The hamlet of Karakaya seen from the granite crags:
Karakaya and early evening moon:
Some industrious person started carving a dwelling out of this granite block near the town eons ago:
It turned out to be a fantastic decision. The festival was sponsored by a university climbing club (various uni climbing clubs apparently sponsor festivals throughout the year) and it was like a reunion for the 250 or so people who turned up,
The busses start arriving!:
pitching their tents among the grove at the base of the crag. 
From the beginning we were welcomed with open arms, even given the festival packet (although we were a last-minute group) which included a load of food for several days (!), a t-shirt, and a baseball cap. It was definitely a festive atmosphere and when people weren't climbing 
they were on the slackline,
Future tightrope performer?:
poi dancing, confounding the local shepherd by practicing yoga,
George strikes some poses:
or putting in hair wraps (the wraps were a huge hit among the Turkish students).
Aidan displays some intense concentration while perfecting his technique on Teresa:
Although I'm waaay past university age, it was enjoyable climbing with the enthusiastic students, many of whom were relatively new to the sport. One morning Diana and I were up early at the crag on a route when a Turkish student wandered by. Most people were still asleep and I could tell that he wanted to climb, so I told him through a combination of mime-ing and bad English to go get his harness. He returned grinning ear to ear, obviously thrilled to have a chance to get on some routes which usually required a good half hour or more wait due to the queue.
We made loads of friends and decided to adopt one fellow, Dolphin, who had been quite helpful to us. Turns out that having someone who speaks Turkish on the truck is a good thing, and we were all to happy to assist him in procrastinating his return to university. With a sad farewell to David and Andy (aka the Super Flirt consultant),
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