame who I was told about by my friend Luri that works in the gear shop at Kadir's Tree Houses. So I introduced myself to him and his girlfriend Ahu, and they invited me to come to Cennet to climb after lunch. I went straight back to my bungalow and geared up, then headed down the road to the beach.

This was the second route I tried, very easy I think maybe they wanted to see my skills before taking me on anything harder, that's cool. I love to climb, so easy or hard I enjoy it, besides the easy routes are always fun, in a relaxing kind of way. Besto (for short) is here on the left.

This is Ahu tying in to lead this short route, there were three routes at the entrance to Cennet that are very easy, most everything else here is pretty much rediculous...

With proper footwork, balance, it is much much easier, a novice climber can make this difficult.

Small overhang section, no problem just get that foot over the edge solid, this is usually the scary move if the route is more difficult, I have fallen trying a similar move but on a harder grade. I was climbing new routes near one of the other sectors, the rock is very loose, but eventually I climbed them, had to take a few falls of course.

I don't remember this guys name, but he was pretty good, also with the group of people I met. This is a very hard route, but still one of the lower grades here at Cennet.

Four or five of the guys were spending there time here, climbing at Cennet involves alot of crimpy holds and relies entirely on good balance, footwork is key.

Besto leading the last of the easy routes, then Ahu will take it up, then I took a shot. Very easy, but fun just to be out nonetheless.

Having clipped in the final anchor, Besto gets lowered by Ahu safely to the ground.

This route on the left here was the easiest, I think maybe a 5.7 or something like that, the other two were MAYBE 5.8 or 5.8+ definitely not much higher. And of course the other peoples hanging out on the rocks watching the guys try one of the hard crimpy routes.