Sun, Sea and Sky

There's something about being near water that makes me smile. Case in point, as we came over a hill and around a corner on our bus ride from Fethiye to Kas four days ago and were surrounded on three sides by bright blue sea I was instantly filled with joy and could not get the smile of my face.

I should go back though, since some very exciting fun happened in Fethiye. Actually first I should say our good weather luck kind of ran out when we left Selcuk and it rained the whole day while we traveled to Fethiye which wasn't so bad since we spent most of the day on the bus. It did make the 20 minute walk to dinner from our hostel not so fun...my so called waterproof jacket isn't so waterproof, more like somewhat resistant. The next day was looking like it might be the best valentines day ever but we woke up to rain and clouds which put a bit of a damper on things...literally. It did start clearing up around 11am so we decided to make an attempt at paragliding, yup that's right, running off a cliff and hoping the parachute stops you from crashing into the trees below. After about 30 minutes on a winding road along the sea (no guard rails) then onto a dirt road that became a rocky path we were at the jump site. Our pilot told us to take a look around and 5 minutes later came to tell us that it was too windy to land so we wouldn't be taking off...probably a good idea...and back down we went. All was not lost though, on the way back to town we got dropped of in a place called Kayakoyu. It was largely abandoned after WWI and the Turkish war of independence when Greece and Turkey swapped their Christian and Muslim populations. Problem was there were a lot more Ottoman Christians that Greek Muslims and so lots of Turkish towns were never resettled. Two churches are still intact but the rest of the hundreds of homes and buildings that used to make up the town have started to crumble. We spent a good hour or two wandering in and out of buildings, scared up a few goats and came across some cows and exited at a ticket booth...the one where we entered was closed...which we walked by as nonchalantly as possible, not wanting to make them think we thought we should have paid. When we got back to the hostel we had company, a couple from New Zealand, Sonja and Murray, and we watched a crazy lightning storm before going to bed and hoping the weather would clear by morning...and it did! By 1pm we were up in the sky about 1500m, a little cold, but having an amazing time. Our run off a cliff was more like walking down a hill but it was pretty amazing all the same. To get down our pilots...we went tandem...suggested we try some tricks. This consisted of a crazy spin move where you're basically horizontal and then huge swooping circles to pull out of it. It felt like my stomach was in my throat...the contents of Josh's ended up on the beach when he landed...but a few seconds later we were on the beach. We went back to Fethiye planning on catching a bus to Kas that night but missed the last bus while we were having lunch so we trekked up to the ruins in town instead, thus concluding the best day after valentines day ever.

Back now to the bus ride to Kas. That day the sun was out, not a cloud in the sky and our hostel had a view of the harbour and a Greek island in the distance. A much smaller town that Fethiye there were lots of little shops to look through and we had lunch along the harbour. There seemed to be a gang of town dogs that ran around town and a few had found sunny spots in the outdoor cafe to take a nap. Josh has taken to naming all the dogs we meet. In return they seem to expect a sampling of our meal but they've so far been unsuccessful. The next day we rented scooters along with Sonja and Murray who showed up later the day before we took a trip to a couple sights a few towns over. First was a place called Ucagiz where we took a boat trip to see the ruins of a crusader castle in Simena, and then floated over the sucken city that used to be on Kekova island. Two earthquakes collapsed the town a few meters under the sea but you can still see the ruins on a calm day for about a kilometer and a half along the coast. After our little boat trip we hoped back on and went to a town called Demre and saw the ruins of Myra and the church of St. Nicholas who yes you guessed it, became the legend that is Santa Claus. Our last stop was a small beach where the gulet ships that take people on 4 day cruises in the summer were all up on shore, in various stages of repair and refurbishing and then we were off, 45 km back to Kas through the hills. It was probably the coldest 45 minutes I've experienced in a year as the sun went down and the wind became less than warm, but we were welcomed back to our hostel with a dinner of barbequed fish, soup and salad. Josh and I set out on our own yesterday without the scooter. We took a dolmus (public minibus) out to the ruins of Xanthos and then Patara, both ancient Lycian towns. We had both places all to ourselves which was kind of nice. What we didn't realize was that Patara is a little more than a few kilometers off the main road and there isn't much public transportation back and forth. A farmer picked us up on the way down and took us as far as the turn off to his house...he also gave us two cucumbers and an orange, gotta love Turkish hospitality...and then we walked probably about an hour down to the ruins and the beach, 18km of white sand. Josh didn't quite appreciate the walking, especially as on they way back we weren't sure if we'd have to walk the whole way. In the end we walked up past where we had be dropped off before but then were able to catch what I think was the local school bus up to the main road. It was full of kids who took great joy from saying hello and what's your name over and over again.

Now we're in Olympus staying in a 'treehouse'. Basically a little wood cabin on short stilts. There are some that look a little more like treehouses but they aren't heated so they're a no go in the winter months. This morning we walked down to the beach and through the ruins of the ancient town. We didn't quite get to see all of them because the waves are a little too high today and it would require getting more than a little wet to get to the otherside of the creek that runs from the beach up through town. We had planned on hiking up to Chimera to see the famous eternal flames but it started raining just before we started out so we're now waiting to see if the weather will clear...which is why I've had time for this long winded post. Hopefully those of you who actually made it this far think it was worth it.