Day 146: Monday 11 August – Termessos and Aspendos, by Ken

We retreated indoors in Mabel around 03:00 when we woke feeling cold.

We planned to be on the road by 8:00 in order to visit Termessos while it was still relatvely cool. In the event it was nudging 8:30 before we headed out in Smarty. Jane had decided she wanted to do all the driving today to try and close the gap between us in terms of kilometres driven. That was in spite of me saying it wasn’t a competition, we were only keeping a record out of interest.

Jane found the camping ground showers so dirty that she showered wearing her Croc lookalikes. I couldn’t face showering at all.

The late start was fortuitous as shortly after 8:00 Mabel’s fridge started beeping signaling something was wrong. It turned out we had lost the power supply to Mabel. I couldn’t find anything wrong with the cable, or its connection to the camping ground’s supply and assumed the fault must lie in the camping ground, or beyond. If the fault had occurred after we had left we would have returned to spoilt food and, worse still, no ice for our evening G and T’s. I switched the fridge to gas, it’s a pity that Auto Trail don’t install fridges that detect the best power source automatically.

Antalya is a big city with a population of just over 1 million, and Turkey’s largest resort. The roads were becoming busy as we drove along the sea front where people were making their way to the shingle beaches that didn’t look particularly inviting. The temperature was already in the mid 30s and it was just 09:00. It was about then that I remembered I had left my hat in Mabel, but it was too late to turn back.

Marble Blocks On Their Way To Be Processed

Anatalya Beach

We left the coast and headed inland in a northwesterly direction for about 30km until we came to signs directing us to Termessos. We soon came to a pay booth where for 5 lira each we had access to the Güllük Dağ Milli Parki (a national park) and were told it was about 9km to Termessos. The narrow road climbed steadily into the mountains bringing kinder temperatures. By the time we reached the car park Smarty was showing it was down to 29°.

We changed into our tramping boots and started to climb a rough steep path that would take us to the city of Termessos built close to the summit of a mountain 1,000 metres above sea level. Even though it was relatively cool, the climb was hard going requiring regular stops to catch our breath.

Starting The Walk Up To Termessos

We passed through the city gate and twenty minutes after setting off we arrived at the ruins of the gymnasium. Unlike other sites we have visited Termessos has not been restored or excavated, only surveyed. Thus, the ruins are the result of earthquakes and weathering.

We continued on up to reach the theatre which is the crowning glory of Termessos. Situated on the edge of a steep gorge with stunning views down two valleys it is quite magnificent. Considering it’s 2,000 years old, the 4,200 spectator stadium is in a remarkable state of preservation. 

Here's some shots of the theatre:

Stage

We spent quite a while in the theatre wandering up and down and around its tiers of seats. While Jane waited at the top, I walked down and sat in the ruins of the stage. Jane could hear what I was saying while speaking without raising my voice.

Jane Waiting For Performance To Start

While I was sitting on the stage a group of young French women and their two male guides we had seen earlier in the car park appeared at the top of the seating. One of the men signaled me to speak by raising and lowering both hands, palms upwards. I asked what he wanted me to say but didn’t get a response. Then I said “Je ne parle pas français” which was greeted by laughter from the women.

My French Audience

From the theatre we made our way around the remainder of the ruins that included massive buried cisterns for storing water delivered to the city via an aqueduct.

Here's something of what we saw:

Looking Down The Valley From Termessos

The site had few visitors and we only passed a few people on their way up as we walked back to the car park. We assumed the lack of visitors was a reflection of the difficulty of getting to the car park for tour buses and the tough walk up to the city. We weren’t complaining, it was good to visit somewhere that wasn’t heaving with tourists.

We debated what to do next. We were both sure the last thing we wanted to do was to go back to the awful camping ground. We decided to return to Antalya and then drive 50km east to Aspendos to visit what is reputed to be one of the best preserved theatres built in the 2^nd century AD.

As we drove into Anatalya Jane began to regret her decision to drive. The traffic became increasingly more dense and the driving increasingly worse. The Turks must rate as some of the worst drivers in the world and in Anatalya they were particularly bad. Car indicators seemed to have been disconnected and the key driving rule appeared to be it’s up to you to get out of the way of anyone that cuts across you, usually coming very close. There was no way of knowing when someone would decide to stop suddenly, or when they would pull out into traffic with no regard for others. Lane markings might as well not have been there as cars drifted from lane to lane and frequently added additional lanes of their own. Overtaking on the inside was a regular occurrence. Even with two pairs of eyes keeping a lookout, driving was hard work.

Statue In Atalanya - Almost Certainly Mustafa Kamal (most statues are)

Satellite TV Seems To Be Popular In Atalanya

As we drove Smarty’s outside temperature gauge climbed to 40°. Fortunately, the road leading east out of Anatalya was stop start traffic through roadworks for a long way, that made the driving less demanding. We drove past the airport that looked very busy with a lot of aircraft on the tarmac. Overhead a Ryanair 737 was on its final approach – Ryanair seem to get everywhere.

40 Degrees Outside!

The traffic eased as we drove along a dual carriageway. It was lunchtime and I spotted a roadside sign advertising a restaurant ahead. We parked outside but the restaurant appeared deserted and we started to return to Smarty. As we did so a man came running out and invited us in, they were serving lunch. We took a table in the shade outside, we asked for a menu which resulted in a woman coming out asking if we wanted chicken. I asked what else there was which turned out to be köfte. Then the woman disappeared returning a few minutes later with a large casserole dish – she pointed to the contents and said ”köfte”. We ordered one köfte and one chicken with beer and water to drink. No drinks appeared and after a while Jane went in to investigate, there was no beer, only soft drinks. Just when I could have done with a nice cooling Efes! We both settled for water.

Our food arrived after a while and was very good. My köfte came with potatoes while Jane’s chicken was accompanied by tomatoes and rice. There were also side dishes of tomatoes and long green pepperlike vegetables.

Our Lunchtime Host

It was stinking hot by the time we got to Aspendos. While there were a few tour buses outside, it wasn’t particularly busy. We started our visit at the theatre that had been extensively restored. Restoration work was still going on with a large tower crane standing behind the stage and some of the seating was in the course of being replaced. While it was the most complete of all the theatres we had visited, and gave a real feel for what the soectators would have seen, it felt rather artificial to us. We agreed that we liked the ruins at Termessos better.

Aspendos - Theatre Stage

Stage Frieze Detail

Aspendos - Theatre

Aspendos - Theatre Entrance

Some Of The Seating Had Been Restored

We walked up a steep track that led us to the entrance to the city where the original road and its drainage system were evident. We wandered around the ruins of a basilica and other buildings on the acropolis. 

Aspendos - Road At City Entrance With Drainage Beneath

Here's some of the buildings on the acropolis:

Then we climbed a hill that overlooked the theatre. I had originally planned to continue on up to an aqueduct but the heat beat us, it was so draining.

Aspendos Theatre From Above

Hot And Bothered At Aspendos

We walked back down to the entrance. We were stopped on the way by a man that wanted to sell us Greek coins at a special New Zealand price. He hadn’t spotted we didn’t have ‘Stupid’ tattooed on our foreheads and we walked on. (I read subsequently that it’s illegal to sell real ancient coins, but perfectly legal to sell copies).

There was a small café by the entrance where we took very welcome seats in the shade, rehydrating with very welcome cold drinks.

Our drive back through Anatalya was even more fraught than our outward trip. But Jane doggedly stuck to her goal of doing all the driving while letting out gasps at regular intervals as Turkish drivers got up to their usual tricks, as well as some new ones.

Irrigation Pipes On New Road Embankment 

We weren’t hungry after our lunch out and settled for bread and cheese for our evening meal. The music was just as loud as the previous evening but two women were going through dance exercises that by the look of it they had done many times before. They kept it up for the best part of an hour which we found incredible with the temperature still in the 30s. Not content with that, one of them continued afterwards doing sit-ups and crunches.

Most of the time we had been back at Mabel a man was working on his car nearby. After a while he came over with a pair of pliers asking if we had anything with a finer jaw. I leant him my Leatherman and wandered over with him to see if I could help. His starter motor had just been repaired and was re-installing the motor although he was dubious a good job had been done on it. He didn’t need any help, but wanted to get the job finished as it was his wife’s birthday and they were going out to celebrate. It was almost dark by the time he was done. He was right to be dubious about the quality of the repair, the motor wasn’t working. Sometime later the man returned with three women, two of whom had been exercising. He got in the car while the women pushed and he bump started it.

Can I Help?

It was still hot and humid by the time bedtime came around. We slept outside again.

Day 145: Sunday 10 August – Kaş to Beldibi, by Ken

I woke well after 7:00, probably as a result of spending over an hour in the middle of the night taking in the moonlit view before retreating into Mabel. There's little doubt the camping ground at Kaş has to be the most delightful spot we have ever stayed. That was the end of our plan to have Mabel packed up, showered and be in the camping ground’s Gecko Restaurant for breakfast when it opened at 08.00. It was well after 9:00 by the time I ordered a Turkish plate which was virtually identical to Thursday’s offering. Jane went for a chocolate pancake which arrived oozing Nutella.

Jane's Breakfast Pancake

We took one last look at the view from our pitch. We really had landed on our feet in Kas. A pitch that felt private, yet close to the facilities, a view out over the bay and just a stone’s lob from the sea. Over breakfast we had talked about staying another day, there was time in our schedule to do it, but for all we knew there was something as good, if not better, waiting for us in our travels. We doubted it somehow, Kaş Kamping was just about perfect.

We hitched up Smarty outside the camping ground near where she had been parked for the last four days. The camping ground manager came out to watch, as always the first question was how did Smarty steer?

We set off with satnav showing 160km to drive to our next stop at Beldibi on the coast near Antalya. A short drive, but the driving time was shown as more than 4 hours. We drove into Kaş and then climbed a steep hill that took us eastwards. We climbed for a long time through pine forests, I guessed to 1,000 metres (Mabel’s satnav was taking Sunday off) before descending to the coast at Demre. While waiting at traffic lights in the town a group of men sitting outside a café spotted Smarty and started talking animatedly, one gave us the thumbs up and a big grin.

Marina At Kas

A good dual carriageway took us along the coast where we saw a family of five out for a drive – on a scooter. We had got used to seeing four but five was a record! A young boy sat on the petrol tank in front of his father who was driving. Sandwiched between the man and his wife was another child and the wife had a youngster sitting on her lap. Needless to say there wasn’t one crash helmet between them.

We stopped on a single lane road that twisted and turned its way around coves along the coast to change drivers and let ducklings past. Some of the coves had beaches with people swimming and bobbing. One had a cave with a group sitting in its shade.

Road Wound Its Way Along The Coast

Shady Cave

In the town of Finike we were overtaken by a scooter (with just two riders) the pillion passenger gave us the thumbs up. We left the coast shortly after leaving Kumluca and began climbing into more hills. We pulled off the road in the shade of pine trees to eat lunch of Greek salad and bread. The shade wasn’t a lot of help, it became very hot with Mabel’s air conditioning off. Her gauge showed the outside temperature as 37°.

We Stopped A Few Times For Photo Opportunities

Setting off after lunch the road climbed for quite a while before beginning to descend. A long length of the road’s surface was molten bitumen, we could hear it swishing under our tyres. We had two very near misses on the descent - As I was keeping a careful eye on a tight bend Jane let out a very loud gasp and out my peripheral vision I saw a car extremely close and cutting in front of us to avoid oncoming traffic. It was so close Jane was convinced it was going to hit us. Soon after the swishing of our tires on the bitumen became much louder as did the noise of overtaking vehicles. Looking in the left mirror I spotted the habitation door was swinging open and very close to passing traffic! Fortunately there was a spot nearby where we pulled off the road and closed the door.

Bitumen Puddles

Mountains Near Journey's End

We found Beldibi Orkinos Camping which was situated by a beach at Beldibi west of the city of Alatanya. We were immediately sorry we hadn’t had another day in Kaş. It was by far the worst place we had stayed. There were no defined piches, it was a case of park anywhere we liked. We eventually found somewhere where our cable would reach a power point, but only just. It was also close to the facilties.

Our Pitch At Beldibi

It was stinking hot and we decided to take a dip in the sea to cool off. Getting in there wasn’t easy, we had a choice of negotiating a bank of steep boulders or using one of a number of timber ramps. I chose a ramp, but abandoned that as the lower part was covered in very slippery weed. Instead, I clambered over the boulders and made my way tentatively into the water. It wasn’t easy as the bed was covered in boulders which also had a coating of the green slippery weed. We didn’t stay in the water long it was so awful and we struggled back up the boulders and returned to Mabel.

"Beach" At Beldibi

I decided to visit the showers to wash off the salt. They were absolutely disgusting looking as though they had never been cleaned and had greenery protruding through the roof and down into the showers. I decided against a shower. Exploring further, the two urinals were out of commission being covered in black polythene bags. I could only get water out of one of the three washbasin taps and it had a ‘soapy’ feel to it. I tasted the water – it was salty, not as concentrated as sea water, but definitely salty. This must be the place where our antipodean acquaintances filled their drinking water tank with salt water!

Beldibi Facilities Building

Beldibi Shower! (But at least this one had a curtain)

For our evening meal we had pasta with the remainder of the sauce I had prepared in Kaş bulked out with a tin of tomatoes and slices of sausage. While we ate music blasted out from the nearby bar, quietened down for a while before reverting to full volume again. The alternating cycle of noise was repeated for quiet a while until a man took over singing live to recorded backing music. He was good but, unfortunately, he didn’t sing for long and we were back to someone fiddling with the volume control again.

Neither the temperature, nor the humidity, dropped as the evening progressed and we decided to sleep under the awning on our camp stretchers again.

Today's Trip (161km)

Day 144: Saturday 9 August – Two Bob Boam, by Ken

I managed two bobs in the sea today, hence the title of today’s blog.

That reminds me of a story Ella told us about a farmer she knew that had a dog called Bob. I can’t remember the breed, but it was something you wouldn’t usually associate with a farmer - like a Pug. When Bob died, the farmer bought a replacement and named it Two Bob.

Man Fishing From Buoy Seen Early Morning

Jane's Cat With Different Coloured Eyes Returned For Its Morning Bowl Of Milk

Our day started with a trip into Kaş to do some supermarket shopping and top up our cash. We obtained most of what we needed at a small Migros supermarket and the remainder at the Kipa next door where we had shopped on Wednesday. We immediately regretted not going to Kipa first, the fruit and vegetables there looked much better quality.

Returning to Mabel and the plot, Jane was going to take me for a bob in the sea yesterday but then the wind got up bringing choppy water and we had to cancel that plan. We rectified that as soon as we got back from our shopping trip bobbing out to the line of buoys delineating the swimming area. There I hung onto a buoy and floated. The sea was very warm and I regretted not having gone out earlier with Jane.

We Bobbed Out To The Line Of Buoys

We returned to Mabel after our bob. I continued working on the blog while Jane read. The tortoiseshell cat with different coloured eyes returned for its bowl of milk.

Our lunch was Laughing Cow cheese on toast with avocado and peaches for dessert. I returned to the blog while Jane continued reading and dozed a while.

We had parked next to what looked like one of the original Ford Transit camper vans. It was painted bright green and lit appeared its motoring days were over. A youngish woman was living there. Mid-afternoon the woman went over to the falé like structure next to us and removed what we thought was a floor covering to reveal a large tiled pool that she began cleaning. The penny dropped – she was the aqua sausage woman.

Aqua-Sausager's Home 

Aqua Sausage Parlour

Late afternoon we went out for another bob. By then the wind had got up and the sea was quite choppy. That made it even more fun and we stayed out quite a while. Passing the pool on our way back we saw aqua sausaging was in progress.

For our evening meal I cooked pasta which we ate with some of the sauce I prepared yesterday.

Our Secluded Pitch At Kas - Camp Stretchers Ready For Bedtime

It was still very hot and humid and we both slept outdoors again.