By Jonathan. Travel allows you to do three things: see new places, experience new things and meet new people. Over the course of our recent journey we have found that the people we met had an incredibly strong impact on the enjoyment we got from the trip. Travel also provides the literal and metaphorical distance … Continue reading The Kindness of Strangers
By Gaynor. Firstly, I have to say, beeswax wraps have transformed my crag lunches. Secondly, I am not being paid in any way to endorse, review or promote them. But they really are great! We were given a multi-pack of beeswax wraps for Christmas, and for a couple of weeks they sat in the draw … Continue reading Bee Positive!
By Gaynor. I have visited and explored a lot of Roman ruins, not just on this trip, but whenever and wherever I get the opportunity. And I have to say that Ephesus (in western Turkey) is different to every other site I have visited. It is often mentioned alongside Pompeii as one of the most … Continue reading Exploring Ephesus
By Gaynor. Byzantine, Constantinople, Istanbul. One city, two continents, three names, and 15 million people. And what feels like an additional 15 million tourists! After arriving in the late afternoon and heading straight out onto the Galata bridge which crosses the Golden Horn, our first impressions of Istanbul were overwhelming. There was just so much … Continue reading Exploring Istanbul
By Jonathan. Our three month journey, which is taking us between the two capital cities of the Roman empire, is coming to a close. The general shape of our route was set by the start and end points, Rome and Istanbul, and the desire to see more of Sicily and climb on the island of … Continue reading Climbing near Izmir, Turkey
By Gaynor. I had never heard of Pamukkale until we started planning for this trip. In fact. I knew very little about what there was in Turkey to see and do other than the main headline of Istanbul. But flicking through the guidebook one day I saw an incredible image of turquoise water cascading down … Continue reading Exploring Pamukkale
By Gaynor. We arrived in Izmir on the western coast of Turkey after 4 hours driving through the rain soaked country. The entire west coast seemed to be under rain clouds on the day we traveled. We are staying in Izmir to go climbing at Kaynaklar, a climbing area just to the east of Izmir … Continue reading Climbing in Kaynaklar – The Drama of Day 1
By Jonathan. After Kalymnos, our next climbing stop was the Datca peninsula in Western Turkey. As the crow flies, Datca is less than 70 km from Kalymnos. The short distance belies Datca's inaccessibility with the journey by ferry and car taking two days. As a result we ended up spending a night on the island … Continue reading Climbing in Datca, Turkey
By Jonathan. Articles about sport climbing don't often describe failure. In part, this could be because the basic premise of sport climbing is that if you work a route for long enough you will eventually do it. A premise that obviously doesn't apply if what motivates you is on-sighting routes. In this mode, success and … Continue reading You Lose Some, You Win Some
For our last week on Kalymnos we were joined by our friends Penny and Mark. This was Penny's first climbing holiday, and we are delighted that she agreed to write a guest blog for us, giving her perspective on the week in Kalymnos. Penny and Mark climbing at Summertime It was with some trepidation that … Continue reading Climbing on Kalymnos: A Beginners Perspective
Ordinary Climbers 