April - June '08 |
Hot Rock: Climbing in Turkey |
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The Big Red Truck, still buzzing after our end to end climbing journey through Africa, will enter Turkey - final country of the trip - and make straight for the impressive Ala Dag mountain range. The Ala Dag are the start and finish point for our loop of all the top Turkish climbing locations, and we’ll send the truck off to nearby Adana airport to pick up some folk who will be joining us for this final circuit.
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The Ala Dag mountains were popular with British climbing expeditions in the 60's. The highest peak is Oemirkazic at 3,756m but the whole area contains narrow limestone gorges and sheer pinnacles, especially the Cimbar Valley. A 1997 British expedition into the mountains reported many peaks with virtually untouched North facing rock walls.
They established a 600m E3 5b (5.11) on Kocke Sarpe and many more potential
routes exist. This is real adventure climbing and as they said, "take
plenty of knifeblades, lost arrows and a considerable sense of humour".
There
is a Cicerone guidebook for the region called 'climbs in the Ala Dag', that
we can use to make the best out of our time here.
We’ve scheduled a few days at the end of the Turkey circuit in the Ala Dag as well. It’ll be a group decision as to how we spend these days – either here as planned, or in fact anywhere on our 8-week loop of this fantastic climbing destination.
We then travel though the strange geological formations of the Cappadocia region, long heralded as the 'eighth wonder of the world'. With whole villages and underground cities carved out of the tufa rock itself, this extraordinary area will be explored from a base at Goreme.
Surrounding Goreme are towers and pinnacles of rock sculptured into strange and elaborate shapes that should provide plenty of scope for new routes and bouldering amongst the troglodyte dwellings and rock hewn churches. It will be possible for us to visit the nearby villages of Urgup & Uchisar with more pronounced rock faces, tufa quarries and so-called fairy chimneys that dominate the landscape.
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Turkey gallery 1 |
Turkey gallery 2 |
Rest days can be spent simply wandering around this fantastic region or relaxing in local cafes smoking a shisha pipe with the old men or sampling the excellent Turkish cuisine. If you want to barter then you can pick up high quality Persian rugs and ceramics in shops reminiscent of 1001 arabian nights. Night times in Goreme often end up in the aptly named Flintstone bar carved out of solid rock, just up the road from the campsite.
From
here it's a short drive to the Peristrema Gorge, a deep canyon set on the
edge of Cappadocia. The lonely planet guidebook describes the gorge as "wildly
beautiful" and it certainly is impressive from a climbing perspective
being 16km long with 20m to 50m vertical cliffs along its entire length. 
Basing ourselves in the village of Ihlara we will spend a few days exploring the many natural lines and dozens of aretes and perfect corner cracks. The valley is dotted with 4th century churches hewn out of the rock itself and 10th century frescoes that we'll have to take care not to climb over.
Our
next destination lies near Antalya, on the southern coast, where we’ll
spend a couple of days relaxing at Olympos. Set in a rocky gorge here we’ll
find the 2nd century B.C. ruins of a Lycian city with temples dedicated to
Vulcan the fire god. The ruins are scattered throughout the valley towards
the excellent beach, and all just a few minutes walk from our campsite. We’ll
be staying in the tree houses at the legendary 'Kadirs', whose bar and volleyball
court has seen many a wild night.
The valley has crags along its length so there is certainly potential if you can drag yourself away from the beach bouldering. A two hour walk away is the Chimera, a series of natural flames that come out of the rock making a fantastic campfire at night.
Next it’s a fantastic drive north to Lake Egridir where we can stay
on the island for a night or two experiencing its fantastic seafood. Psyched
up, we’ll head to the remote Dedigol Daglari mountains on a basically
good dirt track from town. There mountains hold huge potential for climbing
and currently have very few routes. 
There are several kilometres of 50m crags ready for trad and sport, there is awesome bouldering in the high pastures and there are 600m big walls with alpine style mountains behind them. The access is relatively easy from our base camp in the tiny village where we were met with brilliant hospitality on our first visit – then, we put up a number of new routes including the 350m “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” at E2.
But by now the salty smell of Kalymnos is in the air and we’ll be keen to move on West, possibly via some roadside cragging potential that we spotted on the last trip to this, the best known climbing destination in the Aegean.
Having
spent a day or two enjoying the watersports and relaxation on offer in Bodrum,
we’ll head out to the magnificent sea cliffs of Greek Kalymnos. These
will need no introduction; enjoy the routes on offer here, bag a few new lines
if you can spot them, Kalymnos is the most developed climbing that we’ll
find anywhere for the next few months.
The trip never aims to be rushed and we’ve slated a week or so to tick Kalymnos. So after spending a week falling into the warm clear waters of the Aegean, we’ll boat back to the mainland and head up north to Istanbul, past the great palaces and mosques of ancient Constantinople, this mighty city sprawled across the Bosphurus, where the trade routes and armies of Europe and Asia have always converged. We come in search of parties not plunder, and a good time will be had by all as we celebrate the arrival of some and departure of others at this, the most northerly point of our entire journey and the official end point of the Hot Rock Trans Africa expedition.
Those who will be continuing with the Big Red Truck, either to finish our Turkey loop or to start the Silk Route, will spend a couple of days getting to know everybody and exploring the ancient capital of the civilised World. There is much to see and do in Istanbul whether visiting the blue mosque, Tokapi palace or haggling in the chaotic bazaars.
After
a couple of days getting acquainted it's time to head off cragging to some
of the climbing areas around Istanbul and Ankara. I am in touch with a few
Turkish climbers in a young and growing scene who are keen to show us the
crags and spend a few days climbing with us (sandbagging us up impossible
routes).
They have mentioned a canyon 50 km from Istanbul with 40m solid limestone
faces and routes climbed up to E3. There is apparently lots of potential above
this grade but nobody has developed them yet! 
We can camp at the crag and spend a few days putting up new routes and climbing
the existing lines before moving on to some of the other cliffs such as Ballykayalar
with climbs such as Jump Rotasy (E3) 5.11 b or Percussion (E1) 5.10, on the
bulging limestone walls set in a lush valley (a bit like Stoney Middleton
without the cafe). 
We will pass crumbling caravanesies and forts, a testament to the ancient Silk Route, that we are to follow for the coming months. We will stop at the town of Afyon in the foothills of Sandikli Dag, a maze of narrow streets and ottoman houses. The main aim however is establishing new routes on the 220m high outcrop of rock that dominates the town.
The black trachyte outcrop is topped by a ruined citadel from which the town derives its name "Black Opium Castle". Opium poppies grow in profusion in the surrounding countryside in which we shall make base camp at the bottom of the crags and explore the vast potential for new routes throughout the grades. It is in small provincial towns like this that it's best to visit the traditional hammam or Turkish baths for a soak and massage after a days climbing to relax those aching muscles.
Now
its time to complete the circle as we head back past Ankara to the Ala Dag
mountains. A few final days, perhaps working that last project or ticking
that final peak, and it’ll be time to say goodbye to those who joined
us just for the Turkey loop. Now we point Birt’s nose eastwards. From
here the expedition will wind along ancient trade routes into the wilds of
east Turkey. Described as "a land of adventure where each event of the
day seems to take on some fabled happening", it certainly has a wild
west feel to it.
We will pass through Sivas and the town of Tercen with its old caravanesie
(forts spaced a day’s walk apart along the silk road where camel caravans
would halt at night for protection from bandits). Along the way there is potential
for finding whole new climbing areas and if we do it's on with the hand brake
and out with the boots as we go and check them out.
In Erzerum with its rough frontier feel we will stock up on supplies before crossing the deserts of Iran. Before we leave Turkey however, we again have a choice, we can try Van Rock and get local police permission to climb Mt. Ararat. At 5, 137m, this ice capped volcano is said to be the final resting place of Noah's Ark. It is quite a challenge. Although the standard route is not technical, severe weather, rock slides and smugglers from Armenia can cause problems. The main problem however is simply getting permission to do the climb as it lies on the sensitive border with both Armenia and Iran.
The alternative is to head south to Lake Van, where the ancient Silk road (Ipek Yolu) passes through town. Our main reason for visiting Van is the Rock of Van 5km away from the town. Rising 100m with a sheer face to the South, this isolated outcrop is topped by a 2,700 year old Sarduri castle. We can look at these cliffs for routes before heading to Dogubayazit (commonly referred to as 'Dog biscuit') on the Iran border.
If we have the time we can visit the nearby hot springs or Ishak Pasha Palace. Staying at the pleasant Murat camping, for a last meal and night in Turkey. It's time to down a final cold beer before entering the deserts of Persia and the modern Islamic state of Iran.
Click here for dates, prices and all further details of Hot Rock's Trans Africa Expedition 07-08
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