DAY 17 - Saturday 21st May

Ian’s turn.

We have been traveling around for a few days and have fallen behind in our blog.  No rest allowed on this holiday - so here is the latest.

By the pool Villa Rhapsody

Tuesday (17th) saw us waking in the lazy island of calm of The Oyster Residence, in the madness that is Oludinez.  This hotel is the best place we have stayed so far, - but it was too good to last.  So we pack our bags and off we go to Villa Rhapsody, about 10 km away in the hills behind Oludinez - but it could have been a million miles away.

Deserted village of Kaya Koy in background

Set amongst fields and a short walk from the “ghost village” of Kaya Koy, it is a small “pension” run by a turkish / dutch couple.  No “duff-duff” from disco speakers here!  Good food but a very hard bed for the next three nights.  We sat by the pool, swam, read another book and went for walks to see the local sights, including the 500 empty houses in a village that was emptied and deserted when the Greeks and Turks swapped 2m people following their war in 1923.

Found a great wine bar amongst the ruins, and had my best white wine yet. Back to the pool, grilled fish for dinner.

Jane, wine and olives - what more could I want?

Thursday 19th May -  Pick up a hire car from Fethiye in the morning, (usual story in the shop, 3 men sitting around talking and one woman doing all the bookings and paperwork….)

Then drive 30km north to another Lycian ruin at Kaunos and a protected turtle hatchery at Iutuzu beach, near Dalayan, the first real sandy beach we have seen in Turkey so far. 

Driving on the “wrong” side of the road a little stressful but the roads are generally good and wide and drivers pretty calm, so far at least!

Friday 20th May - set off on the coast road to Antalya via Kas.  Its a bit like the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, except cut into a steeper, higher, hillside, and liable to get very narrow at the pointy bits - so luckily it was not busy as I drove along. Stopped at another sandy turtle beach at Patrata, with the usual greek /roman ruins, but this time they are actually rebuilding the old Odeon - looked great. 

Reconstruction of the odeon at Patara.

Arrived at Kas and met up with Steve and Pam T who are touring Turkey (in the other direction!) before meeting us again later in France.

Kas is a delight, a small but rapidly expanding seaside town clinging to the steep slopes and small foreshore next to a harbour, with a string of islands just offshore. It is the base for much fishing and tourist sailing and cruising. Our hotel is one of many built into the hillside but has no lift, - 150 steps from our room down to the platforms built out over the sea for sunbathing and swimming.

Look hard for bits of the sunken city of Simena.

Next day a quick drive to Kerkova, and a trip out in a small boat to view the drowned remains of the Lycean city of Simena, which was not only destroyed by an earthquake in 270AD, but it actually sunk it!  We had time to just sit and soak up the suns rays looking out over the amazing view too, so what more could you want - a softer bed perhaps…..

The upload speed for the photos is terrible here, so I'm going to post his now but add more photos later.

Day 12 - Monday 16 May (Jane's post)

……….and sun we have!  And have had since the last post (cue trumpet?). After Selcuk we had 24 hours whizzing too fast through the fantastic ruins of Aphrodisias, and then a completely bizarre visit to Pamukkale and its travertine marble ledges and very hot springs.

This is marble, not snow!

Sat up to my neck in clear hot water that tasted like intense San Pellegrino, then had a bath in spa water in our hotel. And next morning Ian and I had a 7.00am sit in an even hotter spa with a bunch of Russians who liked smothering themselves in clay as well.

The hot mud spa

Our journey from Selcuk to the coast was by public bus on tiny mountain roads. Heaps of locals (no chooks or goats) plus us and 2 others from Bellingen, NSW. And, of course, we discovered we knew people in common. We could see snow on the mountain tops, and that’s hard to believe as I write this wearing my bathers.

The Oyster Residence: our steps

Oyster Residence: lounging spot

We chose The Oyster Residence, Oludeniz, from internet research, and we are delighted with it. From those of you in Oz, it could be in Byron Bay, except it’s on the Aegean! It’s got  loads of lovely touches in the flowers and fabrics and hammocks. Staff are delightful and food excellent.  Lots of congregating round the beautiful pool. I love all the meeting and chatting that is going on.

on Santa Claus island

Today we took a boat trip round the coast to crystal clear coves, and a visit to St Nicholas island where Santa Claus was a Bishop in the 8th Century. We both feel as if we are slowing down at last.

DAY 8 - Thursday 12th May

Ian's blog today.

So today we had our ‘Free day” in Selcuk.  No tour to get up for early, so a slower start. Breakfast at 9am, before walking to one of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. (How many of the other 6 Wonders can you name?).   The wonder now when you see it is, "where has it gone?" 

The site of Temple of Artemis, with the Cadi Mosque, the Basilica of St John and the Crusader Citadel in the distance. 

If you hopped around on our hotel's rooftop restaurant terrace, you could actually see the one remaining (reconstructed) column.  Apparently this Temple was bigger than the Parthenon in Athens, quite magnificent, and, as usual, destroyed by, you guessed it, an earthquake in 367AD.

The Temple as it was - except it was not in a glass case in a museum in 300AD.

Then walk on to the Museum which has many of the finds from Ephesus, a great window into Roman life in the first few Centuries AD.

Really pretty sophisticated with hot and cold running water and sewers - if you were not a slave of course! This was the heart of Asia Minor - with a population of 250,000 in the area at that time.  

Next on to the Basilica of St John, yes THAT St John, who lived here from 60AD and died here in 97AD ish.  Wrote his gospel here.  St Paul passed thru' as well around 65AD, and wrote a letter to the Ephesians - but they really didn’t like his messages, so arrested him and sent him on to Rome.

The Basicilica of St John, or what's left of it

As usual the buildings over the tomb of St John started off small, burnt down or fell over a few time, ended up with the largest church in the Byzantine empire in 650AD and lasted until the Muslim hoards turned it into a mosque in 1360 and was then destroyed by (another) earthquake in 1397AD! As so another pile of picturesque ruins.

On the way back to the hotel and the long awaited swim (finally a sunny day) Jane stops and bargains for a scarf made from the local traditional Turkish fabric - bamboo! Yes, honest - she will show it to you if you ask nicely.

Swim, journals and some blogging, but something happened and we lost the first version of this one - so this actually is the second edition.

Will this be big enough to wrap our lunch in? Only 15 Lira.

Dinner was out at a restaurant in the centre of town, at “the Wallabies Fish Restaurant” for goodness sake!  And yes it was full of Australians...  We were going to another one recommended by Lonely Planet, but it was outdoors dining and by now it was raining buckets, so we needed a warm, dry spot -  this one now comes highly recommended in the rain.

We are enjoying all this cultural history, but are looking forward to stopping still for few days soon by a beach, hopefully with some sun ………….