Merhaba
After hiking around Marmaris on Monday, Mary and I decided to try our luck finding the hiking trail behind the Kipa in Beldibi. Every Sunday we’d pass by the Kipa to and from the Sunday Market, but never saw anything over on the hills that looked like a trail. We also wanted to try out the new Beldibi bakery/restaurant as our “after hike snack.” It was a bright and sunny day so off we went.
It took about 15 minutes or so to get to Kipa. From there we walked around the corner toward the hills that run behind the town. We didn’t see much that looked like a trail. We saw what looked like new, upscale condos under construction. And we saw chicken sheds so it’s a pretty mixed area of new “suburb” and country village.
After finding nothing promising one direction we chose another and met two men just leaving a house near the hillside. We asked them about the keҫiyolu which translates as goat road. The younger man spoke English and pointed out the patika which translates as path or track. I like keҫiyolu best but patika is probably easier to remember. They told us to follow the path behind the older man’s home, pass by his wife working in the tiny terraced area up the hill side, and keep going. We’d noticed power lines so guessed there would be some kind of service track left from the construction and maintenance. There wasn’t. I’ve no idea how they got the equipment up these hills other than with donkeys or just man power. But it made for a nice walking trail. It wasn’t yet blocked by the summer foliage and the snakes were still hibernating, Oiy! Sharman and I had deal with the snake issue back in North Cyprus so hearing about them wasn’t so off putting as it is still early in the year. Not sure I would do this trail in the summer. But then we’ll be somewhere heading towards London by the summer time.
Ru
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I put this hat on the first cold day and will take it off when the daily temperature is finally in the mid-70s. |
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Any geologists out there have a clue what the read in these rocks would be. Close up it looked like petrified wood. |
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Parts of the trail were clear but definitely not wide enough to explain how they transported the power towers up here. |
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Though the trail may have gone on to the rocks up above, we stayed on the lower bits. We hadn’t planned on doing more than locating the trail so didn’t want an all-day adventure that might take hours and have us ending up who knows where. We’ll save that for a day we bring snacks! |
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We didn’t climb very high, but it was enough to have some nice views though the day was too hazy for good photos. |
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Working our way back down to …somewhere in Marmaris. The Beldibi bakery would have to wait for another day. |
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Not sure if this is a turtle, tortoise, or terrapin as I haven’t a clue what the difference is any way. This guy was certainly larger than my outspread hand, not that I would have tried to pick him up. Some of these critters snap! He was actually right where I wanted to place my hand to balance myself as we were going down the hill. As it was I had to balance myself to take the photo and Mary had to just hang on to her spot while I did it. It wasn’t very steep but there was no level area for standing around waiting for someone taking a photo. He looks as old as Turkey. |
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So this is where we came down….somewhere between Beldibi and Marmaris with no bakery in sight. |
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In Marmaris, if you miss one bakery, don’t worry; you’ll find another. Gὄzleme was my choice; the middle shelf on the left. Soft thin dough is rolled out into a huge circle and then some kind of filling is spread on top. Then it gets folded over and folded over and cooked. I had spinach and cheese. Mary was a good sport about my lunch choice as she had done a bakery run in the morning bringing back goodies for breakfast. |
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What I really wanted. For some reason there are several stands in town that sell cotton candy. Guess it’s their version of sea-side taffy. |
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This is Tuesday…Monday the street looked like a street. Winter is the season to renovate and half the building seem to be in the process of being torn down and then rebuilt. Same with the roads. The green and yellow grocery store is a landmark for cruisers. When you want to give someone directions, you start off with, “you know the green and yellow market?” It’s called Perihanoḡlu or close to that. It’s taken me this long to come that close. The inside is always bright and cheerful; not crowded but busy. This mess can’t be good for business. |
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There’s one last photo I debated whether to include. Just near where we started the trail swastikas had been painted on two houses with the words Sieg Heil on one and Heil and the Swastika on the other. Not pretty. In all our travels outside the U. S. I can’t remember seeing it before. I say outside the US because someone painted a huge swastika on the Reform Synagogue in Roanoke. The non-Jewish neighbors helped clean it off. You see the old Roman symbol of the revered image, but that’s different, though for me, still startling. I don’t know if people in the houses were targets of hatred or promoting it. It seemed totally out of place in my experience of Turkey. That’s why I included the photo to point out how “not expected” this kind of thing is.
Yuck. |
