So our next stop is Babek castle and we bush camped down the bottom of the mountain we were to leave the next morning by 8 am to have time to climb to the top. Some decide to head off as early as 6am but Steph, Becca, Chris, Seamus and I waited until 8 then headed up with Mohamed our guide.

We started walking and in the heat it is pretty hard going, it's not really got a path but you follow a general route so when we get to the view point and Mohamed asked us if we were sure we wanted to go to the top we all agreed to go. It then seems like the path ends and considering everyone else who left earlier to go up haven't passed us (and we later found out didn't get to the top) we carry on and found 2 Turkish men who had done the climb before and thankfully they kept pointing us in the right direction.

I was in my walking sandals and they were happy to keep pointing out that I was never going to manage but I just kept laughing it off saying I would be fine.

The further we went the steeper it became and the more it became that we were just scrambling on rocks rather than following a path. By about 10 O'clock we got to the main climb and the Turks advised us the steep way straight in front of us was quicker or you could go round and up a slightly better path, from the bottom it looked steep but no were as steep as it turned out to be and as we were starting to push for time (we had to be back down by 12) we decided to head up the rocks.

I knew I went a bit weak at the knees with climbing but I have never been so scared. There must have been 5 times at least where I thought I was just going to burst into tears. I was holding on for dear life and kept thinking well you can't go back down or you will just fall so the only way is up. It didn't help when Steph who was in front of me and kept slipping and sliding like I did grabbed a big rock for support and it came away in her hands so as the mini avalanche started the two of us started screaming and holding on to anything that would hold us. It then took us another few minutes to get going again and after all the other dramas on the way up including the lovely snake we found we got to the top. . . to be faced with a wall maybe 8 or 9 foot tall and had to be dragged over the top by the two Turkish men and Chris. I must say I needed a seat once we got to that point.

So we got to the top at about 10:30 and thought that we better head back down as although the other route was easier it was longer . . . boy were we wrong. It had a path yes but we all fell on our backsides at least once and then we thought we could see the road through what looked like a little forest going down the hill . . . AGAIN we were very wrong it was a massive forest, we couldn't see the road and it was again VERY steep me and Steph slid on our backsides almost all the way down and poor Seamus had to catch us while the other 3 headed off in front when we could see the road it was such a relief as the trees would give way every time you tried to hold on to one for support. . . And ONCE AGAIN we were wrong, we got to the road to find a cliff down to the road and it was far too high to jump. The ground was still slippy which worried me and Steph as if we were to fall again it would be at least a broken leg. Then the thunder started that's when I and Steph decided it was a horror movie.

We scrambled along the side for another 20 minutes (it was already 11:55) and found a way down at about 12:15 still quite away from the truck and then the hail stones started. We could see the truck and started to run up the road. We were soaked and freezing by the time we got there and I don't think our guide was very happy with us being so late but it couldn't be helped and all we wanted was to get dry and sleep so we all got on and headed off for our next destination. . .