My sister and Randal’s brother-in-law asked about the dog bite.  I thought I’d mentioned it but guess I didn’t.  So here is the short story…

Leaving Kalkan 3 dogs chased the bike and one bit Randal.  It seemed more like a painful pinch than a bite but something obviously happened.  The dogs seemed mean but normal, like the dogs in the US that chase bicycles.  Randal had the rabies shots in China in 07 when I dog bit him, so hopefully that will keep him safe now.  The dogs just didn’t seem bad, just in a group and when we yelled at them when we stopped they looked scared and left.  Normal dog behavior.  Luckily Randal was wearing jeans and socks so his leg was somewhat protected.  Not sure why they didn’t go for mine.  Maybe because I was looking at them and yelling.  I did have some antiseptic with me and some soap so we washed it off and put on the antiseptic.  A little old Turkish woman walked over to see and tut tutted about the dogs.  Turkey does have a problem.  You see homeless dogs with ear tags that have been neutered and treated by vets and then released.  The Turks feed the stray animals and alone the dogs are all friendly.  But in a pack they gave chase to the motorbike.  So now you know the beginning of the story.

    We gave the motorbike a rest and joined a “Gwen on KW” tour to Lake Koycegiz. Gwen, an American by birth, has lived in Turkey for years and knows everyone and everyplace. She lives on her boat, KW, in Netsel Marina and for “the fun of it” plans tours throughout the year, but mostly, unfortunately for us, in the winter when no one cruises. She arranges the bus, the hotels and tours in the towns they visit. This past Thursday we went about an hour’s minivan ride away to Koycegiz for a three course Turkish lunch and a walk along the lake and through the small town. It was a nice day out and a chance to meet some other people.

“As it’s tough to rival the Med, this farming town attracts only modest tourism, and still depends mostly on citrus, olives, honey and cotton for its livelihood. This region is also famous for its liquid ambar trees (frankincense trees,) source of precious amber gum….Koycegiz-Dalyan Nature Reserve has a growing reputation among outdoor types for its excellent hiking and cycling. “Lonely Planet Also Dalyan is famous for its river marsh where the marsh scene of African Queen was filmed. Seeing that is on Randal’s To Do list if we have time.

Alila Hotel where we ate our 3 course Turkish lunch on the shaded back patio by the swimming pool.

We arrived in Koycegiz about noon and made a group decision to gather back at the hotel at 1 pm for lunch. I knew I wanted to do some walking so Randal and I headed out along the lake. Most of our group were women in sandals who’d mostly come for the company and lunch so we didn’t really have any takers to join us. (Those same women in “girlie shoes” had been cruising for years and had captain’s licenses and charter boat captain licenses!) We walked about 15 minutes and actually came to the end of the walking area along the lake. There were drink stands so I had my usual cola light and Randal his usual Efes beer. I had bothered to bring my paints so while he drank his beer I painted a bad picture. In truth, that spot had no scenic value whatsoever, so I painted the colorful blue and white umbrellas and a woman sitting under them and the lake and mountains. All that was done in about 10 minutes with way too little skill and thought; but at least I did it. Then it was time to walk back for lunch.

I liked the blue and white umbrellas so painted them.

Walking back along the lake to the hotel for lunch.

Bells were attached to the fishing lines to ring and call the fisherman back from the shade of the trees across the way.

Glass bottles were used the same way, I think. If something pulled the line the bottle would fall over and make noise and attract the attention of the fisherman. Or they were there for an entirely different reason but I have no idea. Instead of fishing reels, the line is wrapped around the blue plastic circle.

Lunch

Randal and I shared the salad but each of us had a plate of meze (starters.)

I knew more would be coming so ate bits of everything. I have no idea what each thing was though. The white stuff near the fork is “yogurt salad.” Yogurt is mixed with olive oil and garlic and onions and either cucumber or carrots or whatever. It’s very good but rich so a little goes a long way. The orange colored stuff tasted like couscous. The green are stuffed grape leaves and the round is a fried vegetable-egg mixture. Cheese is in the middle.

The main course was rice and chicken kabobs which tasted more like Chinese than Turkish to me. They just didn’t match the sizzling ones we ate when we got lost on our first ride to Bozburun and had lunch at the Sahin Café in Osmaniye.

I wish I’d gone from the starters directly to dessert because the honey cake was so good but I was too full. They also served apricot, melon and cherries.

Turks are quite fond of dogs and cats and this one helped Randal and me eat our chicken and cheese. Not sure how our fellow diners felt, but the staff didn’t care and the cat seemed happy.

They were happy to tell me what they were making and gave me a taste. But it was all in Turkish so I have no idea. It didn’t exactly taste like the orange stuff we’d had with lunch so I just don’t know.

Then it was time for a walk around town. One of the women said “there was nothing to see and the town was uninteresting.” But Randal and I had a really good time and wish we’d had longer.

American cartoon characters decorated this elementary school.

We both admired this building with its lovely balcony. 1935 was inscribed over the door.

We stopped to admire his shiny red motorbike and that led to a conversation about the technical high school where he taught. (We are standing at the front of the school.) He and the headmaster happened to be standing outside as we walked past. The young boy seems to be intrigued with Randal.

Turks know the value of shade and awnings or vine-covered trellises are to be found everywhere.

Men playing the card/tile game.

I’ve no idea if this is a good hand or a bad hand.

Lots of wool is used in Turkey and this wool shop had a knitting machine that works like a player piano. (I took this photo for you Andrew!)

The man in the yellow shirt is the barber: Randal had a shave here. The guy on the motor bike stopped and I didn’t know if he wanted me to take his photo or he thought I wanted a photo of the barber, so I took a photo and here it is.

Karaca Aktar

Meanwhile, across from the barber was a shop that sold soap and candy and herbs and tea and Ali kept making me taste things and I was already full from lunch. I tasted mulberries (thought those were poison?) and then a piece of lemon Turkish Delight I kept making him cut into a smaller piece as he tried to give me a big piece and then some carob honey. I ended up buying a clove necklace. I can’t imagine anyone wearing one but he said women do. He also said it was a deterrent for mosquitoes. We do have mosquitoes and I’d rather smell cloves than bug repellent. While I was there a group of the ladies came along and they all bought some too! So I did good for Ali, my new friend in Koycegiz. You can see the clove necklaces hanging on the left side of the photo. The shop did smell wonderful. Randal bought a clove necklace for the marina nurse who dresses his dog bite wound every day.

Our cloves are hanging on the back wall behind our bed but they haven’t improved the Sox playing of late. You can see the blue “evil eye” protectors among the cloves. Makes the room smell nice.

We were to regroup back at the hotel so Randal and I made our way back passing this playground. Lots of tortoises are found in the area and there are protected beaches for their breeding.

But horses are still my favorite. If we’d had one of these where I grew up I would have spent all of my free time on it. Probably would have skipped school too, if I’d had the nerve.

Ru

Doramac

ps  Our friend Singkey has come from China to improve her English skills.  She will be working in a resort on Hilton Head for the summer.  If anyone is going to Hilton Head, maybe you can say hello.  She is working at the Barony Beach Club on Hilton Head. 

  The adventure continues….

Kalkan

Billy and Esra hopped on their motorbike and took us to meet Mark and Imelda who own the Pasha Hotel. We relaxed, drank a bit and waited for the one vacant apartment to be readied for us. Billy, Esra, Mark and Imelda are friends so we all sat chatting until Billy and Esra continued up the hill to their home to rest before their evening work. We met and chatted with a British couple relaxing by the pool and then joined another couple who were sitting in the bar area. Both couples were vacationing at the Pasha. The Pasha is rated # 1 on TripAdvisor which lots of Brits use when making travel plans. From our one night stay we could certainly understand why. Mark is originally from London where he had managed 4 star hotels. Imelda, a qualified massage therapist originally from Ireland had moved to London and met Mark. Together they had vacationed several times at the Pasha, breaking their rule of never going to the same place twice. When the previous owners of Pasha had wanted to sell they contacted Mark and Imelda and asked if the couple wanted to buy the hotel. That was in 2008.

http://www.pasha-apartments.co.uk/

Where to find the Pasha

The front garden included a lovely sitting area and a bar where we relaxed while our apartment was being readied. There are 9 rooms/apartments and we got the only one still available.

Our back balcony looked down on the pool.

The L shaped kitchen and sitting area.

The kitchen was totally furnished with everything you’d need to prepare your own meals. Mark and Imelda don’t want to do breakfast so provide a kettle and tea supplies and don’t add breakfast to the cost of the room which is fine with us. We ate so much during dinner at Coast that we had no need for breakfast!

They had the best smelling wonderful sheets! View from our side balcony early in the next morning.

After a bit of a rest and a wash up in our room we got back on the bike and drove down the hill back to town to an Internet Café.

We parked down at Coast Bar and Restaurant on the waterfront and walked uphill to the Internet Café on the right. (Everything is uphill from the bay.) At the foot of the hill we couldn’t resist walking into a carpet shop. We told the young salesman we weren’t in the market but he didn’t mind and taught us more about carpets explaining that he loved them and loved showing them. Even with no customers he sometimes unrolls several just to look at them. He did have lovely carpets! Our carpet plan now is to buy some for our bedsides and we each get to pick one we love even if they are totally different and we don’t like each other’s choice.  But we didn’t have the measurements and it wasn’t the right time just then to buy any. 

I sat here and sketched while Randal was on the Internet. The young woman sitting on the step had come out to smoke…everyone here smokes especially the young people.

Looking up hill from the small table outside the Internet Café.

July and August are the really busy tourist times but Kalkan hasn’t been over-run yet and I read that more people are buying property to stay and live here. However, our new friend Billy who co-owns Coast says he will retire back to the US because there is too much cultural difference for him and Esra to stay in Turkey.

Who would not want to spend the evening here watching the sun go down?

We sat on a small PADDED loveseat and had our meal overlooking the harbor. We could have moved to a table but it was so nice sitting where we’d had our drinks that we didn’t want to move. Those pink bushes are everywhere..light pink, dark pink and white too. They remind me of rhododendron or mountain laurel

Our wonderful meals.

We had started with meze…several small dishes of vegetables, dips and such eaten with bread. After that I actually didn’t need any dinner so ordered another starter of eggplant with cheese on crusty bread and Randal had a beef dish with eggplant and some kind of wonderful sauce. I had more wine and Randal drank another beer and we had a lovely relaxed evening. During the evening we met Coast’s co-owner Omar and he suggested we visit Patara.

There were lots of other restaurants along the waterfront: the Taurus Mountains in the distance.

Lovely, bubbly, charming Esra, wife of Billy, nephew of Jamal who started the whole thing for us.

Two happy campers!

Most people eat later than we do and that’s why you see empty tables. We went into the restaurant about 6:45pm but 8pm is when people start to come. Most hotels and restaurants close from November to May because tourists stop coming. The closest airport shuts down during those months so there is no easy way to get to the coast area.

Kalkan night life

Next email leaving Kalkan for Patara, pumpkin pancake and a hike through the ruins.

Hi All

Serendipity of Travel : Kalkan and Patara Unplanned

If you trust to serendipity rather than to your original plan, sometimes it works out better!

This email would have been called Kas by Motorbike because that’s what we intended to do. Go to Kas, check out the marina, stay overnight and return to Marmaris or maybe who knows what. But that’s not what happened. We stayed in Kas long enough to visit the marina and find it to be the most expensive marina on the coast and who needs that! It was huge and mostly empty; serves them right and I hope it stays that way! Then on our way back towards Marmaris Randal made a serendipitous decision to visit the small marina in Kalkan and we made a fortunate discovery. Not that the marina was cheap and wonderful; it was even more expensive than Kas. But we met some really nice people, stayed overnight in a lovely small hotel, and were encouraged to visit Patara just down the road to see ancient ruins and the beautiful beach. Serendipity Tours is what we might have to call our motorbike travels.

“Serendipity: The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.”

Word History: We are indebted to the English author Horace Walpole for the word serendipity, which he coined in one of the 3,000 or more letters on which his literary reputation primarily rests. In a letter of January 28, 1754, Walpole says that "this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word." Walpole formed the word on an old name for Sri Lanka, Serendip. He explained that this name was part of the title of "a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of…." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/serendipity

(Interestingly we ended up in Sri Lanka as a totally unplanned stop on our voyage to India)….

We left Marmaris at 8:30 am Friday morning with beautiful sunny skies and less humidity in the air. We’d had thunder, lightning and hail a few days before so maybe the weather system was cleaned out of any turmoil for a bit. We have landmarks now on the route 400 along the coast since we’ve traveled on it both east and west of here several times. We know where to find gas stations, the tunnel and toll we’ll encounter just before Gocek and a few places to eat along the way. We stopped for gas just short of Fethiye and had Nescafe which is what coffee is called. Then we started into new territory and became even more enamored of Turkey as we drove through beautiful farmland between the mountains and the sea. By noon I was hungry so we stopped for lunch at a complex of gas station, restaurant and small café where men play with tiles marked like playing cards. I thought we’d head for the restaurant but a man stopped us and pointed to the tables where the men were playing tiles and told us to sit and eat lunch. Randal said OK so we did. Randal asked of sandwiches and mentioned chicken, I said cheese and vegetables and we ordered cans of Coke Light. The Coke Light came from the big restaurant but our sandwiches came from a small shed where the “owner” made food for unsuspecting tourists. Not that it was bad; it just wasn’t so good. Very little cheese, no chicken, super hot peppers we had to pick off, and more ketchup than tomatoes. It would have cost me about 4 TL if I’d made it on the boat. We paid 15TL.

The bread was really good and the Coke was cold….

This dog was very friendly and helped eat some of the bread.

Hundreds and hundreds of greenhouses.

A banner saying Ziraat was on most of the greenhouses so I looked it up. The Agricultural Bank of Turkey (Ziraat Bankasi) is probably the reason but Ziraat is also some kind of Sufi agricultural philosophy.

http://www.allaboutturkey.com/agriculture.htm . The vegetables in Turkey are wonderful and plentiful.

We rode through beautiful farmland and then the highway turned back to the coast.

Looking down on the small harbor of Kalkan where we would eventually return to have dinner and spend a wonderful night.

Highway 400 on the coast nearing Kas

Looking down on the beach

We continued on to Kas and arrived at the marina; the very empty marina. There were few boats and fewer cruisers…..

No boats on these docks..

No people and no boats on the docks at the mid left side of the photo beyond the grass area.

Kas charges 1,000 Euro per month for our size boat. Our marina charges about 200 Euro. Our marina stays pretty full…. So now we’re thinking about leaving the boat here for July and taking the motorbike and going traveling because we’d rather see Turkey than the same marina view for a month anyway.

Riding away from Kas to ….?

You can see our red bicycle panniers that Randal mounted to the motorbike. We really didn’t want to ride the whole way back to Marmaris. We’d left the boat at 8:30 am and had arrived in Kas at about 2:15 pm. We thought about going back to Fethiye but Randal decided to make a detour to Kalkan and check out their small harbour berthing rates.

Kalkan harbor.

Until the early 1920s, the majority of its inhabitants were Greeks. They left in 1923 because of the Exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey after the Greco-Turkish War.

Mountains surrounding Kalkan

"Kalkan is a stylish hillside harbour town that slides steeply into a sparkling blue bay.  It’s as rightly famous for its restaurants as its sublimely pretty beach."  Lonely Planet

Randal and Jemal

Jemal is retired Turkish Navy. He has a sailboat that he is refurbishing here in Kalkan. His nephew is a part owner of the Coast Restaurant. Jemal suggested we go talk with Billy and he find us a reasonable hotel for the night. Jemal reminded us of Anthony Quinn but I don’t have a good photo of him. Randal asked where Jemal had learned English as he sounded “American.” Jemal said in the Turkish navy they learn American English.

We met Billie whose family moved from Turkey to near Newark, New Jersey. Billy went to school in Bloomfield (to avoid Newark) and then worked for Xerox but recently moved back to Turkey to work in the restaurant business (I think that’s the story.) His lovely wife Esra was originally from Munich but spent time in London. They speak three languages to each other. Billie drove Esra home on their motorbike and stopped along the way to introduce us to Mark and Imelda who owned Pasha Hotel

Pasha Hotel and Apart

http://www.pasha-apartments.co.uk/

Next email Coast Bar and Restaurant and Pasha Hotel

  Weather in Turkey can change on a dime!  We had a lovely sunny morning, early evening thunder storms and hail, and it was a three blanket night.  Sunday our neighbor had to rescue my flannel pants which had blown off the line.  She kindly came on the boat and took down all of the laundry, folded it and left it in the basket on our cockpit.  And she was in the middle of working on sanding the hull of her boat which is on the hard just across the way from us.  I had planned on no rain when I’d left the laundry hanging, but didn’t plan on the fierce wind.  That can happen in the Med and I’ve learned my lesson! 

  Sox have been making me happy to check the scores and with several afternoon games I’ve been able to "watch" the simulated game on the computer.  The scores were astronomical so I went to sleep before they ended secure in the feeling that the Sox wouldn’t blow 10 run leads.  Afternoon games start here by 8pm so that’s good but night games start here at 2 am.  Sometimes I automatically wake up and then get up to watch for a bit.  Then I go back to sleep if the score is lopsided no matter who is winning.  I can sleep from 4 to 6 and still feel pretty normal during the day.  But then I don’t have any real heavy thinking to do.  The last book I read had Agatha Raisin as the main character! 

  Randal has been doing boat work and Linda and I hiked up the mountain until the dirt road ran out.  Without long pants and shirts it was too buggy to keep going.  We’ll prepare next time.  We are having 2 Welshmen to dinner tonight.  Randal made an apple pie!  So that’s how it goes.

Ru

DoraMac

Bozburun by Motorbike

We set off for Bozburun planning to avoid all of the wrong turns and double backs of our prior adventure. That ride had been fun and very scenic but this time we really did want to eventually get to Bozburun so took a more “direct” back road. We still climbed over mountains and drove through tiny towns but this time we arrived just about noonish in Bozburun southwest from Marmaris about 50 something miles if you take the most direct route. We took the “not direct” route driving to Bozburun but the more direct route back. We certainly are getting to know this part of Turkey. And considering the marina rates on the southeast coast are triple the rate here in Marmaris we may do more biking than boating.

First order of business was lunch at the very end of town.

We stopped for a minute outside this café, just long enough for a lovely Turkish woman to come out, chat us up, and tell us we must eat in her café. I thought the menu looked pretty short, but Randal said, Ok. They did have beer and the price for the Turkish Pizza was right…4TL for a half meat, half cheese pizza. It actually turned out to be like the spinach-feta cheese pancake thing I had in Marmaris. The meat (not sure what kind) was mixed with sautéed onion so tasted fine to me. I’ll try to remember to take a photo next time. I keep eating first and then thinking of the photo.

A shady spot.

There was a chill in the air in Marmaris so we chose long pants and shirts. It was really brisk riding over some of the mountains. Bozburun itself was hot; need some of those zip off pants and arm warmers for chilly riding but warm stops. We had special bicycle riding clothes but so far have resisted special motorbike clothes other than our big helmets.

Seemed more like the desert than the Mediterranean; but I like the stone and space more than forests.

Even looking like a desert, agriculture, fishing and boat building are the main industries of the 2,000 or so people who live in Bozburun.

Across to the other side of the cove on Sombeki Bay.

There are customs officials in Bozburun so you can check out of Turkey and cruise the short distance to Greece if you so chose. Maybe one day. But not likely this year.

Bozburun is a popular stop for the lovely wood Gulets (large sailing boats) for hire.

MHP is the main opposition party; elections were June 12, 2011 and MHP didn’t do as well as was expected.

Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal) the founder of modern Turkey has a statue everywhere. (He probably would have voted MHP, I think.)

Walk along the waterfront…….lots of flowers!

Places for boats and bathing……

http://www.bozburuninfo.com/bozburun_brochure.pdf is a tourist brochure about Bozburun and tells quite a bit with wonderful photos.

The road from Bozburun.

Lots of terraced hillsides with rock walls built to hold the soil where the mountain had been leveled a bit. I just love stone walls. Robert Frost’ s poem MENDING WALL is a favorite poem of mine and I always think of the several lines of it when I see the stone walls.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

(a wonderful English teacher pointed out that frozen ground can = frost)

And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’.

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it

Where there are cows?

But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,

But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me~

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father’s saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Just leaving Bozburun.

Looking down on Selimiye which we visited last trip.

Lots of what looks like Mountain Laurel or Rhododendron.

The coastal highway.

Taking a break for photos and looking at the road through the mountain.

The whole peninsula is named Hisaronu. The Lonely Planet guide recommends renting a scooter in Marmaris and biking the peninsula which they say is 120 km and should take about 6 hours with stops for lunch and swims. They mention that the only petrol stations are in Turunc and Bozburun but you could get fuel at the Marti Marina near Turgut if you thought of it. They also warn you of terrible Turkish drivers but we have found just the opposite, and hardly any traffic at all to be terrible.

Over the mountains and through the woods…to a dead end….

Sunday we went off for a day trip from Marmaris to Bozburun but didn’t quite make it to Bozburun as you can probably gather from the title. We had a lovely day getting ourselves lost between Turunc and Amos finally turning around when the road ran out in Camiyani. We had lunch in Osmaniye and got to watch the local pols hobnob* with the owner of the small restaurant. We passed them later having more tea at the small restaurant down the road.

Our route for the day was from Marmaris, past Icemeler, a tour around Turunc looking for the one petrol station we might see all day, past Kumlubuku, back and forth trying to find Amos, then off to the dead end of Camiyani; then back through the woods emerging on the “real road” to Osmaniye for lunch; through Bayir and a stop in Selimiye and then back to Marmaris. We left the boat about 10:15 am and returned by about 4:30ish. Other than our stop for lunch and a brief stop in Selimiye we sat on the motorbike the entire time. A bit too much sitting but we’re both getting used to it. At first I could only last about an hour without needing a break. Now I can sit almost 3!

The scenery was reminiscent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but more dramatic and desolate.

Looking back on Icemeler and the far distance, Marmaris.

We’d already done some climbing to get to this point, but at this point we still knew where we were and where we were going. Our next stop was Turunc to find the only petrol station between Marmaris and Bozburun that we knew of. We had filled our tank in Marmaris but SINCE THIS WAS THE ONLY PLACE FOR GAS WE KNEW, I WANTED TO GET SOME. The small station was sort of hidden on a back road so we had to ride around town and ask directions a few times…but then found it. I went off to the WC and Randal filled the bike and also got some extra “to go” and off we went to Amos. The signs to Amos weren’t exact and neither is our map. We had to backtrack and then take a road that said Dionysos which looked more like a driveway up to a hotel which it was except that it kept going and so did we towards Camiyani. http://dionysoshotel.net/index.php# is the hotel’s website if you want to see where we won’t ever be staying.

A beautiful sunny day was great for traveling these roads.

So we went over mountains and along roads that seemed more for bicycles and walking than for cars. We finally got to Camiyani.

Camiyani

Camiyani seemed to consist of a mosque, some houses and farms but not much else. We were afraid to bike into the center because there seemed to be no road out the other way. Even as we passed the farm houses to where the road became dirt and then ended we saw no people, animals or anything moving. It was about half past noon so maybe they were all indoors eating lunch which was what we wanted to do.

We backtracked out of Camiyani. (In my head I was calling our friends Linda and Michael to ask them to send aid to repair a blown tire, worry wart that I am.) We rejoined the “real road” and stopped at the first café we found. Good choice!

Happy Randal!

A mosque and olive? trees across the road. Luckily the prayers were short because they were loud.

Salad, bread, beer and tea. That would have been enough but we’d also ordered a chicken dish each and some fries.

My chicken kabobs which were wonderful.

Randal had grilled chicken breast but we cut it up and added it to the sizzling kabob oil and spices. Yum!!

While we were eating the local Demokrat Party van pulled up.

About a dozen men, one woman, and a small boy came in for tea. The van played rousing Turkish “get out the vote” music.

Bir iki uc !  Smile!!!

That’s one two three in Turkish which took me a few tries and some help from the owner and his family.

Chopped up peanuts in honey garnished with pistachios, almonds and walnuts.

Our souvenir was a large jar of this for us and some small ones for our friends. www.ahugida.com/tr is their website. (the “Tinned Nuts” page is a bit x-rated.)

Selimiye

I think we rode over those mountains to get to Selimiye one of those lovely coves on the Turkish coast.

Pretty desolate and rugged.

Always colorful plants to contrast with and compliment the stone.

One last look at the map and back to Marmaris.

Actually we didn’t stop to look at the map, I wanted water and Randal wanted ice cream.

And so ends another adventure on our motorbike. Randal has rigged up some fittings to the motorbike so we can now use our bicycle panniers and have more room for an extra shirt or some souvenirs or maybe even a picnic lunch! Our next adventure is an overnight trip to Fethiye southeast of Marmaris on the coast. It is about 97 miles according to the website of a guy who bicycled that route. That should take us about 4 hours with stopping so we’ll leave early in the morning to allow us time to see Fethiye in the afternoon. We’re only planning for one night but preparing for two…just in case there is lots to do we can’t resist. We are thinking of going back with the boat on our way to Cyprus later this summer.

Ru

Doramac

*Origin:

Hobnob comes from an earlier phrase, to hob or nob, meaning "to drink together, taking turns toasting one another," probably from Middle English habbe "to have" and nabbe, a contraction of ne + habbe, "to have not," hence, "to have and have not, to give and take." http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/archive/2002/09/21.html

It is definitely a different season here at the Marina.  Lots of boats have left their winter hardstands and are in the water or off cruising.  The morning radio cruisers net that took too long now is over in about 10 minutes.  I guess those of us who are still here, and there are still probably close to 1,000 boats, just have nothing to say.  Randal has been busy catching up with boat chores.  He installed new engine start batteries that stopped working during our horrid Indian Ocean crossing.  (We have a back up system.)  He designed and has ordered a stainless steel reel to hold long lines.  We still have to repair the dinghy but nothing really major to do.  Hopefully by July we’ll be out cruising too and seeing the coast by boat rather than by bike.  We do want to make a bike trip along the coast south east of Marmaris to look at the marinas in that area.  Today it’s just a trip to town to the Thursday market for fruit and vegetables and more cheese!  I ate my half kilo (a little over a pound) of white cheese from last week so need more.  It has become a breakfast staple for me or a snack.  We bought 2 kilo of what we thought was cheddar (that’s what we asked for and Randal tasted) but now we think is parmesan so will try for cheddar this time.  I froze a good chunk of the parmesan because it can be crumbly and that’s ok.  It tastes really good but a little goes a long way and I like the white goat cheese better. 

  Yesterday we went to town, tried a new restaurant and I ate a filled pancake for lunch.  Today it will be the old favorite chicken wrap. 

Ru

Doramac

The real Pancake Queen!"

I had the title of ‘pancake queen" in our bike club, but that was for eating pancakes.

Preparing my giant spinach/cheese pancake

Cooking it on top of what looks like an inverted wok.

We met Linda and Michael in town to try "their" new restaurant.  Along with lots of other choices including a sort of home made ravioli like I’d had in Beldibi, they offer stuffed pancakes.  The pancake maker was the star of the show so I forgot to take a photo of the pancake! It tasted like a cross between a Mexican casadia and a Malaysian roti chanai* and to eat a whole one is ridiculous! They’re huge. But by the time I stopped stuffing myself, there wasn’t so much left to take home so I just kept eating until there was only one tiny corner left. When the dough is rolled out it covers her board, but it is very thin. It is folded in half to cook and then folded again and then cut up in sections and served. Linda and Michael had learned about the restaurant from anti-fouling paint supplier who said, “Turks eat there.” It was quite good, but I still like the wrap best. But the pancake maker was cute! (Good thing I walked for hours later to walk some of it off…but then was hot and ate a McDonalds soft ice cream.)

After lunch Michael and Linda went off for their chores and Randal biked off for his chores and I went walking around town looking for a place to sit and sketch …. But mostly walked and took photos for a few hours.  Old Town Marmaris is the small area near the waterfront with restaurants and shops and the old stone buildings that have thankfully not been torn down. There is a fort too and I’ll go there next trip with my sketch pad and hide in a corner and hopefully actually do some sketching rather than just take photos.

*Amazingly when Randal and I couldn’t remember the term "roti chanai" I googled Sungai Rengit and Doramac and the first hit was about our favorite roti maker. 

Restaurants and a few shops line the waterfront near old town Marmaris.

These places are for the tourists. We eat in the “working areas” of Marmaris where the Turks eat.

Gulets for hire to cruise the Turkish coast.

A good deal of this fountain was just being completed when we arrived in Marmaris.

None of the seating areas along the waterfront are shaded! I noticed that yesterday when I was hot and tired and looking for someplace to sit and sketch. The restaurants all have umbrellas offering shade so you are tempted to go buy an expensive drink to sit in the shade rather than drink you cheap bottle of water and sit in the sun. But I sat in the sun because I wanted to look back and try to sketch an umbrella and wicker chair. It’s a lot harder to draw an umbrella than you might think and have it actually look like what it really looks like and not a “cartoon” umbrella. Mine was half and half.

Now we need new pillow covers to go with the new carpets but this one was the wrong shades of red and blue. I didn’t bother to ask the price because on the waterfront everything adds liras!

Behind the waterfront areas there are stairs and pathways that lead to the narrow streets of Old Town Marmaris.

The back side of the front…the working side, quiet and shady.

There were shops and restaurants, but it mostly looked like homes: I’d love to go into one.

It was quiet and shady and lovely.

Sox just lost their 4th in a row, but I’m not as worried as when they lost all those games in April.  I think they are the July team just taking a rest!  Go Bruins!

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