So it begins

More Treehouses

Published Date : October 30, 2004

We spent the morning at Saklikent after another Turkish breakfast of boiled egg, feta and fresh bread.  I wasn’t planning on going up the gorge but curiousity got the better of me and I ended up heading up with Tristan and Ant.  It was worth it.

The gorge gets very narrow very quickly and the ‘walk’ is actually a wade in the icy cold river interrupted by scrambles up rocky rapids.  It was a great morning. We kept going for about 45 minutes and ended up in water up to our waists, or our necks if you count the times we fell in ��  Only the call of lunch brought us back – we would have happily kept going as far as we could.

After lunch it was a 5-hour drive along a scenic coastal road to Olympos.  Part of the drive was pretty hairy as they’re upgrading the windy road and it was little more than a one-lane dirt track in some points.  It made for interesting times when two buses were trying to get past each other.

Our accommodation is more treehouses, at Kadir’s Top Treehouses to be precise.  The place has a great atmosphere, but it’s very rustic. There are no locks on the doors in the dorms, they don’tt close properly and there are rats everywhere.  That said it does have its charm. It’s in the middle of the woods a couple of kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea.  It’s not so much a campground/hostel as a treehouse community with a couple of bars and a restaurant and several “streets” as well. As I mentioned, the atmosphere is great and it’s a perfect place to relax for a couple of days and meet up with other backpackers.

There was an optional extra excursion to go to see the Chimera/Eternal flame tonight, but I passed.  I didn’t really want to spend 10 million lira to see a fire.  Am I jaded or what?  I’m not the only one though.  Only 2 people out of our group went.

Hallowe'en

Published Date : October 31, 2004

I woke up late this morning only to discover that the clocks went back last night so it’s not so late after all.  Another Turkish breakfast – the carnivores on the trip are really starting to suffer, none of us are getting enough protein to satisfy us.  Most of our meals so far this trip have been vegetarian-centric, but it’s a limited food kitty, so there’s not much we can do about it. 

Several of us went on a sea kayaking tour this afternoon – Kane, Scott, Allison, Andi, Ruth, Matt, Deanne, Tris, Tim and Ant.  The tour was 3 hours total, about an hour and a half of that on the water.  We caught the shuttle from Kadir’s to the beach – you have to pay 2 million Lira to get there because you pass through the ruins of Olympos, just another cash grab if you ask me.  From the shuttle it was about a 10 minute walk down the beach and then we have another 15-20 minutes dragging our kayaks up to the water.  The boats here are built for durability, not performance, so they weren’t exactly light!

Once we got in the water, it was brilliant.  We followed the coastline and ducked into caves and coves all over the place.  The water was a fantastic shade of blue and incredibly clear.  Our guide was really laid back and let us set the pace, pointing out cool features along the way.   There were plenty of water fights along the way and everyone had a really great time.  I could have easily spent the entire day out there.  Being out on a kayak is definitely one of my favourite things in life ��

It was a surprisingly quiet night at Kadir’s.  A few people dressed up in costumes for Hallowe’en, but most people just had a quiet one, chatting and playing cards and backgammon.

Hike in the Woods

Published Date : November 1, 2004

We were up early and on the road to Termessos, the ruins of a Pisidian city in the Taurus Mountains.  Alexander the Great tried to conquer it, but never succeeded.  We drove most of the way to the top, but there was still a half hour hike to the bulk of the ruins.  Tim and I took the lead and made it to the top a good 15 minutes before everybody else, and enjoyed the extra time to climb around the ruins of the amphitheatre with no people to get in the way. 

This is the sort of place I love to explore, ruins or no.  It’s great to be out in the mountains, hiking and discovering beautiful vistas.

I headed back down with Molly, Anna and Pete and we got completely turned around.  We knew that our turn off was near some cisterns, but we couldn’t find it for the life of us.  After we had walked past the cisterns about 3 times, we finally found the small trail we had come up on.  Hiking around to the other side of the valley, we walked past some tombs cut into the rocks.  It was actually possible to climb right into them and we got a couple of ‘rising from the dead’ poses in.

Meeting the rest of the group back at the bus, we enjoyed another lunch of tomato, cucumber and meat sandwiches.  Once again, I opted for peanut butter.  I have a feeling this trip is going to be a great way to lose the extra insulation I packed on while I was in London!

Ant, Amy, and Marika were late, and we would have left them behind, but the bus was in need of repair. Luckily for them!  As for the bus repair, it turns out the wheel bearing broke when we got stuck passing the cotton truck on the way to Saklikent. The drive up the mountain today just pushed it past the point of no return.  Good thing Wayne can fix anything!

We had a bush camp in the mountains tonight and it was bloody cold.  Temperature was down to about 5C and everybody was suffering.   Really, that’s not particularly cold, but none of us really had the gear to camp in those temperatures. 

At one point in the evening, the local Jandarma came around to see what was going on.  They saw our campfire from the main road and decided to have a look.  When they found out we were camping they just shook their heads and told us we were nuts.