Days 10-11: Kayakoy

The next morning we were collected from our hotel by two jeeps, with most of the group sitting sideways in the back of one. It was a very new jeep and mostly closed in, and even had seatbelts which is a rarity in Turkey. We drove out of Kas and stopped at a tiny, ‘sandy’ beach off the highway, which had very coarse sand and freezing water. Our next stop was Xanthos, the old Lycian capital and the most interesting thing about that was the school children cleaning the theatre, with girls putting rubbish in bags and boys sweeping. We couldn’t figure out if it was detention or just locals looking after an historical monument. From Xanthos we drove to Saklikent Gorge, where we ate BBQ trout on cushions sitting by a river. After lunch our guide walked us up to the start of the gorge where we hired rubber shoes and then waded into the water. The first part was quite deep and fast, and the guide helped us across, but after that it was much smoother and very shallow. The gorge is made out of limestone and the water was a funny milky blue colour. It was a spectacular walk, I have never been anywhere like it. We couldn’t go very far in so we eventually returned to the jeeps to move onto Kayakoy, our next stop.

Unfortunately the drive took about an hour longer than necessary because the drivers didn’t know how to get to Kayakoy, so we ended up on this narrow winding road up from Fetiye. Coming into the Kayakoy valley was brilliant as you could see the ‘ghost town’ of grey brick buildings on the opposite hillside. Our hotel (Villa Rhapsody, great name) was a white building on the edge of the village, down a dirt road. It had a lovely garden with colourful flowers and winding paths, and a covered bar area by a perfectly blue pool. Unfortunately the rooms didn’t quite live up to the same standard, being very basic and quite dusty. Once we had our rooms we were invited by Attila the owner back to the pool area for tea and homemade orange and poppy seed cake, which was a perfect welcome after a long ride in a bumpy jeep. They had a resident dog and some cats which probably explained a bit of the dustiness, even though other hotels with cats didn’t feel so unclean.

In the evening we walked into the village, which was tiny and full of fields of poppies. And lots of dogs. Jen took us to Poseiden’s bar/restaurant, again a mostly outdoor area under vines and trees nestled below the ghost town. After drinks most of us went across the road to a gozleme place, where we waited ages for a plate of hot chips and our pancakes, even though we were the only people there. The meat and potatoes gozleme some of us got was disappointingly bland and actually improved by tomato sauce, which no good food should be. The cheese and spinach one was much more popular. It was a restless sleep after that with the dusty room, a cough, and a waffled ‘sheet’ on the bed that felt more like a starched tablecloth. Ouch.

There was breakfast by the pool the next day and then we headed off on our ‘mini trek’ to Oludeniz, via the ghost town. It was really creepy and very sad to think of so many people being forced to leave their homes. We stopped by the high church and then Jen explained the walk to us, and sent Toby on ahead to look for markings on the hill. The first part was the hardest as it was a steep and rocky climb through the ruins and the markings were infrequent. But the view from the top was more than worth it. The rest of the walk took about 2.5 hours and was quite easy. The views of the Mediterranean were brilliant and it was really invigorating to be outside and getting some exercise. Communing with nature and what-not. When we finally got to the lagoon, Jen got us a mini bus to drive us around to the beach area since we were running out of time for the paragliders to eat before their flight. The beach area was very touristy, a flat road with the beach on one side and shops, bars etc on the other. Oludeniz is a popular resort for English tourists so there were lots of sunburnt people around. We got sandwiches for lunch and then the paragliders (Toby and two others from the group) went to jump off a mountain. The rest of us got a table at the bar next door where we could watch the beach and the paragliders landing on the grass. The rest of the group went for a boat trip after lunch but I decided I quite liked where I was so I stayed and had a beer and read my book and just enjoyed the feeling of being on holidays. I got to see Toby and the others land (much to my relief) and then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the same table, eating and drinking and enjoying the view and cheesy pop music. We had a chat to one of the paragliding instructors who was quite a character and entertained us with the story of how he met his English wife and so on. We went for a dip in the water, but it was very cold and the pebbles were annoying so we didn’t stay in very long. It was especially sore on your feet once they’d been all softened in the water. No wonder Europeans and the Brits like Aussie beaches so much. Around 5pm Jen put the four of us into a taxi and we got him to drop us off at Poseiden’s where we had an early dinner of meze that included ‘sensitive’ meatballs (covered in burghal and fried), stuffed vine leaves, borek, humus, broad beans in tomato sauce and a bean and dill thing that had the consistency of butter and was really tasty. Once we’d filled up on meze and beer we went back over the road to the gozleme place for dessert, although there was no fire and so considering our long wait the night before, we offered to come back later. But the man was very insistent so we stayed, and it didn’t take long at all; the boys had chocolate and the girls had lemon and sugar which turned out to be a sugar syrup, with lemon wedges on the side. We were so full after that. When we got back to the hotel, the rest of the group was still waiting for their dinner. I think I was asleep by 9pm that night, full and sleepy after our big day.