By Gaynor. Summer in Burgundy is hot. Very hot. Sitting at the base of a crag in the shade and it is still 30 degrees Celsius, no wonder I have run out of energy by lunch time! But this is to be our new reality, our new adventure. It is well known that travel can … Continue reading A New Adventure
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. 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 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 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: Gaynor After nearly 10 days of watching beautiful sunsets over the island of Telendos, just off the coast of Kalymnos, we decided it was time to investigate further. Part of the long distance Kalymnos Trail circles around the island in a 10km sector that takes the walker past some of the major climbing crags … Continue reading Surviving our Rest Day – the epic walk around Telendos
by: Jonathan It was beginning to seem like we were the only climbers in Britain who had never been to Kalymnos, so on this trip we are rectifying that omission. Despite knowing so many people who had been to Kalymnos we didn't know much about the place or what to expect. To most tourists, Kalymnos … Continue reading Kalymnos: First Impressions
It's hot and the sun is beating down on me. The cool breeze does not penetrate into this place. A sulphurous smell permeates the air, and the dry, acrid rock fractures under my feet. Each crack reveals a layer of bright yellow rock, sulphur, crystallised from the steaming gasses. Small droplets of water are visible … Continue reading The Nisyros Volcano
I am sitting writing this in our latest port of call, Kyparissi, on the east coast of the Peloponnese. My main thought right now is that today is the halfway point in our trip. But I don't really want to think about that! We have certainly settled into a rhythm on this trip, even though … Continue reading Exploring the Peloponnese
Ordinary Climbers 