Day 150: Friday 15 August – Alanya to Taşucu, by Ken

Today we took a long time to drive not very far. In all, the 225km between Alanya and Tasucu took more than 6½ hours.

Our day started with a quick walk around the menagerie at Camping Perle. In addition to cats, dogs, chickens, peacocks and peahens that roam around the place we came across a German Shepherd chained to a kennel and a monkey in a cage! Here's some of the animals we left behind us:

Initially, driving was easy on a good dual carriageway. South of Gazipaşa the road became two lanes climbing high into hill country on a steep and busy two-lane road. Jane couldn’t take her eyes off the road as she negotiated dozens of hairpin bends but I was able to take in fantastic views of the terraces of banana plantations that cascaded down to the sea many hundreds of metres below. Occasionally, the road decended to towns on the coast before climbing again. We passed lots of roadside stalls, not surprisingly, the principal offering was muz (bananas).

Muz Stall

It's A Hard Life For Some

Jane began to worry as our range declined rapidly with all the climbing, but we were able to fill up in the coastal town of Anamur with fuel for another 70km according to the range display. That did seem pessimistic as the gauge showed we still had quarter of a tank of diesel. We parked by the roadside adjacent to a beach just east of Anamur for our lunch of Grrek salad.

Beach At Our Lunch Stop

Jane Shows Off Her New Trousers (and shoes)

Soon after we passed the most southerly point on our trip at 36° 01’ 51” North ( 32° 46' 42" East)           East) on the coast near the town of Camlipinaralani.

Construction of a new road was underway as we travelled through the hills east of Aydincik. We passed tunnel portals, some completely isolated on hillsides presumably awaiting the construction of viaducts to carry the road over valleys. Elsewhere, the road formation had been constructed up to the tunnel portals. In some areas extensive benched cuts were in evidence, some of which would be approximately 100m deep. Some lengths of road were supported by high MSE walls. The work made what we were proposing for Transmission Gully look easy!

Tunnel Portals

MSE Wall

Cuts Up To ~100 metres High

The road eventually dropped to sea level. The coastline was stunning with long, deserted sandy beaches.

It was approximately 15:30 by the time we reached Camping Akçakil on the coast a short distance west of the town of Taşucu. There we were allocated a great pich by the water’s edge and next to the restaurant. We had a similar problem as in Perle and couldn’t hook up the electricity supply to Mabel without the reversed polarity indicator coming on, so we didn’t bother.

We set up camp and sat under Mabel’s awning looking out to sea. Cyprus wasn’t far over the horizon and we watched the ferry from Nicosia making its way into Taşucu.

I cooked our evening meal of cheese, bacon and mushroom omelets accompanied by salad and the remainder of some spicy Turkish sausage.

As the evening wore on two couples eating in the restaurant close by were joined by a guitarist and a singer who performed what sounded like folk songs. Every now and again some of the four would join in singing enthusiastically.

It felt slightly cooler than in Alanya and I decided to sleep in Mabel. Jane opted for a camp stretcher under the awning.

Today's Trip (225 km) (Cyprus at the bottom of the map)
Closest Town Shown On The Map To Our Most Southerly Point Is Anamur)