Turkish Acclimatisation

It’s taken a few days to get in to the groove of Turkish life and within that small amount of time, it feels like we’ve had a whole expedition’s worth of experiences. Having arrived somewhat jet lagged and fatigued, at our new home in Datca in the south west of Turkey, we set out the next morning for a swim in the sea. The beach is only a few hundred metres away from the house down an old track that is lined with wild flowers and bamboo.

Despite the bright start to the day, things clouded over rapidly while we were swimming. The water is an okay temperature, but certainly not ‘warm’. Interestingly, it is not as warm as the (nearby) sea was in Greece, where we spent Christmas and New Year.

From the beach, we walked along the palm tree lined promenade to the main town of Datca, where we were delighted to find that the little coffee shop that we used to frequent most days on our previous visit, was still up and running. The first drops of rain were beginning to fall as we arrived, so we chose to cosy up in the back of the shop to warm up while the storm passed.

But rather than just passing overhead, the rain got more and more intense, and in the end we were forced to make a run for it back to the pad, past waterlogged streets, deep puddles and found a flowing stream outside the house, where there had previously been just a dry drainage ditch just a few hours earlier.

We peeled out of soaked clothes and into a warm shower, happy to be confined to the house for the remainder of the afternoon. By evening though, the blue skies had returned.

The following day, there was no trace of the downpour. Even the puddles had vanished as we walked down to the coast for a dip before breakfast (well, more like an early lunch than breakfast to be honest).

Feeling rested, fed and having had an invigorating swim, we drove the few miles to the edge of town where the bulk of the climbing is located. There is just so much to see on the road! Generally, the Turks drive quite slowly, but the rules of the road seem to be more like guidelines. As well as seeing a car go around a round about the wrong way, we also got overtaken by the guy above on his motorbike. One child hung on behind him, while another, who could only have been about three years old, (you can’t see in the photo above) was clinging onto his front, shielding his eyes from the dusty road!

That afternoon we climbed at a cliff called Balik as the routes are all quite short and we’d not been there before. The climbing was okay, the views fantastic, but the approach involved passing what seemed to be an old rubbish dump. Everything had rotted away expect for the plastic bottles and glass as nature took back it’s hold…