Leaving Kalymnos

We didn't really want to leave Kalymnos. But the weather was getting too warm for climbing, meaning earlier and earlier starts each morning to get onto the rock, and the cooler temperatures - not to mention unexplored peaks, valleys and routes! - in the Alps and Dolomites are calling. So, to say goodbye, we hired a scooter for the day and on two wheels, we discovered some more perfect beaches, visited a castle and checked out our favourite spots once again.

Perhaps we'll be back ...

Stuck on Kalymnos!

Well, the ferry we were meant to catch off Kalymnos left more than two weeks ago. We weren't on it.

What on earth were we thinking, that just under three weeks would be enough on Kalymnos?! Were we crazy?! Three weeks isn't enough - hey, several months might only just cut it. Time really has flown here; despite the fact we've been here now for over a month, there still seems to be so much to see and do (but interestingly enough, not much to blog about ... whoops!)

Evening on the balcony.

We've enjoyed a great week with family, who came all the way over here to include us in the celebrations of a very special birthday. We've done so many amazing climbs we've had to start marking our guidebook so that we can remember them all. We've hung out on a variety of beaches, swimming and lounging in the sun, and noticing the water getting progressively warmer (and the sun progressively stronger!). We have practically been adopted by our landlady, know the supermarket back-to-front and sussed out where to buy the best bread (our local minimarket! strange but true) and the best fresh meat (Pothia's largest butcher makes amazing sausages), but we're still not sick of eating the local waxed fetta cheese. Oh, and did we mention the fresh fish ...!?!

So ... we changed our tickets to a later date. All good things must come to an end but thankfully, that end is not yet nigh.

Wild Country

Kalymnos isn't famous for its long multipitch routes, but it does have some!

Nobu, a friend we'd made in Turkey who we met up with again on Kalymnos, had been recommended "Wild Country" and asked us if we'd be interested in climbing it with him. It sounded great: a long but easy multipitch route on Telendos, the small island across from Kalymnos. The route goes something like this: catch the ferry across, walk around the island to the climb, climb up and hike over the top and back down again. All pitches and belays, of course, are meticulously equiped. 

Heading around to the back of the island to find the climb ...

... the start of the route was well-marked - this is Kalymnos, after all!

We were behind a couple of parties, but they were moving fast - we just took our time and enjoyed the view! We each lead a couple of the pitches, swapping the ropes around at belays. Nobu had never climbed with two ropes before, this being one of his first multipitch climbs and the first with three people, but he handled it perfectly.

Nobu enjoying the view, a few pitches up - despite a bit of wind, we had great weather for it.

... then Mark lead one: token shoe shot.

Jen lead the first two pitches ...

Heading out of the belay cave and up!

Jen on belay, nearing the top.

The top! Looking back to Kalymnos.

Once we'd topped out, we sat and enjoyed the view some more over lunch,, washed down with the bottle of red wine that Nobu had brought along - delicious! Then headed over the hill and down the ridge, past the ruined monastery, and back to the ferry terminal.

All that's left of the old church.

Kalymnos!

We've arrived on Kalymnos, settled in and enjoyed two amazing days of climbing.

New home.

A crag and its goats.

The view. Ahhh.

We don't want to leave. Ever.

Kos (and a long overdue family catch-up)

View from the balcony at dusk ... time for a rose?

Ah the beach ... we swam out to the island, and clambered up the rocks for an amazing view.

Easter Sunday lunch - yep, that's a whole lamb. The other one is slow-cooking in the wood oven ...

Sisters.

Steph flew in from Oxford to meet us on Kos, and we spent six lovely days over Easter eating, drinking and chatting. We also swam, sunbaked (supervised by our dermatologist, of course) and admired the goats and chapels and the wild, rugged scenery. Perfect.

Bafa Golu

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a large, walled city on the edge of a natural harbour. It was close to the trade routes of the Aegean sea, yet well protected by both its location and more than 5km of stone walls, with numerous towers. It was called Herakleia, or sometimes, Latmos.

Once a tomb, now a pond.

One of many towers on the walls.

After some time, the Romans took over but they didn't really favour it like other cities and so it started to decline. And the landscape changed, blocking off the entrance to the sea and forming the large lake that exists today - consequently the city diminished entirely. Oh, and the Byzantines came along later and added a castle on the peninsula, but that too was eventually abandoned.

Another of many towers!

Posers.

So, there is no longer a city on the edge of Bafa Lake; just a small, sleepy rural town filled with ladies selling handmade lace and delicious citrus fruit. Cows wear coloured beads around their horns and donkeys are a common form of transportation. All over the rocky hillsides the flowers were in bloom and the bees busy making honey from their nectar. 

We parked up out of the way, but nevertheless had more than a few locals pop their head in the door to try to talk to us in Turkish (lots of smiling, hand waving and laughter). Each morning went to nearby cafe for tea – and on the last day, having got talking to the owner about the van and our trip, the tea was his gift to us. It really is a beautiful place.

And on top of this, the stone walls, towers, amphitheatre, bath-houses and temples remain as testimony to the great city that once stood here – perfect for wandering around and scrambling through, enjoying the countryside. Indeed, the walls are so immense and the towers so numerous, we couldn't help but wonder – was it all for defence, or just for show? How many soldiers would be needed to guard this city, and who was attacking it?

Apparently, too, the stones that were left over after these city structures had been built (and there are many!) are great for bouldering – a type of climbing where you never really leave the ground, so have no need for harness or rope, but instead make a short series of extremely hard moves around or to gain the top of the boulder. 

Pebble Wrestling

Herakleia is the new bouldering destination, written up in climbing magazines as the place to go. We found some boulders worth playing on for a bit … but found many others where holds crumbled away or the ground was too uneven to fall on safely. Well, we have to admit that we didn't really try too hard as we're not really boulderers anyway!

View from the van at sunset ... time for a swim!

Ephesus

More ruins? Yep!

By now Mark and I were feeling like we'd seen more than our fair share of brilliant antiquities in Turkey – tombs, castles, old city walls, amphitheatres, bath-houses and more, from the Lycians and the earliest Hellenistic cultures to the Romans, and later the Byzantines and even the Crusaders! Frescoes on hidden churches and underground cities. Polygonal walls. Hilltop fortresses. Tombs carved into the cliffs and scattered across the countryside. Even cities underwater! They were everywhere!

Yet we hadn't even been to Ephesus, the “best preserved classic city in the eastern Mediterranean”. After all we'd already seen, it had better be worth the hype, we thought.

In ancient times, this was an important harbour and pilgrimage site for Artemis, whose temple was just around the corner, but the silt from the rivers clogged the harbour and the sea retreated, cutting off the city from commerce. Over time much of it was buried beneath the fields, and during the last forty years more and more of it has been slowly dug out and propped upright again.

The Library, upright once more.

We started by heading to the top of the amphitheatre (the very same that Paul the Apostle famously denounced idol worship; also used for camel wrestling tournaments (!) until a few years ago), for a view of the site, and then down along the marble streets, past the temples, agora, fountains and extremely impressive library. 

We stopped in to check out the famous men's loos in time to hear a tourist guide tell his captivated audience that the Romans were more sanitary than we are, as they used communal sponges on a stick rather than toilet paper, but were quite amused when someone asked where the ladies “went” - and apparently, in ancient times, the ladies “didn't”. Likewise, it was frequently repeated that the grand private house on the corner was a brothel … Which it probably was, of course, as at one stage in its history, it might have been owned by a woman – and that's a sure sign it was a den of sin.

Our trusty LP does say that the site can get crowded with people, but this isn't all a bad thing – if you want to experience what a Roman city was really like, hordes of people moving in different directions and pushing here and there may certainly help.

With the arrival of a few drops of rain, we retreated to the terrace houses – the amazingly well preserved houses for the wealthy – to admire their frescoes and mosaics under cover. Definitely worth the extra entrance fee!