A Looooong Weekend in Kas

Hello! So much has happened since I last wrote!

We went to the wedding at Patara. It was very strange! It was held at the school at a village about 10 minute's drive from Patara. We rolled up there at about 8.30pm to find about 500 people sitting around a dancing area. They were mostly rural people in their everyday clothes which made us feel better about turning up in our trekking gear (cos that's all we had).

The funny thing was that those plastic chairs were the same ones we had just used for the festival!

We waited for about half an hour in the cold evening air before the bride and groom turned up. The bride wore white and was dressed exactly like our traditional brides except her hair was completely covered. They danced while fireworks went off and laser lights made impressive displays. After the dancing they put sashes on and people lined up to pin money to them. Then an enormous cake came out. They cut it then people started leaving, including us. Apparently there would be two more days of various celebrations before the wedding was complete!

We finally dragged ourselves away from Patara. It had been such a wonderful place to visit.

We knew that the next day was going to be difficult walking so we had the large pack sent ahead to our next accommodation. It was just as well we did. The first part of the day was fine with spectacular views, however the last part was very difficult. We scrambled up and over boulders along the side of a hill above the sea. If we had slipped we wouldn't have killed ourselves but we would certainly have got ourselves pretty bashed up. It was good hat we were two people - we could help each other over tricky bits and help pass the small pack and walking poles up and down the steep parts.

We finally staggered into Kalkan. It was weird walking into the town cos the English have invaded here (like many other coastal towns of Turkey) and there are flash villas everywhere. What made it weird is that most of them were empty. They are only busy in summer. We found our gorgeous hotel which we didn't realise was right beside the mosque. We just love the calls to prayer everywhere at 5.30am - not! Anyway, at least the view from the breakfast balcony was amazing!

We didn't see much of this town cos we had another big day coming up. Once again there were spectacular views.

When we walk all day, it's hard to carry enough water, however this is the same problem that has been faced for thousands of years by goatherds, travellers and villagers alike. Over the years, cisterns have been set up around good springs. We were very grateful to find this one. The water is supposed to be good in most of these and we certainly had no problems with it.

We had a hard slog up the side of a mountain, had CCs and yoghurt drink for lunch at a tiny shop then kept going to a flash pansiyon run by an eccentric English guy at Saribelen. We needed to rest our blistered feet so we holed up here in great comfort for a couple of days.

We then had another big day to a village called Gokceoren. This was very basic but fine. I had great fun exploring the gorgeous old grain storage houses.

There were birds singing here and the countryside was beautiful. All was good - until I turned a corner and found a horse that was cruelly tethered. To cut a long story short, I found out it belonged to the owner of our pansiyon and that it wasn't being fed (yes, I sneaked some grass to it). I tried to talk to the owner about it but he just said it was "a problem" and walked off. I could get no further. I struggled to sleep that night and that poor horse plagued me for days. Generally, the Turkish people have been fantastic with their animals. In the larger towns they have cat houses set up in the streets. People feed stray dogs and cats and we saw some wonderful displays of affection for animals. The treatment of the horse truly was an anomaly but it really rattled me.

We gratefully got out of there the next day to begin one of our longest days. If only we realised what we were in for! We walked and walked and walked.  It was such a long day but the views were amazing. Yes, that's snow in the distance!

10 hours after we left, we staggered into out next pansiyon absolutely buggered. John had a bad blister and it had hurt for the entire 10 hours. We scrambled over rocks and climbed up and down hills. The lovely old guy at our basic country pansiyon was waiting for us but we ended up giving him some extra money to forfeit our booking and take us to Kas (pronounced Cash) instead. After such a difficult day we just wanted a good bed. It was the best decision ever! We loved Kas so much we stayed for 5 nights!

Firstly the hotel was fantastic. Think about a good hotel in your local capital city then transplant that into a wonderful small town with spectacular views, great staff and wonderful guests. We had a ball!

First we explored the market. It was very similar to our markets at home.

The town was lovely - quite touristy but still gorgeous. Note the ancient Lycian tomb in amongst the shops.

Our fun began on the very first night when we went out for dinner. We started talking to a Canadian couple behind us. We somehow invited a single Turkish girl from another table to join us and then the waiter joined in as well. By the end of the night we were the only ones in the restaurant and we were all having a blast!

Sometime during the night we changed our plans and decided to join the Canadians, Kelly and John, on a boat trip the next day. Jen, an American we had met several times, joined us as well. We travelled around ancient ruins and chilled out on the boat. It was such a change from walking!

 Being photobombed on the boat - Canadian style. Kelly was a lot of fun!

At Kekova Island, an earthquake caused ancient Lycian ruins to slide into the sea. We cruised along them.

We climbed to a castle at the top of a hill and explored a gorgeous area of ancient Lycian tombs.

Jen and I found this gorgeous old lady who was pulling the leaves from dried herbs. She had oregano, sage and thyme. The place smelled wonderful and she was so sweet!

By now we were joined by Janita from Australia, so, keeping up with sharing a big weekend with everyone, we all caught a ferry out to Meis, a Greek island very close by, the next day. We had to go through the whole passport control thing even though the island was only 30 minutes away by ferry. An English girl, Laura, joined us. Meis was wonderful. Pastel coloured houses lined the shores and we had a ball exploring the small town.

There's not a lot to do on Meis, but there is what they call "the blue cave". We thought we'd give it a go. It was fantastic! We were split into a couple of groups to fit onto the tiny boat. To get into the cave we all had to lie on the bottom of the boat. The entrance was tiny!

Inside was like another world. The small amount of sunshine shining into the cave caused everything to turn the most amazing shade of blue. It was truly wonderful!

We got talking to Nikos, the Greek boatman, and found he had an amazing story to tell. He fishes during the winter and in 2015 and 2016 he rescued many Syrian refugees. He talked about hauling women and children into his boat and having to leave the others behind who then didn't make it. He once rescued a man and woman who had drifted out to the open water on a life ring. The seas were as flat as a pancake when we were there but they apparently get very rough in winter. People smugglers will put people to sea at any time, even when it's dangerous. At one stage, Nikos had 60 refugees on his small fishing boat - pictured below.

When we travel, it seems that 9 time out of 10, the stories are amazing and wonderful, however, there are always some sad stories no matter where you are in the world.

On a lighter note, I thought you'd like this photo of John - just call him Mr Whiskers!

Bye for now!

Heather