Phaselis- a Fiat Adventure.

It seems ages ago since we went to Antalya, climbing has slowly moved forward, Steve got his 7c+ project and an amazing 7c, and I have onsighted confidently at 7a, but not pushed on much from that. Easter brought hoards of climbers, mainly from Germany and with them some bad weather. Loads of extra climbers and rainy days has meant the solar showers haven’t been that efficient, our last rest day was spent hiding from the rain and it was a relieve that Thursdays rest day dawned sunny and we picked up our little Fiat for a day of exploring.
Another Great Route

The first thing to overcome is driving in Turkey, up here in the mountains all road rules seem to be ignored, you drive on whatever side of the road suites you and maybe honk your horn if you are going around a particularly blind corner. On the main roads things are a bit easier, although impatient Turks still hover feet from your bumper and will squeeze past you regardless of whether there is room. But it’s at night the real adventure starts, trying to escape from Antalya on pure directional instinct in the dark is hairy. The three lane roads are a jungle of cars weaving in and out, all lines are ignored and you just have to find your space on the road. Our Fiats wing mirrors are nicely designed to let you see what’s further to your side. Probably a great invention on motorways, but useless at telling you if that Turkish motor bike is 2 inches from you bumper or a foot! But we survived.

Back to the real purpose of hiring the car, to see a bit of Turkey! Our Plan was to head south along the coast to the ancient city of Phaselis. This 7^th century BC city was founded by migrants from Rhodes and saw work from the Lycians, Greeks and Romans. It was recommended to us by an archaeologist staying at Jo-Si-To and nestles between three bays completed with ancient quays. In a way it was ideal for us, far more compact that Olympus, which allowed us to see everything in around 3 hours, long enough to appreciate everything with our attention span, which regardless of how amazing a place is expires pretty swiftly after 3 hours.

The Theatre

One of the joys of being in Turkey out of the peak tourist months is that we were virtually alone in Phaselis. We could stroll down the paved high street, wander around the agora’s and baths. Try and work out if there was a pattern in the mosaic, sit for 20 minutes in the theatre, which built to seat 1500 people had acoustics which allowed you to whisper to each other from one side to another, a distance of 50 metres. You could then get lost in the hilly acropolis and wander around the tombs which were being revealed by the eroding see in the necropolis. We explored every corner of it, and even had time for an ice cream.

The Necropolis with Old Harbour in the Background

With this done we drove into Antalya, ate cakes, kebabs, played darts and then headed back to camp. Nicely bringing to a close our time in Turkey, our last two days are being spent getting a few more routes done and looking forward to seeing family and friends again.