Turkey - Part 5 - Tombs and Turtles

After modern Bodrum, we headed to a much more chilled out small beach town called Akyaka. Here a reed lined river runs into the sea and there were hundreds of boats moored up that offer half hour trips up the river to view the crystal clear waters and if you're lucky see birdlife and fish. We jumped on board one of the boats congratulating ourselves that we had it to ourselves, but were then joined by a group of about 20. We got chatting to them and discovered they were from Hungary and were being shown around by a Turkish English teacher. With all the chatting we didn't actually pay too much attention to what we were sailing past, but the water was unbelievably clear.

We decided we'd park up here for the night in a car park next to the water. There is a lovely beach with bars and restaurants busy with visitors and locals coming to see the sunset. We got chatting to a local guy who said he'd lived in the UK for many years and now worked on the dayboats that tour around the coast in the summer. The sunset was a beauty.

The following morning we took a walk around the headland of the bay. It is a beautiful spot. The town itself had some really attractive buildings - lots with balconies and red tiled roofs - very different to what we'd seen so far in Turkey. We liked it.

We continued on passing a nearby town where the windsurfers hang out which had nice tree lined roads.

We drove on to the town of Dalyan. After Akyaka being quite lively, we were a bit disappointed to see the town looking quite closed up. It is quite a quirky place where the Dalyan river runs into the sea at one of Turkey's most scenic beaches called Iztuzu beach. As well as this, there are incredible rock tombs and the historic city of Kaunos nearby. Again there were countless boats moored up that offered boats trips around the area. While we were grabbing a cup of tea, the restaurant owner made a call to a friend, and the next minute we were agreeing to take a boat tour with him down to Iztuzu beach. We weren't really prepared for it, so were a bit shocked at how cold the wind was on the water We passed by the Kings Tombs carved into the cliffs which are spectacular. We continued on through incredibly scenic reed lined waterways. By this time we were wrapped in blankets. We docked up at the beach and had around 30-40 minutes to take in the views. The beach is a 5km long spit which forms a barrier between the Dalyan river and the Med. The beach looked stunning - wild and windswept, but we could see it was set up to accommodate a lot of visitors in the summer.

We needed to defrost when we got back to town. We had parked up in a car park on the waterfront that looked out to the Rock Tombs where we enjoyed the sunset.

The area has an extensive network of way-marked cycling and hiking routes, so the following day we followed one that took us around Lake Koycegiz. The first half took us along quiet backroads lined with citrus groves to the town of Koycegiz. To get to the town we ended up cycling about 4 miles on dual carriageway which was a bit hairy. We opted to cycle on the hard shoulder facing the oncoming traffic to give us a fighting chance to avoid a nasty end on a Turkish drivers bumper. The second half was much more scenic, climbing up almost Alpine scenery roads with stunning views across the lake and snow covered mountains for the backdrop. We'd carried our bathers around hoping we'd have a chance to stop off at some mud baths and thermal pools, but they weren't open when we passed. We had to catch a ferry back across the river to return to Dalyan. All in all a beautiful bike ride.

We decided to move on from the town parking spot and drove to the other end of Iztumu beach where there is a turtle conservation centre. Vehicles are not allowed to park overnight at the beach, so we found a great spot up the hill from the beach ready to head to there for breakfast in the morning.

The Sea Turtle Conservation Foundation on the beach was founded by June Haimoff, a British woman with a fascinating life story. After travelling extensively in her yacht, she first arrived in Dalyan in 1975. The locals named her 'Kaptan June', and she eventually set up house on Iztumu beach where she observed the loggerhead turtles that visited the beach. The hut she lived in could be visited at the centre - it certainly had a super view. She went on to successfully defend the beach from hotel resort developers and the beach was made a protected area, and she was awarded an MBE in 2011. She remained active at the Foundation until her death in 2022 at the age of 99.

Not being nesting season there was no action on the beach, but there are always injured turtles in the rehabilitation centre. The ones we saw had either been injured by boats or had conditions where their buoyancy had gone.

We spent the rest of the day having a walk along the beach, where we came across several tortoises, and some chill time in the sunshine. We stayed for sunset before driving back up the road to another overnight stop.

The following day (Sunday) we headed back to Fethiye as we had Lolly booked in for a service at the Iveco garage there on the Monday morning. En route we called in at a stunning harbour area at a town called Gocek. It oozed money with high end boats moored up and very nice looking restaurants buzzing with people enjoying the sunshine. We joined them for a spot of lunch before continuing on to Fethiye.

We decided to park up further down the bay to where we'd stopped last time. We had a nice view of the bay and the sunset, but it was a very noisy spot with cars coming and going into the night. Colin even ended up helping a motorist who'd got his car grounded in the stones.

We got lolly to the Iveco garage early and the guys set to work straight away. Colin had sent them a list of everything he wanted looking at and they seemed to do a good job. We winced when they said she needed new front brake pads, but were pleasantly surprised with the price.

Lolly's rear view camera had stopped working, which they couldn't help us with, but they did recommend somewhere to take her and told us to be careful of being overcharged. Colin wasn't convinced about the young guy who checked the camera out. Colin was convinced it was a loose wire, but the young guy was quick to say it was the camera that had packed up. He finally proved it by trying a new camera on our wiring that worked, and after a bit of negotiating on if they could just sell us the camera and not the full kit to set it up, we got it sorted, again thankfully for a reasonable price.

As it was getting late in the day to set off to a new destination, we decided to go to the paid parking lot we'd stayed at on our first visit which is in a lovely spot and very quiet at night.

We had an early dinner - a mezze feast which was delicious and enjoyed the sunset and a peaceful night.

Before leaving Fethiye the next day we cycled along the waterfront one last time, then hit the road again to explore more of the beautiful turquoise coast.