Close to heaven in Çıralı?

Ferda used to love going to Olimpos.  She took me a number of times in the first year we were together.  But that was before she had spent any time in Çıralı.  It was two years ago when Ferda and I were planning on going to Olimpos for a week for swimming and climbing.  Fatma wanted to join us for the first couple days, but she asked that we go to Çıralı instead.  After she left, we could easily walk to Olimpos and spend the rest of our week there.  Sure, we said, sounds reasonable.

Well, we found nice camping in the orange orchard at Sahil Pansiyon in Çıralı and ended up spending 10 days there.  We’ve been back at least twice since then (no more Olimpos for us!), and certainly I’m ready to go again.

DSCN1441 by bryandkeith on flickr

You go climbing in the morning, swimming in the afternoon, and have a bbq in the evening.  There’s a market across the street from the camping and a few shops and restaurants a five-minute walk away in the center of the village if you need anything more, like, say, a one-meter long pide.

DSCN1418 by bryandkeith on flickr

One of the crags near Çıralı is called Cennet which means “heaven” in Turkish.  Here are the views on the way to heaven:

DSCN1448 by bryandkeith on flickr

DSCN1453 by bryandkeith on flickr

and the climbing wall:

Cennet by bryandkeith on flickr

The views aren’t bad when you leave heaven either:

DSCN1444 by bryandkeith on flickr

DSCN1450 by bryandkeith on flickr

Don’t be intimidated by the look of the hard climbing at Cennet.  It is hard (routes start at VII and there aren’t many to choose from at that grade), but there are lots of bolted routes at the crags next to the stream (often dry) near Çıralı, and many are easier than the easiest routes at Cennet.  For example:

DSCN1452 by bryandkeith on flickr

If you spend enough days in Çıralı, you ought to walk up to the flames at Yanartaş one evening.  Stop by one of the village shops for your picnic supplies.  A bicycle would save some time and energy, but Ferda and I did the whole excursion on foot from the village and back in about 3.5 hours.  That included a casual hour drinking wine while we cooked our sucuk over the open flames, the highlight of the excursion.

DSCN1428 by bryandkeith on flickr

DSCN1439 by bryandkeith on flickr

I hope we make back it to Çıralı this year, but there are so many places to see…

This entry was posted in Climbing, Traveling, Turkey and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Close to heaven in Çıralı?

  1. Mike Painter says:

    Looks nice!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.