Turkey - Part 4 Chasing The Sun

We had over a three hour drive from Pamukkale to Fethiye on the coast - we thought it was worth a bit of a detour to enjoy a couple of warm sunny days which the forecast was promising. The drive took us up a pass which took us onto a scenic wide plateau with snow-capped mountains as the backdrop.

After the fairly empty scenery it was a bit of a shock to pull up in a bustling coastal town in glorious sunshine. We parked up next to a beach which was next to a promenade full of bars, restaurants and cafes with a good few being open. A lot of the places were advertising ‘Full English Breakfast’ and Pie Menus and it wasn’t long until we spotted the ex-pats who looked like they’d been sat in the bars all afternoon. We joined them in our first sundowner (or two) of the trip, relishing feeling the suns warmth through our thermal tops.

The following morning we got the Bromptons out and cycled around the bay in one direction stopping for a late breakfast on the way back. We then carried on to the main part of the town and harbour area. We were very impressed with the central promenade which had very well maintained recreational areas and a cycle path that ran all the way around the bay. The centre of town looked like it would be lively in season. Nearer to where we were parked up there was a nature reserve with a variety of birds. The beach and promenade were nice and busy with families enjoying the Sunday sunshine. We guess many of them were making the most of outdoor dining before Ramadan commenced the following week.

We treated ourselves to a late afternoon lunch on the promenade and enjoyed a selection of mezze plates and grilled seabass fillet - all delicious. There was another nice sunset to wrap it up.

The following day we got our road bikes out to cycle up and around the headland. We passed through the main harbour area. There are an incredible number of boats of all sizes here, with one of the main activities in the summer season being to cruise around the turquoise coast. The cycle route gave us some beautiful views of some turquoise bays and across to the harbour. On the way back Colin had spotted a Cycle Cafe where we had to stop. We were starting to think we could live here.

We got Lolly packed up to continue on to Marmaris, a much larger tourist town. On our way out of Fethiye we called in at yet another Iveco garage where Colin managed to arrange a service of Lolly when we'll be coming back through here in a couple of weeks time.

The weather had reverted back to cool and mizzly, and with Marmaris very much closed up out of season we weren’t feeling the love after Fethiye. We parked up in a back street on the edges of town and got the Bromptons out to cycle to the main harbour area. The promenade was covered in sand and debris and many of the bars and restaurants appeared to be sweeping out debris from their premises, so we can only assume the recent stormy weather had hit hard here.

We didn’t hang around the following day and continued our journey down the Dacta peninsula which is a largely unspoiled mountainous stretch of land separating the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. The road rose very quickly, winding its way up into the mountains with stunning views back to the coast. There were many areas being worked on after landslides - another remnant of the recent storms.

We passed through some traditional villages, one (Sogut) which had a harbour area where the well-heeled boat owners moor up in summer to eat at one of the many fish restaurants. We called in for a coffee at the attractive small coastal town of Bozburun and later stopped at a well at the side of the road to top up our fresh water. We decided to park up for the night before reaching Dacta, and found a fabulous spot with a sea view down a remote road. It wasn’t long until the rain started though.

It was Shrove Tuesday, so pancakes were on the menu. As we were finishing them, the wind picked up considerably, and Lolly was having a good rock and roll. The forecast was showing storms and the rain was getting heavier. After a few flashes of lightning we thought maybe we should move to a more sheltered spot.

It was pitch dark and with the heavy rain, it was difficult to find anywhere suitable nearby. We ended up back on the main road, and finally found a spot right next to the road. There was another car parked there, so we wedged ourselves in, thinking we were facing trees and in a sheltered spot.

We had a bit of a shock when we woke in the morning to see this view out of the window!

It was another very wet day - at least the ducks were enjoying it. Dacta is set in a beautiful sheltered bay and we parked up with several other Turkish motorhomes on the headland looking across the bay. It was tipping it down with rain so we holed up in Lolly for a couple of hours before venturing into town. Whilst it is set up for tourism, it wasn’t in your face and as well as numerous bars and restaurants on the waterfront, there were nice shopping streets selling local produce - the main ones being almond products and honey. We had just missed the almond blossom festival the town hosts every February - sadly we think the heavy rains of the last few days had washed off most of any remaining blossom from the trees.

Finally the rain cleared up the following day so we could enjoy seeing the town in sunshine. We even got our fika fix of coffee and cinnamon buns.

We booked on a ferry to take us across to Bodrum in the afternoon to save a long drive all the way back round the peninsular, and on the way to the ferry we visited the old town of Dacta set 3km from the coast. Although only a small area there were lovely traditional stone houses and boutique hotels and restaurants that would be great on a summer evening. We saw more cats and dogs than people, most whom looked like they’d been partying the night before.

The ferry took about 40 minutes to cross to Bodrum. We got chatting to a very nice Turkish couple on a motorbike who were living near Bodrum for a few months.

Bodrum is known as the Turkish Riviera and it does look impressive as you approach from the sea with its 15th Century castle and low rise white buildings around the bay and hugging the hillside.

We drove to the neighbouring town of Bitez which has a very popular beach in the summer. There is a motorhome parking place there where we parked up for 4 nights while we visited Bodrum and had a trip to Kos without Lolly. Bitez beach was pleasant - we enjoyed a nice sunset our first evening.

The next day we took a local minibus (dolmus) into Bodrum costing just €1 for the 20 minute journey. We went to the port to check out how to visit Greece without Lolly, as our passports are stamped as having brought a vehicle into Turkey so leaving without her could cause a problem with Customs. There is only one ferry boat to Kos in the morning at this time of year, so the customs guy had gone home and we were told to come back the next morning.

We had a mooch around the waterfront and I took the opportunity to get my hair ‘painted’ and cut. It feels slightly strange that most of the hairdressers in Turkey are men, but thankfully another guy in the shop spoke enough English to explain to my hairdresser what I wanted. I was actually very pleased with the results!

The forecast for the following day was for heavy rain all day, but we got ourselves into Bodrum again early to visit the Customs office. It turned out to be quite a simple process of filling out a form and we were asked to call in when we returned to show we’d come back. We purchased our ferry tickets and with the weather so awful headed back to the campsite, stopping at a small shopping centre on the way - you can tell Bodrum is popular with the Brits.

After our comments about stray dogs in Greece, Turkey has as many, if not more, but they all seem well cared for. Shops put food and water bowls outside and most of them looked pretty healthy. Most were also very placid and friendly. Dogs and cats are also allowed in many restaurants and cafes too without being shooed away, so most of our meals out were spent with big hungry eyes staring up at us or a cat on the lap.

There are quite a number of Greek islands just off the coast of Turkey, but Kos seemed the easiest to visit and we hoped would have more life out of season than some of the less touristy places. We cycled to the port with a daybag of a change of clothes and a wash bag. We’d booked a hotel in Kos Town for a night. Although not far to cycle to Bodrum it was a surprisingly hilly cycle route to avoid the main roads. After the last few days wet weather, the weather was promising to be sunny and dry for the next two days.

Kos Town looked beautiful as we approached. It took nearly an hour to clear passport control to get through the new European border controls. Lord help visitors during the peak season.

After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we did a very nice bike ride which took us up into the hills in the centre of the island which had great views back down to Kos Town and took us through some quaint villages. We dropped back down to the coast and passed some not so pretty closed beach resorts. A route through a nature reserve was underwater so we had to double back. I then discovered I had a slow puncture, so Colin had his least favourite job of fixing it - the tyres on my bike are impossible to get back on.

Our hotel had a great view out to sea and the Turkish coast . We had a job finding a restaurant open on a Sunday evening out of season, but finally found a traditional cosy taverna on a back street that was open and enjoyed a nice meal.

The following day, after a buffet breakfast in our hotel, we did another bike ride taking in the farthest part of the bay near Kos Town. There was a cycle path for much of it. Everywhere locals were flying kites. We later found out this day is a bank holiday in Greece called ‘Clean Monday’ which is the Greek Orthodox Shrove Monday where they start a period of 40 days healthy eating. It also explained why we’d seen lots of people in fancy dress the day before marking the last day of their Carnival season.

Finding somewhere to get a lunch before catching the ferry back to Bodrum was a little challenging again, but we stumbled across a lively fish restaurant. The waitress explained we had to go in and choose our fish from the counter inside. It was chaos - packed with locals buying raw and cooked fish to takeaway. We were lucky to get a table outside but eventually got our tasty grilled squid, prawns and a Greek salad.

Back in Turkey, when we got back to our campsite in the evening two more vans were parked up - an English van with its occupants remote working, and a Canadian couple exploring Europe. Both couples were in Turkey to sit out the Schengen/visa 90 day rules.

We decided to stay another day to catch up on housekeeping jobs and do more laundry and work out where to head next - definitely time to get back on the road.