Karakaya is a very beautiful climbing are in the middle of turkey. It’s almost magical, that in this wide steppe, there is an accumulation of crags reaching steep out of the landscape. The granite rock with cracks and wild slopery forms offer a unique climbing experience. Just next to that lays an old pain grove spending shadow on sunny days. The formation of the rocks looks very fascinating and also the surroundings is something one sees not often in central Europe. The climbing here has been developed just in 2010 and is thus very new. On the weekend there are often some local climbers or climbing courses with whom one can get a bit in touch. It’s not the best climbing area for beginners, as most routes are around 6c-7a and half of them has to be protected by oneself. There are also a few short multipitches with 2 or 3 pitches, but most of the area is sport and tradclimbing. Really cool is, that under the pine trees there is a free camping spot.
How to get there
We come from Freiburg (Germany), but on our trip we first went to Bosnia for climbing in Blagaj (see this ecopoint report). So I will describe how the travel would be possible directly from Freiburg.
- By train you can do the whole distance with only sleeping in trains. Another option is using Flixbus, they also drive from Germany to Istanbul. To find a connection up-to-date I recommend looking at the Interrail website/app. In summer there are more nighttrains running and the whole connection is different. But basically you get somehow to Wien or Munic to take a train to In summer there is e.g. a nighttrain from Strasbourg to Vienna, which be practical or depending where you come from travel over Munic.
- The further connection is the following: Budapest (15.10)- Videle (08.32) nighttrain reservation!, Videle (11.27) – Ruse (13.39), Ruse (14.25) – Gorna (16.26), Gorna (17.35) – Dimitrovgrad (21.58), Dimitrovgrad (23.00) – Halkali (06.34) again a nighttrain you need to reserve at the station! From Halkali you can take a high-speed train to Eskisehir, which is the closest city from Karakaya only half an our drive away. From Freiburg it takes currently 2days and 16 hours. But it might also be nice to make some stops on the way and get to see some European cities as Budapest, Sofia or Istanbul.
- The last step is to get from the train station of Eskisehir to the long-distance bus station „otogar“. It was not so easy to find out which local bus line goes there and where they stop, but you might just wave to them, to make them stop. The latest bus to Karakaya leaves around 7 pm and we needed cash to pay the bus, so you may find a cash dispenser on the way there. This last bus dropped us off at the emergency lane near Karakaya. We needed to cross the highway and on the other side is a small path leading to the little village in 2kms. So it’s a long journey, but also really exciting for us to be the first time by ourselves in so distant countries, that the time flew by.
- For getting back you walk down to the main road and the bus stop is opposite to the place you will have been dropped off on your way to Karakaya. The bus comes every hour and you should stand good visible at the parking, as the bus only stops on request.
Where to stay
Directly next to the crag one is allowed to camp for free under some old pine trees. There are is also a lantern and on its pole a power access. Nearby is a privy house and a fountain, where we got our daily water. We filtered the water to be sure to not get an infection. Otherwise there is not much around, the people living in the little farmers village have quite withdrawn in their buildings. So one should take all food supplies for the stay, tent and stuff for cooking with oneself. As there are a lot of trees one can also sleep very well in a hammock. And like in turkey in general there are a few wild dogs around the pine trees. These ones in Karakaya are super friendly and a bit devoted and in the night they protect the campsite we have been told, but when eating or cooking one should be a bit careful.
How to reach the crag(s)
As the crag is 20 meters from the free campsite you reach everything by foot. The climbing area is roughly 1 square kilometer big.
Tips
Next mini-shop is in Kaymaz, 3km by foot from Karakaya. If you don’t know any Turkish it is helpful to download google translator app and Turkish so you can use it offline and also translate from taking pictures. Full free topo here.
How to book the trip
We used Interrail, that gives a lot of flexibility, but it might be cheaper booking the tickets separate, as in Bulgaria and Turkey they are not that expensive, even if you book right before your departure. We booked the interrail pass here.
The Turkish website for buying tickets you can find here there is also the tccd app which you can use. We didn’t manage to get along with that, as we only needed seat-reservations and had Interrail-tickets already. You can get seat reservations easily at the station counter. One tip for using the Turkish railway is, be half an our early before the departure of a high-speed train, as you need to pass several controls with luggage x-ray and passport control and there might be queues as well. Therefore don’t carry to large knives or gasoline better in a bottle than in a tank, that is less eye catching.
About the author
Sophia Dehnen and Fabian
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