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More Ruins and More Travelling
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After breakfast we had organised with the pension for a small fishing boat to take us out over the ruins and across the harbour to the island. - a lovely 2 hour trip and we started at 9am which meant we beat the bus loads and boat loads of tour groups doing the same trip later in the morning! In fact we did it, we were the only people out there on mirror calm crystal clear water - so we could see the outline of buildings and wharves in the deep blue water below us. It was very beautiful. And the early start meant that we were back in the car travelling north-west by lunch time.
Today we are headed to Kayakoy, with a few stop offs on the way. We stop for a short look at Kas and then on a long high coastal drive to Kalkan. Both were small fishing villages, now taken over by mostly Brit tourists. Then again we are travelling through wide valleys filled with greenhouses - huge numbers as far as the eye can see!
Our next stop is the little town of Kinik, where the Xanthos ruins are sited. We weren't intending to spend much time here, but we arrive just after the Friday midday prayers have finished and the mosques are empting and all the men are thronging in the streets. The street we are on is getting more and more crowded and has reduced to effectively one very slow lane for cars and some cars are coming at us, which brings us to a complete stop. At which time we realise we are actually in the middle of a huge Friday market - and the end of the street is completely blocked with tents and stalls, and there are cars, tractors and trucks trying to get out - and we're blocking the way!! Finally we manage a 300 point turn with all the guys gesturing and guiding and waving us out, and get on the correct road to the ruins that are just over the hill. Its just too hot, so we only stop on the side of the road to take a photo or two then move on.
We cross back over the main road and back onto some smaller back roads for a while and arrive at the Saklilent Gorge, where a river has carved its way down through the rock to create a very deep, very narrow gorge - so narrow no sun ever reaches into the gorge and the water is permanently cold even in the heat of summer. Its another stop off for many tour buses and the restaurants and souvenir stands abound! However, we pay our money and start walking in via a suspended board walk over the rushing river below. After around 100 meters, the boardwalk ended at a series of waterfalls where much of the water in the bottom part of the river spouts out of cracks in the rock wall. It would be a beautiful spot, except most of it is covered with dining platforms where people are lounging on cushions and eating fish meals from the adjacent restaurant. Chris is appalled - find a beautiful part of nature and stick commercial enterprise all over it!! One of the most spectacular things about this gorge is seeing this amount of water in Turkey right now - we have been travelling for weeks over dry river beds and landscapes that look almost desert-like because there is so little water around. From this point, you can cross the river and then hike 18 kms up the gorge proper, but we're not keen on taking the camera across and the water comes up to your thighs as you cross and Chris isn't keen on getting that wet. A young boy grabs Tina's hand and insists on leading her across the river (for a fee of course!) and its surprising how cold the water is and how strong the current is! Its not deep for very long, then the floor of the gorge becomes sand and relatively easy walking. But with Chris waiting back on the bank, and more miles to cover today, Tina only goes a short way up the now untouristy gorge. Water continues to spurt out of cracks in the sides of the gorge, and even bubbles up through patches of sand in some parts, but the main flow of the water is behind us at the waterfalls.
Again we travel north, on even smaller local roads, to the ruins of Tlos built on a promontory high in the foothills of the Akdagliri mountain range. The promontory is capped by a ruined Ottoman castle, built over an earlier Byzantine one, which in turn overlays a Lycian one. Lycian rock tombs and sarcophagi are scattered around and in the little valle below are the remains of a stadium (with corn growing in the middle and chillies drying on what were the stadium seats), a Theater (again with veges growing all around) and a large bathhouse. Chris is totally ruined out now and sits in the car while Tina fossicks around. Finally back in the car, through Fethye and over some pine covered hills to Kayakoy, where we are staying at a lovely pension with a very welcome swimming pool, really nice hosts and guests (mostly British), and a charming little girl called Lara, who is the daughter of the owners and is the darling of just about every guest.
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