Dressed to Kill

No news overnight on the luggage and a new alarm clock in the shape of a Call to Prayer had us up at 600am 

Pulled back the curtains and got a daylight view of the Travertine cliffs which were dotted with a swag of hot air balloons and hang gliders – twas truly spectacular

A quick shower and no time wasted working out what clothes to wear.

Down to breakfast and if this is atypical , we will need to either walk further each day or insult the hosts and not eat what is served up. Then again we could simply let out the belt a notch or two.

First job today, after booking bus tickets to Fethiye, was to get some suitable clothes to explore the ruins and swim in the Ancient thermal pools.

I lucked in early with some €7.5 ‘Nike’ board shorts which were the worst copies you would see.

The proper clothes store was up the hill. It was a Gucci store in the middle of nowhere and when Jane picked up a T-Shirt the girl said ‘ that is tour bus prices you are local guests it’s half price’. Even at half price it was ridiculously expensive so we headed further up the road and bought a swimsuit , shorts and thongs for Jane and hat and thongs for me for about $60, which was probably overpriced. But we needed them.

The ever keen eyed owner spotted another opportunity and shuttled us up to the ruins in his Mercedes for $5.

The ruins site was amazing and spread over a vast area in rocky steep hills. It seems to date back to at least 3AD .

The amphitheater with seating for a 1000 was in amazing condition and the steep steps were a bit too daunting to traverse.

Apollo and his mates lived here and there was a great sculpture of Cerebus the 3 headed dog, a favourite of Freddy Dupree.

There are so many pieces of artifacts just laying around the site and archaeologists were still on active dig sites.

Greatest hit of the day was the Ancient thermal pool which was supposedly a favourite of Cleopatra.

We donned our swimmers and spent an hour in this warm thermal pool with people of all shapes and sizes just floating around, dodging the odd 2000 year old rocks and getting a foot massage from the pebbled bottom.

There were enterprising photographers in the pool rustling up customers to have pictures in a whole range of places, 

Some trying to strike the mermaid pose could have been mistaken for beached sea mammals – but who am I to judge.

Out of the pool and it was down to the white Traventine pools which were cut into the cliff face and constantly fed by thermal water. 

They were beautiful to look at but some of the rocky paths tested old Mr Tenderfoots resilience and pain tolerance. The pools wended their way for about 750 metres along the cliff faces. There was even a canal going from top to bottom with running thermal waters in which many dangled the weary feet.

The end of the pools route led into the township where we grabbed lunch and listened to a very clever parrot imitate either an incoming email alert or the cafe’s microwave alarm. He also mimicked the call to prayer when it played at 100pm.

With hearts in our mouths we headed back to the Hotel and the thumbs up from owner was a heartening sign as he led us into baggage storage – Viola the bags had arrived and the split watermelons smile appeared on our faces.

Changed into fresh clothes and took minibus to the major terminal for our 4 hour trip to Fethiye.

There is only one word for the landscape – RUGGED- the only flat spots seem to be the roads Just on the roads they are as  mountains rugged but also windy. The majority of main highways appear to be getting a major overhaul.

Where there is flat land there ate heaps of market gardens, with much of the produce sold in roadside markets. An intriguing thing on trip was driver pulling  up to one, tooting the horn and owner running out with a cuppa – the ultimate drive through restaurant ,

Stopped halfway for a toilet and drinks break. Like many European countries this Eurasian  country has picked up the trait of charging for WC use- I must say not much is churned back into maintenance.

The driver did a fantastic job navigating his way up and down dale avoiding trucks, tractors And other farm vehicles, plus people constantly overtaking, on very narrow roads. 

About an hour  out of Fethiye a lot small satellite downs with newer houses started to appear, but it didn’t sto the chickens dogs and cats wandering the streets.

Use of mobiles whilst driving and no use of seatbelts seems to be the norm in Turkiye. That said did see a pullover stop manned by several  police, so they do monitor something.

Arrived safely and took a taxi to

our  new vew hotel, The Minu,  situated very centrally in an arcade and next to an unstoppable disco, which obviously complements the call to prayer. 

This is a seething tourist spot which I imagine has become very popular with Yanks given the US centric shops and fast food outlets. It was amazing to see your groups of 50 marching up and down the streets – not too many Aussies accents to date,

We went shopping to provision up for day 1 of the walk, knocked back a pint of my now favourite EFES Pilsner and headed home to

Finalise setting up our backpacks for tomorrow. 

Getting mildly excited  about walking and exploring this amazing country. After 3 months in the planning,.

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