Hello!
The last two weeks I have spend in Antalya, Turkey, for the bad times' honour. In fact, this trip was planned to do with Minna, but now it turned out to be only a one-man trip. Shit happens. I knew that the organizers are good and maybe not so busy at this time of year, so I just booked the flights and went off.
I am really surprised why only few people head their ways to the south coast of Turkey. Because the climate is always nice, costs low, people are friendly and service more than good. Only thing which wondered me in the start of the trip was the traffic. You have lots of speed limits and lane markings, but they don't really mean anything ;-). But somehow it just works, and I didn't see accidents - even though the passings and maneuvers reminded me from Formula 1...
Especially for an orienteerer the place is ideal: maps are good and numerous. For a sprinter place is also good as there are many good maps and the old towns can be rather kinky. Examples from my trip:
Gebiz (forest orienteering). Extremely nice running surface and from time to time some deeper canyons. Now we got some heavy rain just before the training, so I got to even swim ;-)). Map and photo:
Antalya old city (sprint). Tricky old alleys featured with rather big height differences. And couple of those really "kinky" places. Map:
It's not only about orienteering, and you can for example visit the Tahtalı Dağı (Olympos) -mountain (2365m). Photos:
BIG thanks to Veysel Guler and his mates in Eon Tours, which is the main organizer in Antalya. They offer for example accomodations with all meals (rather unusual on orienteering trips) and of course high class orienteering trainings (read more). I got also a lot of help from Veysel in my personal problems and comprehensive introduction to the wonders of Antalya. Brilliant guy, as were also the other mates in the Eon team.
In March 2014 World Cup-races will be run near Antalya, so I expect that the interest towards Turkey arises in near future. We drove beside the WC-terrain, and it looked really promising. But now the trips are done and very cold Finland is reality. Waiting for the next trip to a warm place, but that I have to wait for a loooooong time :(.