A Day at the Beach
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2007
1
36
68
Trip End
Nov 08, 2007
Pamucak,
Turkey
Thursday, September 20, 2007
First stop is Pamukac Beach, only a few kms from Selcuk and really easy to find, Lonely Planet writes it up as one of Turkey's best beaches. We get there and its deserted - one guy fishing and a few people swimming at the far end. Plus the blokes with the digger dredging out a river bed (it's the same river that silted up Ephesus's harbour and effectively killed the city, so I guess keeping it flowing is a pretty important job, but its not exactly adding to the atmosphere of the place...) Its not a bad beach - classic golden sand, arcing around for a couple of miles. And I guess it is pretty good if you live in Germany or central Europe, but coming from NZ or Australia its hard to see why its so talked up. Its also hard to imagine that less than a month ago it was wall to wall bodies and sun umbrellas!!
We did the obligatory wander and paddle, but decided to leave our swim for later. We checked out the flotsam and jetsam bought in by the waves and tides and found only stacks of the local seaweed - looks a lot like shredded paper - but no driftwood, no shells, a bit of rubbish, but that's it really. Guess its no surprise - there is very little tide here and the waves are gentle little ripples that simply kiss the shore (how poetic is that!!). Although the storms must happen - there's a bunch of wrecks out there to prove it....
Headed south along the coast as the guys at Hotel Bella said we should go to the National Park for some good beaches. First we had to pass through the port town of Kusudasi, which is where most of the Med cruise ships stop for their day at Ephesus. Only 2 ships in town today and one was the Wind Spirit which is the sister ship to the one we went on for our Caribbean cruise 3 years ago. We wandered around the port area, which has a whole heap of fishing boats as well as the cruise ships - interesting how many fish live (thrive!) in the water, which is crystal clear, despite the diesel film across it.
The previous evening we'd had the "Dummies Guide to Turkish Carpets" from Nasmi at the hotel (the carpet business is their main business, the hotel is just a side line). Really, really interesting and we almost bought a couple of good size carpets, then steeled our selves and decided we already have enough stuff! But it was a great introduction. Which meant that when the carpet sellers who target the cruise tourists approached us, we could look at their offerings with a new (and prejudiced!) eye.
However, the joys of having the carpet sellers on soon palled, so off out of Kusudasi towards the National Park. But first to get out of Kusudasi - the place goes on forever. The centre of town is quite nice - there's an old caravanserai now done up as a luxury hotel, the port area which has been nicely enhanced and a great old bazaar area between the 2. But further out, where there one were orchards, farms and olives are now mile upon mile upon mile of Brit, German and other European holiday houses.... Can quite believe it when Erdul said that the full time population of 50,000 swells to over half a million in the summer months.
Finally reached the national park, which extends over the whole of the peninsular south of Kusadasi - in fact almost to Priene where we had been 2 days ago. From the maps it looks as if you can drive all the way down the north side of the peninsular to the end, then come back on the south side past Priene. But turns out no! You pay YTL 10 to enter the park, butt he accessible road only goes part the way down the northern side, to give access to 4 beaches, then the rest of the road is restricted access for military coast guard (guarding against another Greek invasion??) and hikers. Never mind - the beaches are worth the entry fee alone - it really is a very beautiful part of the country. Tree covered mountainside leading right down to completely clear, blue, blue waters - we've never seen such clear water - you can easily see the fishes swimming around, even in the deeper water!
So on to the first beach and out for a paddle. Then Tina lets out a yelp - one of the cute little fishes has had a nibble of her ankles - then another! Chris doesn't believe her so comes out to stand knee deep in the water...and gets nibbled too!! Not enough to draw blood, but enough for an unpleasant surprise. The trick is to keep swimming or moving - as soon as you stand still the little buggers try you out for dinner!!!
We tried all the beaches and liked the last one the best. No sand, but lovely smooth pebbles and since we didn't have towels to lie on, smooth pebbles were much better - a lot easier to brush off. And way less people. Only bad spot - Tina managed to get stung on the back by some unidentified nasty (probably a wasp - there seems to be heaps of them in Turkey). Despite this it was a great way to spend the day - and we really need to start working on tidying up the tan. We are both getting bad tourist tans - brown arms to shirt sleeve level and brown legs from ankles to shorts leg, with zebra striped feet from wearing hiking sandals.
We even saw some wild life 0 some not so wild boars practically climbed into the car looking for food.
A great day, but finally had enough, so back to the hotel for our last few hours chatting to Nazmi, Erdal and Leeanne.
