The 1st Belceğiz Beach Acro Games, Ölü Deniz

8th August

Unlike Özgun, Annie and I passed on the offer of free camping on the beach. We booked a comfortable 4 star double room for £28 per night at the Mavi Belce Hotel with AC, cable TV, breakfast, pool, and just a stone’s throw from the beach. After arriving on the gruelling nine hour night bus from Ankara we slept until noon, exhausted, the AC blasting. The luxury was healing. I was still recovering from heat stroke.

That afternoon we registered with a very friendly and welcoming event organiser – Meryem – whom we later saw falling through the air, sky-diving from a micro-light.

'Terrorist of the Sky' Mahoney clowning about

We didn’t fly on this day but blended into the beach scene, admiring the synchro acro displays and tucking into the delicious home-cooked buffet. Pilots continued to land well into the night, while we soaked in the party vibe. The local 18 year old female acro pilot Mercan came into view as a dark shadow against an inky, moonless sky, doing SATs over our heads before landing on the murky beach.

9th August

By 10am after a classic Turkish breakfast with white cheese and olives, puffy cumulus clouds were forming above both Babadag and Mendos– one a piece. Mendos (also known as ‘Aridag’ meaning ‘bee mountain’) is the mountain Jocky Sanderson flies to from Babadag before heading off into the flatlands in his DVD Performance Flying.

Annie and I were at the pick-up point for the scheduled 10.30am truck up the mountain with two Germans - Volker, a banker, and Ernst, a 73 year old diving instructor – among others. There was some confusion about when the truck would set off. Coming from Germany where events unfold predictably according to precise rules, Volker was revelling in the ‘spontaneity’ of the Turks. “I love this chaos,” he said before pausing to think about what he’d just said. “I wouldn’t want to live with it, but I love experiencing it on holiday”.

Annie and I both fully enjoyed our flights. I thermalled to the base of the cloud above Babadag, a little over 800m (2,600 ft) above take-off. It just sat there surreally, neither decaying nor growing, while I skirted around it. I was on my own up there and was getting 5-up surges in the cool air with the mountain a long way below.

10th August

On our mid-day flight, a Turkish friend Özgun and I climbed over 900m to base and flew a small XC to Mendos, the mountain over the valley to the north, and then back to Ölü Deniz.

In the acro runs in the afternoon, pilots were pushing the limits. There is pressure among acro pilots to prove their mastery of the Infinity Tumble. If you can’t do this you’re not rubbing shoulders with the top dogs. Our friend Mahoney, a local celebrity who loves playing to the crowds, fluffed his Mc Twist to Tumble and his wing turned to laundry - instant deployment. Another synchro pilot from Austria almost Infinity Tumbled his wing smack into the water. He couldn’t make the glide back to the beach - another dunking.

“Landing on the walk way, landing on the sand, landing in the water, landing everywhere!” the DJ Harun quipped over the microphone.

The venue for the evening’s entertainment was Lykia World, the deluxe resort 2 km along the coast from Ölü Deniz. The buffet dinner was superb. While we enjoyed the free wine and raki, our plates piled high with good food, a bronzed belly dancer appeared and her act was sensational. She had a large tarantula spider and web tattooed on her shoulder – a symbol of her power over men. My dad was one of the lucky ones she danced for in person. “I’m only looking at your eyes” he said while she shook her bits.

Tarantula dancer shaking her bits. Dad in paradise.

11th August

On the noon flight, while Özgun’s students’ practiced thermalling over the ridge under a low inversion in what I suspected was broken, choppy air, Annie and I flew out over Ölü Deniz in close formation, shouting or chatting over our radios, enjoying each other’s company in the smooth, relaxing air. A beautiful shared experience.

The acro competition was brought to a close with a buzzing awards ceremony later that evening. An Austrian pair – Alexander Meschuk and Bernd Hornbock – took the top synchro spot, earning themselves a big slice of the 5000 Euro prize money. The Green Twins from California - both 21, curly haired and identical to look at, flying identical gliders and often wearing the exact same chequered shirts – also took a prize. Local pilot Mercan won the top female spot - on the strength of her endless helicopters. Meryem Akar won the skydiving award.

Award ceremony

That night was for partying - no need for a clear head for synchronized manoeuvres the next morning. Annie and I were up until 2am at the Help Bar, drinking, dancing. and chatting. Some were up until dawn.

12th August

Butterfly Valley, a beautiful cliff-girdled beach haven full of hippies, 5km up the coast from Ölü Deniz, was the destination for the last scheduled flight of Games.

On the truck ride up Babadag four of us sat on the roof - the best way to travel. I thought I’d lost my sunglasses and told the others. Timothy, one of the acro twins, told us he’d also once lost his. “The g-force was so strong they were pulled off my head. I spiral dived after them. They were falling at the exact same speed I was spiralling around them, and I followed them all the way to the water where I saw them land!” Blimey. The physics of this scenario were interesting to imagine.

Flying into the Butterfly Valley gorge and landing on the strip of tent-strewn sandy beach was spectacular and exciting. Swimming, relaxing in the café and people-watching absorbed the next few hours. There were a lot of dreadlocks, body piercings and tattoos about. There is no practical way into this secluded spot except by air or boat. It reminded some of us of the self-sufficient community in ‘The Beach’.

Özgun and Annie - Butterfly Valley

Lounging on the beach with Annie, Özgun, Volker and Ernst, we watched a local man emerge from the sea with a harpoon and a brace of fine looking, gleaming fish that he’d just speared – lurking under the water, holding his breath.

The boat-trip back to Ölü Deniz, dance music booming, paragliders piled high, gave us another memorable experience of this beautiful coastline of Turkey. When we beached, with the boat lurching up and down in the surf, it was exciting trying to get the timing right to jump down from the stern ladder without being caught by the breaking waves. Özgun, paying particular attention to getting it right, slipped with the roar of a wave behind him and was soaked from head to toe!

Once we were all off the boat, the paragliders needed to be chain-ganged to the beach, held high above the breaking waves, and this also had us laughing – particularly when a little boy who just wouldn’t wake up was treated in the same way.

Chain-ganging the paragliders