Three legal highs around Antalya

If you've ever wondered what it's like to whiz through the treetops like a monkey, a Tarzan or even a Jane, it's well worth trying out Turkey's first high-level rope course. Set in a beautiful mature pine forest at the mouth of the picturesque Göynük gorge, near the popular resort of Kemer, Adventure Forest offers three hours of high jinks, with seven different courses running between magnificently sturdy pines.

High level (aka aerial) rope courses are big business in many countries, and according to Ufuk Güven, the man behind this exciting adventure, over a million thrill seekers a year test their balance, stamina and courage on rope courses in Germany. But what exactly are they? Well, imagine clambering up a ladder onto a platform built around a tree trunk, anywhere between two and 11 meters above the forest floor. Ahead of you is a rope and wire bridge. Take a deep breath, step onto the bottom rope and grip the support wires that run parallel to it. Whether you skip across it like tightrope walker Philippe Petit in the fabulous true-life movie “Man on Wire” or edge nervously along like a normal human being, the end result is the same -- you somehow reach the wooden platform in the next tree.

There's more of the same to come, with each successive rope bridge offering a slightly different, willfully wobbly challenge. The courses are graded for difficulty, with yellow being the easiest, black the trickiest. But whatever the grade, each course ends with a zip-wire. Just clip the wheeled runner (known as a “flying fox”) attached to your harness onto the wire, grip the rope below it and (screaming is optional but most people seem to do it, at least on their first go!) launch yourself into space and glide back down to ground level.

“What's this about harnesses? What if I fall off?” you may be wondering. Naturally safety comes first here, and before embarking on any of the courses you'll be shoehorned into the latest safety harness, accessorized with slings, karabiners and the “flying fox” device, and be issued a helmet. After a short training course by an expert, you're free to go, but your instructor will watch you until he's sure you follow the cardinal rules -- always be attached to a wire with at least one karabiner when climbing a ladder, and by both when negotiating a bridge or using the zip wire.

Ufuk has worked in adventure tourism since 1982, and literally knows all the ropes, so Adventure Forest makes for an exciting but safe family outing. Go for it.

Rock climbing -- the Sufi way

A challenge of a rather more specialized and serious nature awaits on a dramatic cliff, 500 meters up in the foothills of Tunç Dağı (Bronze Mountain), some 25 kilometers west of Antalya's city center. For here, just short of the village of Geyikbayırı, is Turkey's premier rock climbing venue. The main cliff here was first opened up for climbing in 2000 by Öztürk Kayıkcı and Züleyha Geels and now boasts dozens of bolted routes attracting climbers from around the world, including France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Russia and the UK.

Quick Tips Adventure Forest: Opening Times: Winter (Nov. 1 to March 31) weekends only (except for pre-booked groups); Summer daily 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission: Adults TL 40, children TL 30 Contact: Tel 0242/824 8749; www.yuksekparkur.com Geyikbayırı: Open year-round but best in autumn, winter and spring Climbers Garden: Open year-round; tents 5 euros per person; bungalows 10 euros per person. Contact: www.climbersgarden.com. Climbing info: www.climb-europe.com Climbing courses at Olympos: www.olymposrockclimbing.com Tunç Dağı: Open year-round but best in winter or spring because of the snow cover.

Of course the big difference between Adventure Forest and Geyikbayırı is that you need to be both experienced and have your own equipment before getting “high” on the rock (though instruction and equipment is on offer close by, at the ever-popular beach-side hideaway of Olympos). Assuming that you have your own gear (rope, harness, quick-draws, rock climbing shoes and chalk as a minimum), you can test your skill on routes ranging from the moderately difficult to some of the most technically demanding challenges around (UIAA grades 5 plus to 11). This doesn't mean that a visit to Geyikbayırı cannot be made into a family experience. On one of my visits to this sun-kissed cliff, I ran into a Czech family. The wife was two-thirds of the way up the 25 meter cliff, her husband was holding the safety rope, their toddler-age daughter was fast asleep in the shade of an olive tree and granny was perched on a rock absorbing some very welcome late winter sun.

The logical place to stay for most climbers is the Climbers Garden. This site, a charming orchard set by the roadside a couple of minutes' walk from the main cliff, is run by keen climbing couple Murat and Züheyla. Here you can camp beneath the shade of citrus trees or stay in a small but comfortable wooden bungalow. Interestingly, although Züheyla is of Dutch/Belgian origin, her entire family converted to Islam in Konya in the early 1990s when she was just 4 years old, and she's been in Turkey ever since. Both she and Murat are followers of Sufism, and in the true tradition of this mystical branch of Islam, they offer their guest free water and bread for the duration of their stay (and some stay for months -- rock-climbing is an addictive pastime!). They've even named one section of the main cliff “Mevlana.”

The warm, dry limestone of Geyikbayırı is an ideal venue for climbers fleeing the chill, rain-sodden rock of a Northern European winter (or Turks or expats who want to escape the urban chill of an Ankara or İstanbul winter). Not everyone has the nerve or desire to pad their way up a vertical rock face, but those that do often talk about the “highs” they gain from overcoming their own fears in almost religious terms -- climbing and Sufism seem to make an ideal combination.

On the Bronze Mountain

At a little over 2,700 meters, the Bronze Mountain (Tunç Dağı) is the nearest big mountain to the city of Antalya. Seen through the prism of the apartment blocks flanking one of the city's major thoroughfares, Yüzüncü Yıl, its snow-clad pyramidal bulk dominates the skyline in a most arresting manner. Although there are plenty of other peaks visible from the city (after all, the Toros range curves its way right around the back of this booming Mediterranean city), I think of Tunç as Antalya's own mountain, in the same way that Uludağ “belongs” to Bursa, Ağrı (Mt. Ararat) to Doğubeyazit, Erciyes to Kayseri and Davraz to Isparta.

Apart from its sheer scale, Tunç has one other major advantage over its rivals -- accessibility. A drive of around an hour takes you from the city center, past the rock climbing center at Geyikbayırı, around the village/summer retreat of the same name and up to Fesleken Yaylası. This highland village, sprawling beneath an outlying spur of Tunç Dağı, hosts a locally famous grease wrestling festival held every July and is only occupied from late spring through October. In winter the houses lay eerily empty under a blanket of snow. The road, now a dirt track, continues a few kilometers to another, even higher summer settlement right at the very foot of the northeast face of Tunç.

For walkers, the best time to climb this beguiling peak is late winter/early spring, when the rocks and scree are well covered with a thick mantle of snow. The route is very straightforward, just head up the obvious, broad gully more or less due west of you -- bearing in mind that an ice axe is mandatory and crampons advisable if the snow is particularly hard-packed. After some three hours, you'll reach the summit ridge, where you turn left and scramble up a rocky outcrop to the very summit. The views are tremendous, down over Fesleken Yaylası to distant Antalya and the glittering blue waters of the Mediterranean and south across a range of serrated peaks to the table-top peak of 2,366-meter Tahtalı Dağı (aka Mt. Olympos). West, across a plunging valley, spreads the snow-bound (well into spring) plateau of upland Lycia, dominated by the 3,071-meter Mt. Kızlar Sivrisi, whilst a little way to the north the dome of the astronomy observatory atop adjacent Bakırlı Dağı (Copper Mountain) glints in the powerful sun.

It's possible to be up and down the peak in around five hours and get yourself a genuine, 100 percent natural high. With the only sound the wind in your ears and the occasional cawing of an alpine chough, there's no better way to escape the hustle and bustle of downtown Antalya.