In Cappadocia, the thrill of hurtling along a trail on two wheels is amplified by its otherworldly landscape of rock pillars, known as "fairy chimneys", many reaching more than 40 metres high, as well as its cave houses and ancient Byzantine churches.
They are split by dizzying ravines, which are, in turn, often overhung with imposing bulwarks of rock.
A cliff-top bar features thrones carved out of stone, gazing out over crashing waves next to a swimming pool perched on the edge of a sheer rock face, while steps lead down to a private sandy beach.
To climb in this fashion a climber will hammer a peg (or "piton") into a crack, wedge chocks – pieces of metal of various sizes and shapes – into it or place a skyhook (a very small grappling hook) over flakes of rock and edges.
The term "big wall" is generally used by climbers to describe some of the world's longest climbs – usually predominantly on rock involving up to 30 rope lengths, and on which most climbers would expect to spend days climbing.
The prices match the outrageous history though: rooms from $415 plus tax to $4,500, +1 323 656 1010, chateaumarmont.com "I am a Golden God!" It is 1975, the height of rock's heyday, and Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin's debonair vocalist, declares his rock star status from his hotel balcony.
A narrow scramble, no wider than a sheep track, edged over the heaps of waste rock towards a larch wood within a ferny, stone wall.
As I gazed at this seemingly impenetrable 935m-high wall of rock, my sentiments echoed those of Miss Jemima, who noted: "We were hard put to discover a path, or to understand how we should reach its summit".
Like most rock kids of his generation, from an early age he had a working knowledge of electronic music through listening to industrial bands such as Nine Inch Nails, and an obsession with "IDM" ("intelligent dance music"), in particular "anything on Warp Records".
But it is also a hugely celebratory collective insanity, a world away from the portentousness and individualism of much current hip-hop and rock.
Dan Mangan + Blacksmith: Club Meds Experimental rock from the Canadian singer-songwriter and his matching bearded band.
