John, Debbie and Michael climbed to the top of the fortress.  I stayed below (where the red line is)  where we ate lunch.  As of late, avoiding breaking my neck or any other limb has become uppermost when off on an adventure. 

“A point of note on the general settlement pattern of these villages is that the locations chosen were never in the immediate coastline, but always at a mile’s distance or more from the sea and at a relatively safe altitude on the slopes of a hill. The reason was from times immemorial was the fear of pirates, advantaged as they were by the intricate geology of shores of southwestern Turkey and of the many islands and islets that are its natural extensions, in an environment not unlike that of the Caribbean Sea. Piracy remained a serious security problem well until the beginning of the 20th century and especially during the weakening of the Ottoman Empire and the issue often necessitated foreign intervention.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dat%C3%A7a#Tourism

Blooming time for poppies.

Poppies always make me think of the WW1 poem “In Flanders Fields” by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.   We checked into Turkey in Ҫanakkale  which is the biggest town near to Gallipoli.  Before our cruising days I only knew of Gallipoli from the Mel Gibson movie.  Now I know Aussies and Kiwis and ANZAC Day. 

http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/thepoem.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHJeto0ObxI  is a 6 part series about Australian and New Zealand nurses who served in the Dardanelles and other  the battle sites.  Though fiction, it is based on real nurses who took part and made a real difference in the survival rate of the soldiers and in the advances in the care of soldiers.

Debbie and John who always had a flask and his tea!

Michael holding a poppy.  We really are “miles from nowhere.”

Sparkling wine to go with our bread, cheese and tomato sandwiches. 

I thought my pack was heavy, but John had lugged up a full glass bottle of very cold wine.  I shared mine with Rhino Randal who then needed a snooze.  

It was lovely sitting and relaxing over some sparkling wine until it was time to get going and my legs felt like lead!  I always walk several miles each day, but Marmaris miles aren’t mountainous miles and I can certainly tell the difference.  I think we averaged 2.something miles per hour the second day.  John’s phone had an app that calculated his mileage and calories burned.  Maybe we broke even considering the breakfast the hotel provided and the snacks along the way.  They also provided a half loaf of crusty bread as a sandwich for lunch which I managed to eat every bit of.

Yea!  Goats!!

Just at the end we finally saw some goats.  We’d seen goat poop and donkey poop and cow poop but no animals except for a couple of turtles/tortoises 

Michael’s photo