On The Road

Antalya - Geyik Bayiri - Olympos

We've just arrived in Olympos, a backpacker haven about 80 km south of Antalya. Olympos seems to be a strange place--a collection of pensions offering "tree houses" (usually a wooden hut raised off the ground, possibly next to a tree). It's in a beautiful setting--a forrested valley, surrounded by mountains, with a beach and some ruins nearby. It would probably be a great place to hike if it weren't 97 degrees in the shade. As it is, the many backpackers here seem content to either go to the beach or lounge around on pillows in shaded huts (as we are doing at the moment). It's nice after a few days of climbing, but I'm not sure we're slothful enough to last very long.

As I mentioned, we did managed to get to the climbing area outside Antalya (Geyik Bayiri), and we spent the last four days there. We would have had a difficult time finding the climbing area if it weren't for some extremely helpful Turks.

We had dinner at a small restaurant around the corner from our pension in Antalya. We were checking out the next morning, but still weren't sure exactly where to catch the bus. All we had was the name of a place, "Eski Hal." At the end of our dinner, we asked our waiter, Ihan, if he knew where it was. That sparked 15 minutes of discussion, in Turkish, between the people at the restaurant, about either where it was, or the best way for us to get there. Rough maps were drawn and redrawn, but it seemed they couldn't come to an agreement. Finally, Ihan said that if we came to the restaurant in the morning, the owner would drive us there. We had also asked where the nearest supermarket was, as we had to stock up on food and water, and after a brief attempt at explaining where it was in his limited English, he said he'd walk us there. You've got to love Turkish hospitality.

The next morning we arrived at the restaurant, our normally heavy packs considerably heavier with three days of food and water. We had no idea what to expect from the climbing area--if there would be supplies available, or even where we would be sleeping (the website we found only said "camping is possible"). As promised, the owner of the restaurant drove us to Eski Hal and showed us where to wait for the bus. Even if we had managed to find our way to this part of town, there's no way we would have found the bus stop without his help.

We got on the bus assuming that we would just go to the village of Geyik Bayiri and find our way to the climbing area from there; but the driver stopped on the road a few kilometers short of the village and indicated that we should get off. We were a bit confused as to where we were supposed to go, but we then realized that we were right in front of a sign that said "Climbers Camping and Cafe." Across the road from the camping was a massive limestone wall. We were in the right place.

We went into the campground, noting a bathroom and shower, as well as several cabins. We were psyched about such luxurious accomodations. No one was there. It was hot and we didn't have the energy to go climb or even explore the area, so we ended up waiting the entire afternoon, hoping someone would show up. At six, we decided to venture out and walk up the road towards the village. About 200 meters up, we were pleasantly surprised to see a restaurant, with shady outdoor tables. A bit further up the road was a natural spring surrounded by people picnicing and selling fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, and gozleme, a kind of Turkish crepe. We were overjoyed as this meant that not only could we stay longer than the two full days for which we had planned, but that we wouldn't be eating every meal out of a can.

It turned out that the restaurant was one of the best we'd been to on this trip. Their specialty--and only dish on some nights--was fresh trout. When you ordered, the cook would grab a net and scoop the fish right out of one of the artificial ponds--fed by water from the spring--stocked with fish. We liked it so much we ate there three out of four nights (although truth be told, there wasn't anything else around).

The climbing was good, although most routes were beyond our ability. Still, there was plenty for us to do. We got up at 5:30 each morning to avoid climbing in the sun. After we'd lost our shade, we'd escape to a large cave, where we'd eat lunch and nap for a couple hours. It made for an enjoyable few days.

The owners of the campground came back on our second night. They were hardcore climbers--they had established most of the routes in the area, as well as in other parts of Turkey. In fact, they had just come back from ten days of climbing and route-making in the Ala Daglar mountains, where we had just been. Too bad we didn't run into them there; we'd have had more luck finding climbing.

We left after four days, partly because we needed a changed of scenery, but also because Jacqueline wore a hole in one climbing shoe.

That's all for now. We'll write again in a few days, probably after we leave Olympos.

Cheers,

-b & j

Posted by brad at June 18, 2003 01:52 AM