My first walk up Tunç was last April with Cemalettin, Ahmet, and Mehmet. We had a casual pace on the snow and took 4.5 hours to reach the summit. About a month (or two?) ago Ferda and I walked up Tunç on a cool summer day. Since she has little mountain experience, I planned on quite some time for the round trip and was a little worried when we set off as late as we did. I think it was early afternoon.
Warning, *rant* — one would think I ought to be able to simply look at my photos and know exactly when we started. Well, as I write this, I’m sitting in Mexico City, and when I open my photo program (shotwell), it seems to convert the displayed photo time to my current time zone — as if I care what time it was where I am now when I took my photos! Ugh, how stupid is that. Additionally, (since I’m ranting) there’s some strange disconnect so that when I upload my photos to flickr, the time changes by three hours — but not always. 🙁 Ah, computers. *end of rant*
Anyway, in the end it didn’t matter when we started because Ferda walked up Tunç in about 100 minutes. Yes, in about one-third of the time it took us mountaineers last spring! Ferda and I spent over an hour on the summit and took about the same time to descend as to ascend.
Antalya was burning up this August weekend day (like Antalya does every day in August; July too). The weather was beautiful up on the mountain so I was surprised we were the only ones there. But really that’s typical in Turkey. During my recent week in the spectacular Aladağlar with Sabiha, we met more foreigners than Turks on the trails. These opportunities for solitude in amazing mountain settings still surprise me, coming from crowded Colorado and California.
Down near the car Ferda and I camped one night before heading back to the city. I was excited to sleep a night without sweating and getting up in the middle of the night for another cold shower. Ferda had never camped before, but she was open to the idea. However, I’m not sure she slept at all, a bit scared with every small sound in the quiet night.
On Sunday morning we stopped for a late breakfast in Çakırlar, a popular Sunday excursion from Antalya. This is what Turks do instead of going to the mountains. The breakfast, however, was disappointing. If you’re going to bother camping at the base of Tunç, I recommend bringing some food and making a yummy breakfast while enjoying the cool air and beautiful mountain views.
