Cukurbagli's Blog   My life in Turkey

What is it about some people? They just have to go and see what’s over the next hill or climb to the top of a mountain just to see what there is to see from up there. Well it appears that I’m no different. My mate Bob and I had a couple of “elevating” trips recently, the first one to the top of the island of Meis (yes I was there YET again) and another to a mountain in the Taurus range not very far from Çukurbağ.

Ten days ago it looked as though we were going to lose the the easy route to Europe because the ferries that sail between the Greek island of Meis (Kastellorizo) and Kaş were going to be forbidden to ply their trade so some of us decided to be on the last boat out of Kaş. The attractions of Meis are different for different people of course, my particular wishes this time were threefold, to get a bottle of duty free brandy for Christmas, to have another plateful of Angelos’ big prawns in garlic sauce and to climb the steps to the top of the island. You can see the white of the steps going up to the top in this photo.

The two boats that go to Meis were both pretty full and it seemed to take an age waiting to be processed through the Greek immigration office but eventually we were free to roam the island. First was a bit of breakfast and a coffee then Bob and I set off up the steps. The first snag is climbing out of the town to get to the stairway and we were both breathing deeply before we set foot on step number one.

There are four hundred and one steps and for the first half of the climb there are short sloping sections between sets of three or four steps and you are eased gently into thinking it will be easy but that soon changes, breathing becomes more laboured but this is mitigated by looking back to the town to seen everything slowly receding as you gain height.

And then you get to the top

My breathing had gone back to normal but my heart was still pounding.

Once at the top we went and had a look over at St Georges church and then started back down.

The walk back down left my thigh muscles quivering and I was glad to finally reach Angelos’ Athina restaurant for a beer and a plateful of prawns, they are really delicious. Going back to Kaş a sense of uncertainty was all over the boat as none of knew when we would ever be able to take the trip again.*

I like being in mountainous country and a few months ago I bought a motorbike designed and made to go off-road so putting the two things together means that I can go and have some adventures in the local and not quite so local hills and mountains. Put like that it sounds very interesting and enjoyable, well it does to me anyway. In reality what it means is that I can dramatically increase my capacity to get myself into awkward situations where turning round to retrace my steps is not an easy option. On the side of a hill when what was already a narrow goat track reduces to nothing the only thing to do is lie the bike down and then drag it around to point in the direction you should have been clever enough not to leave. Having said that, when I get back home and sit with a beer and my dogs and no injuries except my pride I feel a certain sense of achievement and satisfaction. I keep looking for new adventures and Google Earth is my friend, or it could be the little voice on my shoulder telling me to go and try something harder, “go on it’ll be great” it says. That’s how the next “elevating” episode started.

Bey Dağ is a 3070 metre high mountain in the Taurus range up near the Elmalı pass on the way north from here. Google Earth shows lots of little tracks, dirt roads really, criss-crossing the lower slopes with cultivated fields, some small buildings and other man-made features. Should be fun eh? And maybe I could ride close enough to get to the top?

I’ve said before that discretion is the key to keeping the rubber on the road and I’m developing a sense that tells me when discretion is leaving the room, I could hear discretion slamming the door behind it when I was thinking about this trip so I asked Bob if he’d like to tag along and we’d go in my car. Less chance of getting into trouble and two heads are better than one, right? He jumped at the chance.

So last Monday we went, just to get as close as we could and make a plan, left Çukurbağ about 8.30 and drove up there. I’d made some notes on the features and turnings that I could see on the computer screen and printed a couple of maps, with only a minor mistake in the village of Küçüksögle we left the tarmacadam and headed upwards.

My notes worked well and we would have lost our way without them. Superb scenery to see, sorry about the dust on the sensor.

interesting things to see,

fantastic blue sky to see, there’s an aeroplane in there too, you’ll probably need to put your spectacles on to see it thoough.

and coming round one corner a bloody great rocky mountain to see.

We reckon on getting to the top of that? I think we both realised that this was much more than a jolly jape and we’d better take it seriously.

Eventually finding our “base” for the day we stopped and had a bit of a look round, also climbed a small hill to see if the mountain looked any different from there, it didn’t.

For me, being in mountains really brings home to you how unbelievably massive the forces are that slowly push and shape our world.

On the way home we stopped for a mixed grill at the restaurant by Finike marina, we’ll be going there again I should imagine.

After we had returned to Çukurbağ, Dave, a friend who has been doing a lot of off-road biking around the area mentioned that he and some friends had been up this mountain on their bikes, crossed over near the top and came down the other side. I had to go and have look at the route he had taken near the top because if we used the same route it would save us quite a lot of climbing and maybe make it possible to get to the summit and return home in one day rather than staying a night up there. Since I was going by myself I rode up on my bike and followed his route at the top which brought me out much higher than we had previously been.

Dave and his friends had needed to help each other, using ropes as well, to get their bikes across a particularly difficult traverse, I wasn’t about to attempt it alone so just had a walk across to check it out, this is it.

It’s completely impossible for a car to cross and there are no other ways to get as close. It’s easy to walk though and we’ll start from here. I had a think while I sat in the sun and made a sandwich, turkey and cheese if you’re interested, and had a drink of water. It is still going to be a two day job for us, we want to have a pleasant time and not just attack it as a job to get done and go away, but I had a nice day out on the bike again.

This is the mountaineers hut we’ll stay in hopefully.

It’s not far from the hut to where we’ll start from.

Stay tuned for the final ascent, weather permitting.

• The day after returning from Meis we heard that the potential ban had been lifted and the ferries now run as normal. Phew!