
A broken Subaru and a broken camping car, my last few week’s were a little bit problematic….it was time for me to escape europe for a certain time.
With my friend Victor we took a plane ticket last minute to Turkey. Orient, we are coming!
I already heard a lot of the good climbing in Antalya and it was the right moment to go there. I needed to feel far away from home and I also needed to life a little bit in another culture.
Turkey is juste amazing, there is nothing else to add…
We had the chance to sleep at Rido’s camp, a new campground full of lovely peoples with good vibes and with a big familiar atmosphere.
The rocks of Geyikbayiri were similiar to me like for example Seynes or St.Léger in France. Full of little tufas, pinches and pockets, a lot of dream lines.
First we arrived, we were super impressed by the huge tufa lines in the sector Sarkit and how cool it was even to climb a 6b! Quickly, Victor and me, we both clipped the chain of ‘Olympus’ a long 8b and local tourist, 8a, nice for the first day.
After that day, we were mostly climbing in the north sector, Trabenna. There we found our hard projects and I really appreciaded the construction of the wall. It’s like a little tunnel system and you are climbing mostly on little pillars and small caves.
After three tries, I was able to climb ‘Serpedon’, a super physical 8b+ and ‘losing my religion’, 8b. But beside that, we were climbing tonnes of new routes. Every day was a on-sight challenge and this is one of the most coolest thing for me in climbing. The lecture of a route, improving, fighting….on-sight climbing teaches you a lot and it gives you a huge sensibility for rock climbing.
All in all, Turkey is one of the most fantastic and easiest destination I have been to. You can reach every cliff without car, the people are super friendly, the food is sooo amazing, restdays in Antalya are great and for your sore muscles, you can go to a Hammam every day if you like!
10 days full of fun, discovering new cultures and pure climbing. What else do we need to be happy….;-) Thank’s a lot to Ridvan from the Rido’s camp and to Victor Estrangin, for this perfect trip!
Photos: Adam Okrasinski and Andreea Coman