Driving to Greece

Well the last couple of weeks of March were spent driving to Greece and looking at the various sites and places along the way.

We initially eased ourselves into the trip by spending the evening with Pat and Chris for a bon-voyage dinner, before heading for Bodrum early on the morning of Saturday 17^th March. We paused at Yatagan for picnic provisions and then stopped a little way up the road at the ancient site of Lagina. This was an interesting site which has been well excavated over the last 13 years. While we picnicked on bread, olives and cheese on the ruined temple steps, the ticket guy wandered over and showed us the progress shots of the work they’d done and we chatted about the site. The sister site to Lagina is Stratonikae, once joined by a sacred walkway. Now however the enormous power plant that is such a landmark for Yatagan, had open-cast mined right in the middle of that. Stratonikae is also well excavated and old village houses, mostly deserted now, are scatted in amongst the ruined gymnasium, buleterion and amphitheatre. Both sites yielded excellent carved stonework and Greek inscripted text.

Back on the road, we headed on to Bodrum. On the way we stopped a few times to look at the views, the flamingo’s wading in the mud flats and later at the dolphins in their sea pen. Into the town centre we went to find Mustafa, the captain of our Bodrum Cup gulet, and say hello. We had a good catch-up and Iain set up his skype and cleared a lot of the crap off his computer which was affecting his use of the internet. We were joined for a while by the old Sponge diver who was a friend of Mustafa’s and who we'd anchored next to on the fateful night of the Nulifer concert.

After a while we had to say goodbye and go to meet Erhan in Turgutries with whom we were staying. He has a new job and they work him from 8am until 6pm, every day! We met him at their local bar at 6.30pm and after a couple of drinks went back to the house. Canan, his partner, is away in Istanbul due to the sad loss of her mother a couple of weeks before, so he was there alone. He made us dinner and we chatted for a while, but the poor guy was absolutely shattered and headed off to bed fairly early. He’d gone before we were up the next day, so we toured the peninsula, and picnicked on the beach, before getting in provisions to have dinner ready for him when he got home.

Next morning we were up at 7.30am to say goodbye to Erhan who went to work at 8, and then after breakfast we too headed north. We reached Efesus by 11am and fished out the camping gaz for a coffee before our tour. This is one of the most impressive sites in Turkey. The three storey façade of the ancient library building stands and is so iconic here that it appears on one of the bank notes. The site is large with paved streets, columned palastrae, town houses, baths, shops and temples. We found the ancient latrines (as featured in the ‘toilets of the world’ book that mum gave me for Christmas) and a huge agora and amphitheatre. The site was quite busy with American and Japanese tour busses, plus other visitors and many parts were cordoned off – not something we’d been used to so far on our visits to ancient sites in Turkey.

Close by is the house of the Virgin Mary, where Mary Magdalene is supposed to have lived. We parked up and had our lunch before going in. A very peaceful place, the church is tiny and was kept by a young Polish nun. Another ‘toilet of the world’ features here – the men’s urinals have a impressive viewing window to take your mind of the business in hand!

Next leg was through Izmir, and onto Bergama to see the ruins of Pergamon. We arrived at the acropolis just 10 mins before closing, and they suggested we come back the next morning. Back into the pretty little old town we saw a massive large red building so pulled in for a look. They too said they were just closing, but agreed to stay open for another half an hour so we could have a wander around. It turned out to be part of the large amount of Roman remains that mostly still hide beneath the buildings in the town. A huge complex built for Hadrian. The amount of brickwork still standing was incredible flanked by two large towers.

We found a room for the night and next day headed back to the acropolis first thing to beat the ‘crowds’. This is a large site with palaces and temples on the top of a high hill. Some of the main temple has been reconstructed and gives a good idea as to how impressive the buildings must have looked. Etched into the hillside is a huge amphitheatre with a secret passage in from the temple to Minerva at the top. A few coaches had started to arrive, but not that many, so we headed back to the lowlands to see the Asklepion, the medical centre, which once upon a time had a sacred way joining the two places. Another theatre and interesting round buildings here. The wind had picked up, and we decided we’d have a coffee break before heading onwards. The car park attendant saw our difficulties of trying to get the gas going in the wind, so invited us into his little hut to use his gas stove. We shared our coffee with him and chatted about football, where he was from, local stuff and about his national service adventures before heading back to the road.

We wanted to get as far north today as we could, so got some pide to go and ate on the road. By 4.20pm we reached the ferry port at Cannakale and had to wait for the 5pm crossing. Once on the other side of the Dardanelles we headed to Gallipoli. The 18 March had been on the Sunday before with the huge memorial services, but now was fairly quiet. We stayed in a lovely seaside hotel run by the university students. At the reception there was a man who spoke some English, told us he was the entertainment, and we should pop down around 8pm to see him in action. He looked like that guy ‘Shake me up Judy!’, and had an amazing set of false teeth. We went up to our room where we could watch the tankers and boats going up and down the Dardanelles. We washed and changed and went along for dinner. As we descended to the dining room, we could hear the singer/pianist in full flow, bashing out all the evidently Turkish favourites to a packed audience of about 60 women having dinner. Soon after they were up dancing and one of the older ladies took a turn singing at the mike. After our meal, they waved us up to dance, and we had a great time, and at the end of the evening one gave me her sparkly hanky, which they love waving around belly dancer stylee, and they all kissed and hugged me - they were so pleased that we’d joined in.

We sat and had a drink and a chat with the singer, before heading for bed.

Gallipolli faces east so we were greeted by the dawn sun rise as we awoke streaming through the balcony windows. After a Turkish buffet breakfast of eggs, cheese, tomatoes, olives and bread we paid up and got on the road to the border crossing.

We arrived at Ipsala customs around 9.40am, and had first to be checked out of Turkey. Tourist visa’s last 90 days, and I’d calculated that today was ‘day 89’. The Turkish customs official took our passports and said ‘problem…today is problem’ and mentioned the Turkish word for fine. With officials we always pretend to not understand Turkish so we looked quizzical and said we didn’t understand. He got out from his booth and walked over with us to the main office where two colleagues were having tea and watching TV. After a brief conversation they said ‘no problem’. I rechecked my calculation, yes this was day 89 so no fine, the guy duly stamped us out of Turkey. Next up was to get the car off Iain’s passport. After some shenanigans this was achieved. Now over the bridge which is half Turkish (all painted red and white) and into Greece (all painted blue and white). The Greeks were suspicious of us with our old banger, and asked lots of questions about what we were doing, where we worked etc. He got us to unload our stuff and took the spare wheel out to Xray for drugs. Satisfied that we were touring and taking in the historic sites he let us go.

Greece is extremely cheap for petrol, so first chance we got we stopped to fill up. The wind was strong and it looked like heavy rain was coming our way. As the attendant was filling up Iain asked if they took credit cards as we’d not had a chance to get any euros yet. No, cash only. Whoops! ‘You’d better stop’ said Iain. The boss was angry with the lad, and made him drive Iain into the town to get cash out, while I stayed behind with the car.

It was heavy rain and wind for miles and miles, just like the last time we’d driven through in October, and we didn’t start to see the cloud thinning and patches of blue until we were well south past Mount Olympos. We decided we’d push on and try and make Delphi for the night.

We reached Delphi in the dark, and looked for a hotel. We decided that as it was low season still we see what rates we could get at the posh hotels and work our way down. We pulled into the Delphi Palace and asked the receptionist. He wanted 80 euros B&B. Iain said, ‘could I have it for a little bit less?’, OK – 70 euros. The room was excellent, bath, nice toiletries and a balcony with a stunning view over the valley to the sea.

The restaurant in the hotel was not open, so we walked off into town to find somewhere to eat. It’s a pretty little place – lots of hotels, but sympathetically done. We found a nice little place and prepared for our first proper Greek meal. Pork casserole for a starter, followed by lamb chops for Iain and pork in a Marsala wine sauce for me – very nice.

Next morning (Thursday), we headed for Ancient Delphi after breakfast. The Museum is modern and well laid out with so many interesting statues, trinkets and other finds from the excavations. The Greeks themselves, we found, gave an overall impression of bored arrogance. They seemed to think they had the dibs on ancient history, and this makes them give off a superior attitude. Inside the museum are two impressive statues of a pair of twins. Iain said to me, ‘stand over there and I’ll take your picture’. I wandered over and stood still, a little way in front of the statues and looked towards Iain and the camera. In a flash, one of the steely faced staff barked, ‘no posing!’. Eh? How on earth does standing in front of something damage ancient artefacts? Gobsmacked we wandered off. There’d certainly be no picnicking on the temple steps in Greece!

After the museum we went outside to explore the ruined city. It was quite good, but certainly no better that Patara, Arykanda, Tlos or Efesus. The best preserved thing was the Stadium, which was the best I’d seen anywhere.

We drove on, around the coast road to get the bridge over to Patras, in the Peloponnese. A truly impressive suspension bridge, with an impressive toll charge of 10.90 euros. We drove over slowly to get our money’s worth! The rain had caught up with us again, so we decided we head on down the west coast to Olympia – the home of the Olympic games. The weather was lousy, and the Greeks drive like nutters, unsurprisingly we saw a major accident along the way.

On the way, Iain could not resist a short pitstop to replenish provision at…Lidls!

We reached Olympia at 3.30pm, and made for the premier hotel – the Europa, to see how much their rooms were before working our way down the price range. He said 80 euro’s and we got him to agree to 75. Another fabulous room, with seating area, balcony overlooking the pool and with amazing views over the valley below. We ditched our stuff and headed off to spend an hour or so in the ancient site. Unfortunatley it was closed. You could see the site from the road, and it didn’t look very impressive at all anyway. It was pouring still, so we headed into the town for a beer and to look in shop windows. The place was dead, and the locals more brusque Greeks. We headed back to the room.

There were a couple of coach parties in the hotel, Japanese and American, so it was quite busy when we went down for dinner. But the service and food was good. Bread, tapenade and green olive oil for starter, followed by fillet steaks and a nice Macedonia wine.

The storm was raging – thunder, lightening and loads of rain, so we retired to watch TV and drink wine in the room.

The skies cleared alittle the next morning, but we decided Olympia was probably not worth hanging around for, so headed north for Corinth. After a few dead ends and detours where the Greeks had decided to close the road (but not tell you till you get to the end), we arrived and stopped to get out and look at the Corinth canal. It’s very short and soooo deep and narrow. We’d hoped to see one of the liners going through, but were out of luck. On then to find ancient Corinth and lunch. An interesting site, well worth a visit, but the museum is old and badly laid out, and of course you are faced with disinterested, bored looking officials waiting to tell you off for something.

We were heading for Athens now, and to get rid of the car. Approaching the city, the industrial area appeared and we saw a place with old, rusty car shells piled up. A scrap dealer. Eventually we found the way in and looked to find the owner. With no Gree on our part, and little English on theirs, we managed to get it across that we wanted to sell the car. He said he’d give us 100 euros, but didn’t seem that interested. A big, hairy, swarthy and scary guy seemed more interested and started bouncing the bonnet and opening and closing the doors. Iain and one of the guys go off to find an interpreter, and eventually return with a Pakistani guy who was working at a different workshop on the estate. Meanwhile, Bluto has been trying to thrust a hundred euros in my hand and indicating for me to get out of the car. Some chat ensues and I’m saying to Iain, let’s just go. The Indian leans in and says to Iain ‘these are not nice people, go’. Eventually the message gets through and we hot tail it out of there. The experience left us a bit dry-mouthed! We headed onto to Piraeus so suss out the ferries. Piraeus and Athens are manic for traffic and people. Even though I really wanted to see the Acroplis and the Panthenon, we decided that we couldn’t face the hustle and bustle and really just wanted to get the hell out of Greece. Piraeus ferry port was a nightmare to navigate around but eventually we found a booking agent and enquired about ferries out. I’d have liked to go to Santorini first and then head on to Rhodes or Kos, but the schedules were not in our favour, so we booked passage for that evening to Rhodes. We had an hour to get rid of the car. In the end, we couldn’t face trying to find another dodgy scrap dealer so left the car on the dockside and got on the ferry.

It was a nice journey, we had a cabin so slept most of the time, arriving at Kos around 5am and then Rhodes at 8.30.

Rhodes town is beautiful. Enclosed by a huge wall with various gates for pedestrians or cars, inside is a mass of pebbled alleyways, arches and old houses with lovely shady courtyards. We walked past a hotel, and the lady was sitting outside. Yes, she had rooms and they were simple but comfortable with ensuite showers, and just 30 euros a night – no breakfast. She said we’d probably be the only guests and gave us all the keys and left us to it. Next day she’d be over around 10. The weather finally turned clear and sunny, so we had a good explore of the area, visiting the huge palace of St John. Everything inside the old town was beautiful. Several old mosques were here, and many were being restored. At certain times you can walk the entire perimeter of the town on the tops of the walls, but unfortunately this was currently closed for repair. We did however walk around the town in the old moat (now dry) which was an oasis of calm. Outside the old town is the new town, full of high street names, cars and activity.

We investigated when the ferries were to Marmaris and were told the next one was Tuesday, so we had a few days to relax and explore. Each day huge pleasure cruise ships would arrive and decant hoards of American and other tourists. By 5.30, they were all back aboard and gone by the morning.

We ate out a couple of nights, and found it expensive and of average quality. We tried Octopus, cooked on the grill, calamari, pork souvlaki and retsina. Finally we picnicked, high-style, on our exclusive-use roof terrace on various goodies from Lidls - smoked salmon, parma ham, shellfish salads and wine for a fraction of the price.

In the end, we did have to share our empty hotel with a Greek lady, who come from Athens and was planning to work on the Islands as a walking guide. She broke the mould of Greeks we’d met, by being friendly and interesting. Mind you, she too did not really like Greece or Greek people much.

As we had a few days, we decided to hire a car and see the rest of the island. The scenery was good and varied, and there were a few interesting places to see such as the ancient Roman remains at Kamiros, the peak-top monastery at Monolithos and Parsonissi - the farthest point south– where a small bar of sand separates the choppy west coast waters from the calm eastern side. Lindos is also worth a look, but the Acropolis was closed when we visited so we didn’t see it – the small village is however very pretty for a meander.

We were ready to get back to Turkey by now, so were glad to hear that the ferry was indeed running (no guarantee) and that we’d be in Marmaris by 4.30pm. the crossing was busy, and we found ourselves sat next to a couple of Dutch women, who we chatted with the whole time. They were excellent company – one married to a Turk the other out here working. When we disembarked they offered to drive us to the otogar to pick up our Fethiye bus – which was just about to leave. Clockwork.

By 7.50 we arrived at Yaniklar. Pat and Chris were just emerging from having delivered their English classes to the village children, so we asked the driver to pull over next to her car, and transferred our baggage. Home at last.

A few days grace, and then we have to get ready for friends arriving!

Road Trip

Jan’s business partner, Mike, was due to return from winter in the UK on Friday 2 March, so Pat decided to throw a welcome home dinner in his honour. Clare and Rec were coming over too, so in all there would be 8 of us. The nights are drawing out, and the weather very clement, so we decided it was one of those ‘red letter days’ – our first barbecue of the year.

Pat was busy making Kofte (meat balls) and Chris was tidying up the garden, collecting kindling for the fire pots and barbecues. While rummaging around in the dead banana leaves, he got stung by a wasp. This is a relatively big deal, as Chris is allergic to wasp and bee stings. Within a couple of hours his left hand had swollen to twice it’s normal size.

Clare and Rec arrived, and Jan and Mike appeared not long afterwards, and we had a good time cooking outside, before moving indoors as it got darker and chillier. Iain and I stayed the night, and next morning Chris’s swelling had moved up to the wrist, and was itching like mad. Pat had to go to a village meeting early afternoon, so after a lazy brunch, Iain drove Chris and I in the Gas Fired Monster out to see a village in the hills behind Yanikla called Cenga. It was a very small village, with a mosque in the centre, whose claim to fame was to have the grave of Osman Effendi. The villagers from the house next door were outside when we pulled up and offered us tea and cake while we exchanged pleasantries in our limited Turkish. We had a walk around the mosque and looked at the grave. After a while we said our good byes, and as we got in the car to leave, one of the village ladies rushed from the house, and thrust a hand-edged head scarf into my hands as a gift! You never get over how generous the Turkish people are. I don't think they get many visitors and we'd made their day. We carried on along the dirt track over the hills and came out near Uzumlu, and the main road home. Chris’s swelling was now nearly up to his elbow, so we called into the chemist in Ciflik on the way home to pick up some antihistamine gel and tablets.

Pat was back when we got home and filled us in on the happenings at the meeting, followed by a lovely dinner of leftovers from the night before. We decided the time was right for the deciding Trivial Pursuit match before the set has to go back to Yakamoz for the summer. Lady luck favoured the lads and Pat and I were trounced, ending the winter season of 2007 4:3 down.

That was the night of the lunar eclipse, so we sat poking the fire, occasionally bobbing out in rotation to check on the moon. Eventually we saw the start of the eclipse, so grabbed jumpers, stools and drinks to head for the roof terrace to watch the show. It was truly wonderful, although we could only be bothered to stay up until 1.30am.
Ahmet Kizen had invited us to his organic farm for a tea and pancakes on the Sunday morning, so we arranged to meet Jan and Mike there. They had a village women ensconced by the open fire, rolling, filling and cooking the pancakes as fast as we could eat them. Chris stayed at home as the sting had really knocked him out, and also seemed to having a further reaction to the antihistamine gel – causing blisters to appear around his wrist.

After brunch, we’d decided that we’d try and fine an historic site which was a few miles up the road called Daedela. Allegedly the spot from which Iccarrus had made his leap for the sky with wax wings. We arrived at the place we thought we needed to start from and found a bee-keeper nearby with his little wooden hut, surrounded by hives. We dispatched Pat to ask him about directions. Yes we were in the right place, but it was hard to get to from here, we’d be better off approaching it from the top road. He and his wife were just about to have their lunch and did we want to join them? Pat explained there was five of us and demurred.

It was lush up there, with many flowers and herbs around so we decided to have a wander around anyway and see what we could from the bottom of the gorge. After a while we headed back to the car, and the bee-keeper waved us over for tea. It would be impolite to refuse, so we went over to them. Him and his wife were lovely and explained all about the process. He had some 300 hives, each housing around 10,000 bees from which he netted 10 tonnes of honey a year. In addition to this he sold the wax and the pollen – so he was doing very well for himself. His wife made us all tea, and gave us some pollen to try. He explained that the hives would remain here until the 15 March, whereupon he’d load them into his lorry, along with his little hut, and move to a village near Seki. A month or so later, they move it all again to Elmali, before returning here in August. Incredible.

We thanked them for the tea and said goodbye, thankful that Chris had decided to stay behind and avoid this chance exposure to 3,000,000 bees!

Monday night we all met up again for Fish and Chips and Quiz night. Always a good crack, and even better because we won! We said goodbye to everyone as the next day we were heading off on our driving adventure and Jan was going back to UK for a few weeks.

Next morning, we were up at 6.40am to get packed and ready for the trip, said goodbye to Adem and Nese and were fuelled, car washed and on the road out of Fethiye by 10am. Our first destination was Tlos, an ancient Lycian and Roman site about 45mins from Fethiye. There are some fantastic ruins here and impressive rock tombs. The roman bath house is particularly stunning with it’s amazing aspect overlooking the vast Xanthos valley below. The place was deserted – not even a man to collect our entry fee. The ground was lush and green and carpeted with large daisies and red wild anenomies. An hour an a half later, we’d seen all we wanted and headed a few miles further along to Xanthos. We drove behind the site and found a clearing on the top where we parked up and made a picnic, of fresh bread, olives and feta cheese in olive oil and tomatoes. Followed by oranges from Pat’s garden.

We returned to the car park and parked under the shade of a tree and paid our entrance fees for the site of Xanthos. We were the only visitors. The peoples here of ancient times were very anti hostile-take-overs and in their history had tried mass suicide three times rather than be conquered, succeeding at least once. The guide books we had brought filled in the gaps, and after a while we decided we didn’t think too much of Sir Charles Fellows, who’d found many of these sites and often ‘carted off’ all the best stuff worth having to the British Museum. That said the Harpies tomb and the amphitheatre were very impressive. There is also an impressive stone carved with ancient Lycian writing on all fours sides still standing. There was a wonderful paved road, which led to a Byzantine church. This was cordoned off, and had some fantastic mosaic floors.

Thankfully, Fellows probably hadn’t found these, and therefore these had not been carted off! As the place was deserted and the cordons were easily scaled, we hopped across to get a better look – they were in fantastic condition, and you’ll be pleased to now that we are responsible tourists and took care not to walk on any of them.

Back in the car, we headed down to the Kalkan and from there took the beautiful costal road around to Kas, where we stopped for a mosey, an iced coffee and a beer. Just outside Kas is Antihphellos. This is (another) amphitheatre, but with an amazing aspect looking out over Kas bay. For the first time that day we had to share the ruins, this time with a couple of canoodling young Turks, enjoying the romance of the place.

The sun was waning and we were conscious that we needed to find a camp site. We drove around the Kas peninsula, which although interesting was too populated for the rough camping we were after. We decided to head on down the main road, and try and find somewhere on the way to Kekova. We pulled off the main road, and after a while find a wooded area with a dirt track. We pulled in and reckied on foot to find a nice clearing in the midst of the woods. We pulled the car in, well out of sight from the road and unloaded our gear.

Iain set up Pat & Chris’s tent which we’d borrowed while I collected some wood. We made a circle with stones and started a small fire. The light was gone, so we found some seat shaped stones, and opened the wine. When the fire had died off, we threaded some sucuk ( which is like chirizo sausage, but less dense) and made sandwiches. We stayed up listening to the owls, until the sticks we’d picked up were all gone. We slept OK in the tent, waking up frequently not knowing if we were going to be ambushed by wild boars or random goat herders, but in the event we were totally left alone. It got very cold that night, and we awoke to frost on the side of the tent – we hadn’t realised how high we were. Using the camping gas, we made coffee and then had egg and kebab meat sanwiches before breaking camp and reloading the car. There was an old ruined building just down the track so we went for a poke around.

Next up, we were after Kekova. There is a city beneath the water that we wanted to have a look at. Along the road, we were flagged down by a man in the village. He asked if we were going to Kekova, and would we give him a lift? We had space, so agreed and soon got chatting. He said he worked on a boat and when we asked if we’d be able to get a boat to see the ruins he offered to help us out. It seemed so serendipitous! He directed us through the back streets and took us to a boat. After much haggling we agreed a price and climbed aboard. They had difficulty getting the engine primed and started, but eventually it spluttered to life. The chap we’d picked up then got off and left us with the old sea dog to do the trip. We chugged past the peninsula of Simena, and could see the castle and various Lycian sarcophagi, before crossing the bay to Kekova Island, and chugging over the ruins. Every time there was something of interest, the Captain would shout over the racket of the engine ‘ Allo!’..we’d look round to him and he’d point. I was a bit disappointed, expecting the lost city of Atlantis or something, but there was stuff to see and the water was beautifully clear. A boat trip is always good in any case. Next up we chugged over to Tersane Island, where we landed to go and look around the ruins there and take in the scenery, before heading back. We had a look around the other sarcophagi that were lying around before taking a back road over to Myra. Although the site looked impressive, we found the run up too touristic, so span around and headed back to town to fill up with some more petrol. While the men gave the car a free wash, Iain nipped across the road and bought 3 plastic stools. Driving out of Demre to Finike, you follow a road which runs alongside miles of undeveloped beach. As it was lunchtime we pulled over and set up a picnic lunch on the sand, sitting on our new stools.

Next destination was the village of Olympos. At the turning off the main road was a Gendarme check point. They waved us to stop and asked, in Turkish, for car papers and Kimliks (which are Turkish ID cards). Whenever stopped by authorities, we play dumb and only speak English. Iain said ‘Do you speak English’ to the young man – All I could see from my side was his upper torso and the barrel of a gun pointing through the window! He conferred with his superior and they waved us on – we were obviously too much like hard work.

Olympos is a popular stop off on the back packers trial, famed for it’s ruined Roman settlement either side of a river in a pine forest, as well as the cheap accommodation on offer including tree houses. We had a romantic view of these, imagining wooden buildings high in the pine trees, vines hanging down, Tarzan and Jane – you know what I mean. I have to say, it was a disappointment. Maybe it was nice when the first people set up this novel idea, but in true Turkish fashion, everyone had jumped on the band wagon, and there were row upon row, public convenience style, of ‘sheds on legs’. We followed the road through the village which was akin to a wild west looking place, until we reach a deep ford. Too deep for the Toyota we thought, so pulled in to ask the locals about what was around.

The man spoke perfect English, and was the manager of one of these ‘tree house’ pansiyon places. He was keen we should stay in one and offered to show us the rooms. Two beds in a shed 5 feet off the ground, nice. They looked rickety and we thought we’d be better of rough camping again, which he reckoned we may be able to do down on the beach. After a coffee and a chat with the guy we agreed to think over his offer after we’d looked around the ruins and checked out the beach.

The ruins are very overgrown, but have a super location in the shady gorge with a shallow river cutting them in half. We ambled along the track, and eventually reached the beach – which was stunning and deserted. Sitting in the sun, we could see another place alittle further up which we deduced to be Cirali. I thought we could go there and be able to get our car near to the beach and then camp, so we headed back through the ancient remains to the car.

Tree house man was watching out for us, so we thanked him and told him we were moving on. We had to go right back up to the main road, and then down the other side to reach Cirali, a lot more appealing on approach. We found the track leading to the beach and a clutch of beach side locantas. We went right to the end, and surveyed the area. It was quiet so we though it would be OK to camp, but as there was a couple of young men walking along the shore, we’d ask them just in case. They suggested we talk to the owner of the hotel which was behind the beach. It was a beautiful set up, with a well planted garden full of secret paths and clearings, intermingled with self contained bungalows for guests. In the grounds we saw peacocks, including albino ones which were completely white! We wended our way through to find the housekeepers place at the back. The lady had a visitor with her, and spoke a little English. We asked if she’d mind if we camped on the beach outside her hotel. She thought it would be OK as it was winter, and then said, Oh, did we want to camp in the garden? Could we, we replied, we wont make a fire and will be very clean. Ok, no problem said she and that was that.

We found a spot in a clearing just behind the wall between her garden and the beach and set up camp. As we were planning what to do, the visitor came through the garden. ‘Iyi Akshamlar’ said we, (good evening), she replied the same and chuckled. ‘Actually, I speak English’ she said, so we had a chat. She was a Canadian living in Cirali, and she suggested that if we were going to see the Chimerae we should go now while we still had daylight, take a picnic and grill it on the mysterious flames that just spurt out of the rocks. We packed up wine, socuk sausage, some bread and torches and headed off.

We parked in the car park at the bottom, and had a steep 800m climb to do to reach the place. The sun had set by the time we reached the top, and we were greeted with a white rock face, nestled in the middle of a pine forest, with little clefts breathing fire. We chose one for our picnic and settled to watch the changing colours in the sky while threading our kebabs up and pouring the wine. As darkness fell, the flames became brighter, and it was quite surreal. A few other brave souls had joined us, and were marvelling at the spectacle, some had also brought wine to enjoy. I thought I'd heard that if you put the Chimera out, it spontaneously reignites, so as I had some water with me thought I'd test the theory. Whoops, flames out and no re-ignition! Iain quickly leapt to the rescue and threw a match at the holes, whoomph, the gas reignited and took a few hairs off him to boot!

We stayed for a while and were the last to leave the site at around 7.30, descending the trail in the pitch black, with the help of our torches. Back to our camp site, we took the stools and sat on the beach for a while, before turning in.

We awoke early and were able to peel back the tent doors and watch the sun rise, as we were facing east, over the sea – wrapped in sleeping bags sitting on the sand.

We made breakfast using the gas stove, and fed the peacocks, chickens and ducks the left over bread before breaking camp.

After collecting a few more provisions in Kumluca, we headed off inland to look for Arykanda. We arrived at the car park of the site, to find just one person there, a Turkish man in green who looked like a ranger or something. We got our stools out and chatted to him for a bit, sharing the Ayran we’d bought that morning, before starting our exploration. Arykanda is well worth a visit. An unfeasibly large and well excavated site on a steep mountain side. As you climb, clefts reveal huge amphitheatres, stadia, agora and gymnasia. There were 6 bath houses, the Main baths being the most impressive, lots of mosaics, dressed stone work, carved reliefs, as well as the ubiquitous Lycian sarcophagi here and there.

The ticket man turned up after an hour, and sold us a book about the site. We scrabbled around for a good 3 hours, there was so much to see.

We were heading back to the coast at Kas, so we decided to take a cross road, marked on the map, over the mountains. It was in good condition and we passed through many interesting and pretty stone villages, and forest areas. We found a nice spot by a river in a pine glade to stop for lunch, arriving at Kas mid afternoon.

We stopped in layby to get our socks off and spruce up our feet with lemon cologne, and have a coffee over looking the pretty fishing town below. A truck pulled up a little way up from us, and the man began unloading some crates, which he took down the steps that lead to the back of his garden below us. As he finished, he came over to us, and gave us a handful of apples from his haul. We asked him where they were from, Elmali of course (Elma means apple in Turkish). We thanked him as he sped off, and ate the apples.

Refreshed, we got back on the coast road and made for Kalkan. We’d arranged to stay the night with Audrey, and were looking forward to seeing both her, and having a shower! She had got her slow cooker going and it was full of curry, superb! Before dinner we went into town to see the harbour side as the sun went down and shone everything a coppery red colour. We had a quick look through some of her Turkey guide books, and ready in the lonely planet about Kekova. Be aware , it said, you may be flagged down by pretend hitch-hikers, whose job is to get you on their boat trip! What had seemed serendipidous, had in fact been a well known tourist trap. We laughed at being so gullible! We asked Audrey if she had any plans over the next few days, and if not, why not come back with us? She was a bit caught on the hop, but thought, hell – why not? So in the morning, after eggs and toast on the balcony, she threw a few things in a bag, grabbed her knitting and off we went!

We headed for home, with a detour to the ruins in Pinari. This is a lovely spot as well – the ancients certainly knew how to pick ‘em. We pulled up outside the ticket office, where the official was having tea with some of his friends, and their goat. First things first – stools out, kettle on, cuppa tea, drink in the area. After our tea, we paid the entrance fee, and drove further up to begin our exploration. Audrey didn’t feel like scrabbling around, so we set her up with a stool overlooking the amphitheatre and she got out her knitting! After we had seen the high city area, we went over to check out the amphitheatre and the bath house. Then we found a pleasant spot for our picnic. Audrey’d brough some left over quiche, lettuce and some scones, so we had quiche, lettuce and tomato sandwiches and scones, with a cuppa tea. Fab, we love picnicking! After a relaxing lunch, amongst many randy tortoises, we packed up and finally headed for home.

We invited Chris and Pat over for dinner that evening, so I got a few bits in, and set to roast chicken with Mediterranean vedge, followed by caramelised oranges with yoghurt and honey combs, while we watched our photo’s scrolling on the TV. After dinner we sat and watched the Bodrum Cup video with Audrey.

Saturday morning, Iain shot up to see Mike at Yakamoz and set up his shiny new laptop, while Audrey and I pottered. Me sorting the mountain of washing and Aud knitting with a vengeance. Finally, the glass shelves arrived for the kitchen and the carpenter finished the shelving under the sink, at last, everything finished in the kitchen! After lunch, Pat arrived to collect us to go to the opening of a new Irish bar in Calis.

Back to see Chris, and we spent the afternoon lazing around before dinner, when Mike came over to join us. We settled down after a lovely dinner of Lyonaisse vegetables to watch the bootleg copy of the latest Bond film that we’d bought at the Kosem the week before. We and Audrey stayed over the night, and we all decided that on Sunday we’d do a short walk and have a picnic.

Mid morning, we stopped off here to pick up trekking poles for Audrey, who’s recovering from a knee op, and some sucuk etc, before driving out on the scenic road to Kaya village. We parked up in a shady glade and walked the relatively short distance to the cliff edge. Aud and Pat stayed at the top, while Chris, Iain, Mike and I descended down the scree to see the ruined monastery at Afkule. The views over the turquoise sea below are stunning. After our culture hit, we all headed back collecting cones and fallen twigs for the barbecue picnic enroute. We had flame grilled sucuk and halloumi sandwiches with tea. Back to the bar beneath the deserted Greek village for a beer before heading home to Sarikonak.

Handi and Dilara were both showcasing their musical talents at the Cultural centre that evening, so a quick change and we all headed into town to watch the show. We had an hour before Handi’s sass recital, so bobbed along to the Kizmet for a G&T. Handi looked fabulous in a burgundy and gold frock dress and played very well and confidently to a packed auditorium. Dilara was up next and played two piano solos.

We handed both the girls small bouquets of wild flowers that we’d picked in Kaya after their performances. Getting peckish, we then headed for Pasa Kebab locanta and had a round of pides – Turkish pizzas, gorgeous.

Monday came and we had to say goodbye to Audrey. We stopped downtown on the way to the bus station so she could get some more wool. Her knitted jacket had turned out well, and she was planning a second in a different mix. We left Audrey at the bus station, and headed up to Yakamoz to see Mike and finish his laptop set-up. I read in the sun while the boys talked technical.

It was a lovely day, so since we were half way there, we carried on to Oludeniz to see how the road widening was going and check out the lovely beach there.

A few days of rest now, before we sort out the finer details of how we’re going to get rid of the car and renew our 3 month tourist visa’s – more adventures to come!

Plenty has been going on since the last update, but sadly you'll have to wait a little longer to get all the details. We're packed up and ready to go on camping trip for a few days around the coast. Planned highlights include the 'chimerea' or eternal flames which burn up near the ancient ruins of Olympos, the undersea city at Kekova, the 'stone of Damacles' which is chained to protect the village of Emali and many other historic and cultural stop offs along the way.

So enjoy your week and check back here soon!

Sit down and make a pot of tea, this is a long one!

Monday morning, and the kitchen fitters turned up at about 10.30, with a truck load of cabinets. There were about 8 lads working, bringing them all up the stairs and into the house. They worked all day fitting the base units and then the wall units. Everything was going fine, until they realised that there was a recess in the wall that they hadn’t noticed. Eyup got the drill out and started to drill into the overhanging bit to hang the cupboard. Oops! The reason for the lower than expected recess was that it contained some kind of pipework, and we now had water seeping down the wall! Time out as they realised they would (a) have to repair the pipe and (b) take all the wall units for that side back to the workshop and cut out for the recess. Luckily the pipe was not mains water, but some kind of drain, so there was not too much water involved. We looked around upstairs but still to this day do not know what the drain is for, where it comes from or where it goes.

A couple of hours later and the boys are back with the modified units, and the drain hole is repaired. Before they left that first day at 8.30pm, all the carcasses were in.

With no kitchen facilities, we headed out to Kosem for fish and chips.

Next morning, and we go off to the granite man to make sure the stuff he has got is what we ordered. Iain, being Iain, had tried to get a discount from the man, but as the stuff is imported he wouldn’t play ball. Undeterred, Iain then asked if maybe the guy would throw in a ‘cucuk hediye’ which is Turkish for a ‘small present’. Iain was after a stand with feet to go under the woodburner to keep the heat off the laminate. Worn down, the man agreed. The granite was exactly as we’d ordered, and we gave them the go ahead to make the worktops.

We got back to the house to find two of the workmen busily attaching the door fronts and handles, then cutting and fitting the top cornice and the under unit pelmets.

After lunch a young man arrived from the granite shop to measure up.

At 4.30pm the oven and extractor arrived complete with service engineers to fit them.

While all this was going on Iain supervised and chatted to the boys, while I got on with making roman blinds.

Wednesday morning and all the units are finished, and we are expecting the granite to arrive and be installed. Pat popped by for lunch, which she brought! One of her delicious soups since we were unable to do much without kitchen, and not long after Clare and Rec popped by to see the state of the kitchen and say goodbye as they were off to Malaysia for a couple of weeks early the next morning. Rec was free for the afternoon, so he offered to hang on and help us with any details when the granite arrived, which it duly did at 13.45pm. There were 4 large pieces, each weighing a flipping tonne, which the three BSB’s had to carry up the stairs to our apartment. They had already cut out and stuck in the sink bowl. There was one main join to be cut on the long straight run, and they also had to cut out for the hob. Using angle grinders, no eye, ear or mouth protectors, they set about this causing an horrendous mess of fine granite dust. Once in place and levelled they joined each piece with apoxy and then set about doing the splashback edges and the window sill. Just as they were finishing the hob arrived from Ariston, but the granite boys said they still had to rub on a granite sealant fluid which would take an hour to dry before any more dust could be made, so Recep asked the engineer if he’d come back in an hour and a half.

After all that we thanked Rec and wished him a good holiday before heading back down the Kosem for, hell why not, fish and chips again!

Thursday was spent all day cleaning up. Every cupboard needed cleaning off from granite dust inside and out, on the sides and under shelves. A mammoth task. Iain zipped into town to pay Bekir for the appliances, and Eyup came over to plumb in the sink. He did a fair job, but had hardly any tools, so Iain had to supply most of what he needed. When he’d finished, we had a working sink and tap, but the joint leaked.

We headed back down to the Kosem, for our third meal that week – Iain couldn’t resist fish and chips…again! But I went for lamb chops and they were gorgeous.

It was quiz night, so we stayed and played, and came a rather predicable last.

On Friday we were both feeling pretty tired, but Iain went off to the bank for the money to pay the granite man and the kitchen guys. We then headed into town to meet up with Pat and Chris at Mustafa’s carpet shop. While we chatted and Chris and Mustafa played backgammon, Mustafa’s nephew, another Bekir, went off to the bakery and came back with a great selection of little cakes to have with the seemingly endless stream of tea and coffee – delicious. After a very relaxing couple of hours, we headed back home, and Iain had a couple of hours napping.

The kitchen now in commission, I cooked my first meal – aubergine cannelloni, stuffed with cream cheese and herbs – fabulous.

Saturday, and we were still waiting for the tiling, electrics and a few last minute items, so we decided to clear all the old kitchen units off the front balcony and give the dining room it’s second coat of red paint. Half way through, Jan called and we made a plan to meet up and go and see the Holiday at the cinema, with dinner afterwards. We all really enjoyed the film which is partly set in England, and then had a nice meal at Pasha Kebab, where I had a delicious Ottoman lamb casserole, and Iain had a mixed grill – letting Jan have his liver kebab. Walking home, we were passed in the car by Atik and his family, who’d finished work for the day. They waited for us on the other side of the junction, and said, hey, wanna pop over for a nightcap? Love to, said we, and walked on back to theirs instead of home. This was going to be a bit of a challenge for us, as normally we see them with Adem and Nese or with Ramazan, and they help out with the language side of things. Without our helpful friends, we were going to have to make conversation n Turkish. Atik and his family are really friendly, and welcoming, and Atik likes a drink. He said to me, what would you like..Raki, Whiskey or beer? It was quite late, after eleven, so I said I wouldn’t mind a tea, but he just said, Raki, Whiskey or beer again, so I thought, what the hell, I’d like a whiskey! So we sat around and chatted in Turkish, sipping Jim Beam and coke, and nibbling on snacks of mixed nuts, sliced avocado and stuffed vine leaves which Tenor brought out. We had a great night, and felt really pleased with ourselves at having been able to make conversations in our pidgin Turkish.

Sunday, and Iain’s birthday. Pat and Chris were doing dinner, Iain’s favourite – a curry and before that we’d planned a canyon walk in the area behind Yaniklar. It was a lovely sunny and warm day, so we started off early and spent an hour sitting by the beach at Calis watching the blokes fishing and the Turkish families promenading after their late breakfasts. Lunch of soup with Pat, Chris and Jan and then we headed up the dirt tracks to find the walk. Iris’s and bee orchids were flowering and we descended through a sandalwood forest down to the foot of the canyon. The views were amazing, the sun was shining and after the rains we’d had the days before there was snow on the mountain ranges in the distance.

The bad news when we got to the river at the bottom of the canyon, was that the bridge had been washed away. The river was too fast flowing and wide to cross, so we had no choice but to head back the way we’d come. Iain speeded off, with Pat, Jan and I took a more leisurely pace back up. By the time we’d got to the top and the track, Iain was waiting with the car to take us home.

Gals versus Guys at Trivial pursuit preceded an excellent dinner, and Iain got to open his birthday gifts. We stayed the night with Pat and Chris, and then headed back to Fethiye early afternoon to see if the tiler was coming.

Pat and Chris were expecting Audrey, a very spritely 72 year old, who lives part of the year in Australia and part of the year in Kalkan, a pretty hillside resort further around the coast from us. On Tuesday morning, they popped by for coffee and to introduce us, before heading off to the market. About 3pm. Saban arrived with the tilers, and they started work. The next morning saw rain, and the tilers back again to grout. Adem helped Iain move the heavy marble sink upstairs, and then the cast iron woodburner. After all the hard work I made a round of Turkish coffee for the three of us and Nese.

We’d been having an intermittent problem with bad drain smells, and Ferit had asked Adem if he could sort it out. We mulled over what could be done, and then, after coffee, Adem and Iain went off to investigate. After getting into the inspection hole, which rather Turkishly had been tiled over, they could see the problem was the absence of a ‘U’ bend. Off they went to the plumbing supplies shop, and returned some time later with a guy who’d agreed to fix it. We had gardening club to go to, so left Adem overseeing the workman.

Gardening club, this month, involved going to the University in town, and meeting the horticultural faculty. Over 20 English people gathered and we were all shown into the restaurant which had been laid out conference style. Pat provided translation services, and they lecturers were able to answer questions about pruning and other queries that people raised. They provided us with tea and biscuits, and then showed us around their greenhouses. The rain was lashing down.

When we got back home, we met Adem and Nese going out to the supermarket, and since we were planning to get the woodburner going, we invited them in for dinner when they got back. While Iain lit the fire, and sorted out the electric sockets in the kitchen, I made meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta for dinner.

We were just about to sit down to dinner, when we heard Adem’s doorbell – he went out to see who it was and found Omur, from the flat below us. Apparently they were suffering from smoke coming through their chimney hole and did Adem know where it could be coming from? Ooops! Must be us! We put the fire out, and promised to sort it out the next morning. We’d had the fire lit loads of times before, but Ferit and Omur had been away in Izmir, so goodness knows what had gone on in their flat while they’d been away!

In the morning, Iain and Adem investigated the chimney, there was a small blockage and it seems all three flats share the same flue. The locked up the bottom of the flue and Adem blocked up the chimney hole in Ferit’s living room. That should solve the problem. While the lads worked on this, I sat down with Nese to bring the house accounts up to date.

That evening, we went to Calis where there was being held a meeting with Foreign residents and representatives from the Council. We stayed for an hour to inform our article for FethiyeTimes, before heading off to Pat & Chris’s where they had had Mustafa & Bekir over to Dinner with Audrey.

Eyup was supposed to be doing the plumbing and electrics for us, but after the leaking water pipe, we decided that we would probably be better off doing this ourselves, so Iain sources some wire, switches and other electrical bits and pieces and we worked out a scheme to make it all work, and be tidy and safe.

Pat and Chris invited us to spend the weekend with them and Audrey and we planned that after lunch we’d go to the beach and collect driftwood for the fire, before heading on to Gocek. When Saturday came, the weather had turned overcast and rainy, so we decided to stay in and light the fire early, and have another Trivial Pursuit match. Ahmet Kizen, an Instanbul Architect who lives in Yaniklar and runs an organic holiday farm, had been planning to have a ‘film night’ for quite sometime now, and tonight was to be the first event. Around 5.30, we all headed up the dirt track to his farm and met and mingled with the other guests while another Ahmet set up the screen, laptop and projector. We were a small and interesting group of around 13. Iain and I finally met Farouk Akbash, who is a very talented photographer. He is currently working on his latest book which is about flowers in Turkey. We told him of the flowers and orchids we’d seen the weekend before and he was interested to go and get some photo’s. He’d originally planned to walk from Kaya to Oludeniz on the Sunday (a walk that nearly finished Pop’s off, when we took him!), but after some discussion, he decided to change his plans and would Iain be willing to take him up to the gorge and show his the flowers. Of course!

After the pot-luck meal (which we weren’t aware of) we settled down by a large crackling fire and watched Babel.

The next morning Iain headed off to meet Farouk and party by the mosque, while Pat, Audrey and I headed off to Calis market for a bit of retail therapy – vedge style, before returning and spending the afternoon reading in the sun in the garden and chatting, before Pat took Audrey off to town to catch her bus back to Kalkan.

Iain was back about 4.30 and reported that Farouk had been very pleased with the flowers he’d seen and got some great shots for his book. They had also continued up the mountainside and found a really enchanting waterfall with about three of four levels of pools. He’d had a great time.

Jan was invited over for dinner, and Pat said we could stay another night if we wanted. Well, why not! It’s very peaceful and relaxing with them, and we are so well looked after! Another fun evening spent burning the driftwood piles and setting the world to rights before heading off to bed. Chris is a marvel, and had put a hottie in for us. As I went to bed, I could see the bulge in the bed, thinking it was the hottie, I gave it a smack. It seemed larger and more solid than a normal hottie, so I lifted the covers to investigate. Sticking out from inside the duvet cover was a very small ginger and white paw..Ahhh, so that’s were Giles the ginger Tom went!

Next morning, after another fine breakfast of fried eggs on toast and homemade jams, Iain and Chris decided to tackle the mulberry tree which sheds leaves and sticky fruits all over the seating platform in the garden, while Pat showed me how to make the delicious lentil soup that is one of her specialities.

After lunch, we had to tear ourselves away from the rural idyll and head for home, before heading up to Ovacik to help Jan with her ADSL problems.

Tuesday morning and Saban arrives with a bundle in newspapers. This must be our glass shelves! He gets one out and it is cut very roughly and badly. We have to send him away, and he promises to send the glass man around directly to us to sort it out.

We still have to sort out under unit lighting, so he head of to the shops to suss prices and options. We also chase the shop where we’ve ordered a new tap. After this, we drop in on Mike and Jean who have a beautiful bungalow villa in the hills behind Fethiye.

Next day, we decide on and order the lights and pick up the tap, which has now arrived, before heading home to install it. Another job ticked off. I spend the rest of the afternoon making coleslaw and Moussaka for our dinner in my spanking new kitchen.

We pop up and see Jan again on Thursday, and while there meet a lovely couple, Dogan and Nicky, and talk about setting up a photography for fun group. They travel the country collecting unusual Turkish bits and pieces to sell from their beachside stall in Oludeniz. For dinner, Jan suggests we go into Hisaronu and have fish and chips at Codswallop. These are just as good as we get in the Kosem, but quite a bit pricier.

The lights are in on Friday, so Iain collects them and we set about wiring them in. Jan is still having ADSL problems, now narrowed down to a dodgy telephone wire, so she pops in after her weekly errands and sorts her email and bookings out from here.

Don’t despair – nearly up-to-date!

This weekend, we spent with Chris and pat again. Iain and Chris wanted to prune a few more trees, so they set about trying to get the chainsaw working. It proved unwilling. So back to sawing by hand. During the operation, Iain extended himself at a funny angle and felt a twinge in his back. Work ceased and we decided to call it a day and head off to the beach in search of driftwood. It was a lovely afternoon and we collected sticks, waded into the sea and got a small beach fire going. As Iain bent to pick up a stick, he felt a really bad twinge in his back, not good. We sipped cold beers and poked the fire while Iain tried to stretch himself out.

The sun was waning, so he hauled the wood back to the car, Iain almost hobbling along, and headed for home. Another Trivial Pursuit match, and the boys levelled the score at 3 all.

The next morning, Jan was over early to use Pat’s ADSL, before we all headed off in search of the waterfalls Iain had found the weekend before. His back still sore, Pat said she knew of a German woman in the village who does a bit of physio, so first off the three of us headed off to see if she was in and could help. We were out of luck, the place seemed locked up. We weren’t planning on doing too much walking so we went back to the house and picked up Jan and Chris before heading off up the dirt track into the hills behind Yaniklar. First stop was to show Chris the gorge, and see the bee orchids and other flowers. We journeyed on to the waterfalls which we decided was a perfect picnick spot, so while Pat and Iain to a lesser extent made a fire, Chris, Jan and I climbed up to inspect the higher pools and falls. Stunning. Soon the fire was reduced to coals, so we came back down and made sojuk kebabs, with left over coleslaw, Jan’s Greek salad, and Pat’s yoghurt and walnut cake for afters – great fun and very Turkish of us!

We followed the dirt track stopping here and there to look at interest scenery, plants and what not. We seemed to be going for ages, before we eventually hit the main road. We must have made a wrong turn somewhere (not that there were any signs!), and we’d overshot ourselves by about 5km, coming out near Dalaman and on the other side of the Gocek tunnel! No matter, civilisation was now in sight, so we drove through the tunnel and were soon enjoying a cold beer on the marina side in Gocek – definitely worth waiting for.

Well, the last two weeks certainly have been busy!

After deciding the appliances we wanted, we headed back into town to the spot shop, and chatted to Bekir who runs the place. One of the items, the hob, we’d found in the Ariston catalogue he gave us. The other two – oven and extractor were Beko but we asked if he could get those too. He got on the phone to his suppliers and secured all three, with a sizeable saving on the prices we’d been quoted. He told us they’d be here in a week, and to pay him later – after they’d arrived. Great.

Don’s 65^th Birthday is coming up this year, and he and Ann will be abroad, so they were having a pre-birthday party this coming weekend (3 Feb), so we next called into a lady who makes cards to see if she could do something for us. We agreed that I’d do the art work and email it over, and she’d print it up, ready for Saturday, magic.

Time for a well earned G&T, so we headed for the Kizmet, where we ran into Ronnie, an ex-diver and now local estate agent, to find him there with his family, excited about the prospect of running their own new venture – an Irish pub in Calis.

In the morning we awoke to discover that Ferit and Omur, our neighbours who live below us, had returned from Izmir, with their new baby daughter, Omay.

Having decided on and ordered the kitchen appliances, we drove down to Saban’s workshop in the Sanayii, to give them the dimensions. Work on the carcasses was nearly finished and the doors had arrived. They were all set to start the installation on Monday.

The weather turned really cold, and a rainy day in Fethiye, produced snow capped mountains the following morning, and a bracing northerly wind. It appeared Ann and Don had picked what was probably going to be the coldest night for their party. They’d invited about 20 people, and I loaned Ann my slow cooker so she could make a large batch of chilli to go with jacket spuds to feed everyone. She also made a couple of lovely trifles and chicken liver pate. A very pleasant evening was had, and we were able to catch up with Denise, who’d been living in Fethiye when we were out for the year, and we’d met while walking.

She had a sad tale to tell. She’d sold her house in Ovacik, and bought a troglodyte cave in Cappadocia with a view to converting it into a pansiyon (like a B&B). Foreigners can’t actually buy the caves in their own name, but she’d fallen in love with a Turkish man, and they agreed to take on the project together. Work had gone well, but the relationship broke down, and it now seemed she’d have a battle on her hands to get her money back.

Sunday morning, saw Euyp come over to ‘sort out the plumbing’. I wanted to move the sink to a position under the window where currently resided a radiator. Within 40 minutes the entire old kitchen was taken down and relocated on the balcony. Eyup reckoned that the plumbing would be easy to do later, so sealed up and removed the radiator ready for us to give to Ramazan.

We have a problem with our telephone line, and in order to make it work, Iain has joined a cable directly to the junction box downstairs and run the line up the outside of the building and in through the window. Not ideal, but it works. Iain had spent ages one day trying to figure out where the wires came into the house, but concluded that the connections must be broken. Adem had told us that Eyup was an electrician and could sort our phone line out. So, he and Iain spent about 2 hours trying to locate the wires and make it work, but to no avail.

That evening we had been invited to dinner by Stuart and Dilek so we got washed and changed and headed out in the last of the afternoon sun to walk into town. Stuart and Dilek have a lovely house in the old part of Fethiye, with an amazing view over the harbour. They’d just bought a new wood burner, which had an integral oven space and the whole meal was busily bubbling away while heating the room up. Dilek is pregnant with her first child, which is expected in March and it was good to catch up on all the news. We were delighted to discover that they’d also invited Gordon and Clarissa, who we didn’t know were over. Clarissa has been unwell since the middle of last year, when she was diagnosed with cancer, and we hadn’t seen then since before then.

Dinner was excellent, lentil soup, followed by slow roasted chicken with Mediterranean vegetables. We had a busy day ahead of us, as on Monday the guys were coming to install the kitchen, so we said our goodnights and walked back home.

Terrible news greeted us on Tuesday morning. Dilara’s new little puppy, Odie and Atakan’s Doberman had both been stolen during the night. Nese was very upset, but I can’t say Adem was so bothered as they’d already agreed that Dilara wasn’t taking responsibility for the dog very well and that they would try and sell it.

After lunch, Ergun and his carpenter arrived bearing the new doors. They were all made up and in the frame. They expertly fitted them and made adjustments to ensure they opened and closed correctly. Once in, the carpenter fitted an architrave to both sides. Ergun asked us what kind of glass we wanted in the panels. Plain, clear glass please, so he gets on the mobile to the glazer, provides the sizes over the phone and within 15 minutes the glazer and his young assistant arrive to fit the glass.

Within two hours the whole job is done, and they are just what we want. They leave the fame braced with a piece of timber, which has to stay there for a few hours while the expanding foam they used sets. We now have to duck and limbo into the kitchen for a few hours.

Next day, we head off into town to buy some dark red paint for the dining room part of the salon, and Iain smoothes off and prepares the wall for painting with plaster.

We give the laminate floor guy a call, and he agrees to pop down at 5pm and finish off the join between the kitchen and the salon. When he arrives, he’s not happy as the door men have laid the frame right onto of the laminate. They should have left a small gap to allow for expansion movement. He reckons he told Adem to mention this, and Adem reckons he did, so I don’t know what went wrong. Anyway, it can’t be helped now so he just gets on with the job.

He glues the door strip down and we leave it weighted with my sewing machine, heavy books and an empty gas bottle. He instructs us to leave this until at least tomorrow evening. We now have to spend the next day or so straddling the various improvised weights to get in and out of the kitchen – will it ever cease to be an obstacle course??

That evening Jan has invited us up for dinner, she wants Iain to have a look at her laptop and sort a few things out. There are to be 7 of us in her very small and cosy bungalow. Pat and Chris, Clare and Rec, us two and Jan. Pat was going to pick us up, but she phoned to say Giles, the ginger tom, was ill and so they were just going to go up for a couple of hours, so they could get back for him. Instead we go with Clare and Rec in their Gas Fired Monster, a really old orange Renault 12.

We had a nice evening, it was very warm and cosy in the small living room, with Jan’s classy woodburner belting out the heat. It makes us nostalgic for our cosy soba, which is languishing on the balcony. We are really paranoid now about bringing it back into the salon because it might ruin the laminate, and distort the new doors.

Next day, Thursday, we spend the morning painting the first coat in the dining room. After lunch, Pat and Chris pop over to check out ‘the new doors’, woo, tourist attraction of the century!! And then we all head into town to have another go at seeing the film, which thankfully is now on.

After the film, we stop by the Kizmet to see the boys, and introduce Pat and Chris, who haven’t been in it yet. We have a couple of drinks before Pat drops us home. Chris is developing a bad cough, which turns out to be a bad omen.

Next day we head off into town to meet a FethiyeTimes reader and his wife. We’re a bit early so we pop in and see Mustafa and Bekir in the carpet shop. While Iain sets Bekir up with Skype, Mustafa shows me the new range of designer bags he’s brought from Istanbul. They are made from old Kilims, each one unique and very well made. We agree he’s onto a winner with these. After tea we meet up with Alan and Jennie and spend a pleasant couple of hours drinking tea with them. We hoping to bump into Pat at Mustafa’s as they usually pop in on a Friday so Chris can play him at Backgammon. We head back over and find Jan with Mustafa, but no sign of Pat or Chris. It turns out Chris has gone down with the flu, probably caught from the cat no doubt.

We’ve arranged to meet up with Rec, and go visit the kitchen workshop to see how things are progressing with the kitchen. We iron out a few details, and are told that the carcases will be ready for inspection the following Monday afternoon. Next up, we take Rec to see the Fethiye Lighting Centre in Karachula, which is a veritable Aladdin’s cave of lights and lamps.

On the way back, we invited Clare and Rec over for dinner, but Rec says he’s planning to make a curry and why not go to them? Ok, it’s a date.

Rec’s curry’s are really good, I make a salad and we troupe over. After dinner we start talking about the weekend, and how bad the shopping is in Fethiye. Before we know it we’ve decided that we will get up early on Saturday morning and drive to Antalya, to do some shopping and mooch around the old town. We have already arranged to do a walk on Sunday at 1pm, so need to be back to Fethiye for that. We will take overnight things and play it by ear. If we want to stay over, we can.

Next morning we rendezvous at 7am, and are on the road. A quick pit stop to fill up with petrol and get a free car wash, and then we’re on the open road. It takes about 3 hours to get to Antalya

After a bit of shopping, and a light lunch we head towards the old Kaleci area of town, and have a mosey around the back streets. I’m starting to feel a bit rough, and soon realise that I am going down with the same flu like symptoms that Chris had. (Picture of Suze and Claire in Kipa. Suze is holding a Rubic cube!)

It's a beautiful day and really quite warm over this side of the mountains, so we take a little time out to relax with a G&T at a restaurant on top of the cliffs, which has the most spectacular setting overlooking the bay and harbour, before heading into the main town and find a food hall for dinner. We share a couple of starters of stuffed mussels and deep fried mussels – lovely, followed by shish kebabs. Over dinner we decide that we’ll just head back to Fethiye as if we stay over we’d have to be up and gone by 8.30am to make it back. I’m feeling worse by the minute so this seems a sensible plan. We’re home by nine, offload our purchases and head to bed.

By Sunday, I’m too ill to walk and spend the whole day in bed, as it Pat, so Iain cancels the walk. Sunday is a write-off. By all accounts this is not an epidemic localised to Fethiye, Mum is reporting similar symptoms back it the UK, so here’s wishing you a speedy return to your ebullient self, mother! :-)

Monday, and Iain and Adem have to go to the tax office to pay their respective scooter and car taxes. I’m feeling a bit better so go with them, but the air is biting cold, only tempered a little by the sun. When we get back we arrange for Rec to come over at 4.30pm so we can all go and look at the kitchen. In the meantime we empty the cupboards and start taking off the tiles, in readiness.

As promised, all the carcases are made and set up. We iron out a few more details and then go with the carpenter to see the granite man. He reports that the granite will arrive on Saturday, so we plan that Eyup will sort out the plumbing on Sunday, and the kitchen and granite will be installed on Monday.

We need to sort out the cooker, hob top and extractor fan so that these can be built in. Slowly, slowly it’s all coming together.

Tuesday, and the air is cold and I’m still a bit ill, but we need to see what appliances are available and check out prices, then make a decision. So well wrapped up we venture out. Actually it is quite warm in the sun, but in the shade it’s colder. We traipse around all the main dealers and a few sole traders to see what’s on offer. Armed with a load of brochures and prices we head for home to weight up all the options. After a couple hours evaluating – most of this spent trying to understand what the features are as they are all in Turkish naturally, be settle on our choices. Next job is to check that we can actually get the ones we want, and then beat as much off the prices as we can. Shopping here is exhausting!