Fethiye

---

Yet another beautiful place in Turkey! They just keep coming...

On the way along the Mediterranean coast, we stopped for lunch at Kas, my first real Med seaside town. It had all the stereotypical ingredients, turquoise water, sloping tree-covered hills, a marina, red-rooved white plaster buildings and lots of flowers and plants. Bliss. Here I purchased my obligatory evil-eye pendant to scare away the evil spirits so between that and my St Christopher (thanks Michele) I should have no problems from here on in!

Passing the border between the Med and the Aegean Sea was definitely more theory than a noticeable change. They are both beautiful turquoise and clear waters, so inviting. Apparently the word tuquoise actually comes from here as a description of the water. I don't know if that's true, but it's a good story so I'll choose to believe it.

Then onto Fethiye, where we had two nights camping at Sugar Beach which is on a lovely lagoon, just a short walk from the township but nice and quiet.

And the best way to see Fethiye? From the air! I was lucky enough to get the chance to go paragliding, which I jumped at. Literally. (OK, bad pun, but too easy to pass up..) And wow, what an experience! To get to the cliff we had to jump off, we were transported in a double cab ute. Which sounds normal enough, but considering that we had to go up a steep, precarious dirt road, with a number of close calls to the edge, it was interesting. With 23 people in the ute. Yes, 23. On the tray, on the roof... And that's not even the 11 chutes and spares that were loaded in too...

But we made it! We were supposed to start at 8am-ish, but unfortunately the wind did not cooperate. I had two false starts running down the dirt hill, lucky me getting to be the guinea pig. The second time the wind blew us right around and my pilot and I managed to do a full fall-over-backwards-down-the-hill, which was fun. Finally after a few hours we had a wind shift and got into the air.. and the wait was worth it!

My pilot was quite happy to zoom towards the cliff to spook some hikers and then show me some tricks, spiralling down so quickly I wasn't sure he still had control... Lucky there was quite a delay between breakfast and our flight. 30-45 mins passed by so quickly that it felt like only five. The beach landing was perfect, no stumbles, and I wished I could go again.. The photos, as always, don't do it justice.

Then off for an afternoon cruising on a launch on the Med, with bbq trout for lunch. It's tough travelling sometimes!

---