Tuesday 24 January 2012

Turkish Delight

The A Team!


Geeza!
Shisha innit
Antalya rest day
Psyched!

Snow...
Sunday market
Lunch!
Real Lunch
Serefe
We got wet!
All goood
First day syke!
Crags from campsite
Was up!!!!!



We have just returned from an amazing two week trip climbing at Geyik Bayiri, in the Antalya region of Turkey. This was our first time visiting the country and what a very special place it is! We had an absolute blast of a trip! None of this would have happened without our main man Andre ‘The Hammer’ Hedger, who was the driving force of the trip and the one who gave us the inspiration to head that way and check it out.

So, the start of the trip involved a quick dash down to London town where we all met up and stayed the night at Chez Andre’s. The next morning involved an early start, with a taxi ride straight to Gatwick, then followed the usual airport shenanigans and then boom, we were on our way heading east. Destination=Antalya !! After a rather long 4 hour flight (we didn’t care, we were going to Turkey baby!!) we arrived in the city of Antalya. It was pretty late on, but an organised taxi was waiting for us outside to take us the last bit. We arrived at our final destination of the Climber’s Garden in the dead of night, quickly putting up our tents and then hitting the sack!
The next morning we awoke to an amazing view of where we were going to be based for the next two weeks. There was rock everywhere we looked!! And best of all, the main and best sector (Sarkit) was less than five minutes from our tent! It really was a climber’s paradise. We then met up with Dan G, a great guy and friend of Andre’s who had already been out there for over a month and knew the place pretty well. He then joined the team and off we went ROCK CLIMBINGgggg!!
The first few days we took it pretty steady, ticking off some of the classic’s and then gradually stepping it up a gear to send some amazing routes! Weather wise, it was pretty chilly for most of the time and we did have four days of torrential rain which were a right off and dampened our moods slightly. Not to mention soaking everything in our tent!
Apart from that, all in all it was an amazing trip. One of the highlights was spending two of our rest days getting more of a cultural experience of real Turkey! This included a stole round the local Sunday market, a rub down at the Turkish Baths, smoking strawberry Shisha and consuming large amounts of kebabs, Turkish delights and Bazlama’s.

Here were some of our favourites sends of the trip: Ja Ja City 7a+, Back on the funky planet 7b+, Sarkit Souls 8a, Colonist 8a+, Okrimono 7c+,Geyikbayiri games 7b+, Skyline 7c, Plastik fantastic 8a, Gizmo 7c, Turkish Airways 8a+, Milestone 8a, Trio de ligoville 8a, Fun in the sun 7c+, Black moon 7b+, Family affair 8a+, Serpedon 8b+, Ikarus 8a+, Freedom is a battle 8a+, Richfest 8a, Chain erection 8a, Parrelle universe 7c+, River dance 7b+, Neptunalia 8a+

A BIG UP most go out to Andre, Dan, Ali and Ethan P for making the trip propa good gezza!!
Serefe homies!!!



Also a MASSIVE thank you to Peak Ales who made the trip happen.

Here's a sweet litl video Andre made from our trip!!

















Tuffa central




Sick 7c+ at Alabalik





Toe jam rest!




Spot me?





Its all about the long stuff!