La Source, a place of change.: Turkish Delight

It's a 6b although it looks like 8b!

Turkish Delight

Following a great summer working and climbing I decided to take some time off and go climbing!. Recent climbing grape vine noise suggested that Antalya in Turkey was the latest hot rock winter venue. So along with John Falkiner (Mountain Guide) and cousin, we hopped on a Swiss Air holiday flight and landed in the German version of the British "Costa's" for two weeks of sleeping, cranking and eating. The new 2009 guide for the area which had been posted through the door step 2 weeks before departure and with 500 climbs to choose from we landed with some anticipation for the weeks ahead.

The view from the house

John had organised we stay at The Rasayana Guest-house a small veggie eco farm just 1km from the main cliff in the village of Geyikbayiri, a great choice as it turned out. The first impressions are of a countryside barely surviving but you soon realise this is a solid agricultural area with depth and history, it just looks ramshackle.

John with our favourite restauranteur

The climbing is spread over 4 distinct cliffs with numerous sectors and caves. It truly is an extraordinary place to climb although still in mid October it was a touch to hot in the sun to climb. With 100 5,s -6as it looks like a great place for the beginner but be warned its all very steep, so rock fitness is a must for this place, with some of the routes running to 40m in length and even some of the 6a's over hanging as much a 4-5m , phew!

Fresh squeezed pomegranate

We climbed in the morning and normally took a break in the middle of the day to eat some fresh trout prepared in the cliff side local cafe, this is washed down with Turkish, coffee and sweet black tea. Then when the rock cooled down at 3-4 we would climb until the sunset or our arms or skin gave out. The rock is fab, Tufa's, caves, orange limestone conglomerate overhanging wals and grey/white vertical finger fests. It is a world class area to climb in with a very chilled vibe. We spent some time sussing out the place to see if we could run a La Source rock camp and the answer is a solid yes, so watch out for dates and details in the coming months. If you fancy it get training and fit. It is suitable for most people but i would recommend that you should be leading 5's solidly and be able to top rope steep 6a's on the indoor wall if you are going to get the most out of an Antalya course.

One advantage of the late October early November dates would be that the monster hornets which seem to nest in some of the holds will have retired for the winter, and climbing in the sun will be not so blistering.

A typical lower off! Tea time again

Over the two weeks we climbed about 60 routes up to 7a+ , drank 90 cups of tea each, eat 10 trout each ( they are locally farmed), munched though 14 pomegranates, 200 olives, got buzzed on 40 Turkish coffees, saw thousands of goats, smoked a couple of Hookah water pipes flavoured with melon and espresso tobacco! and met some great people who will remain friends for a long time. This is a journey of flavours, steep rock, sun, lighting, orange rock and shooting stars.