Fez Bus: Sector 4 – Koycegiz to Fethiye

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Fez Bus: Sector 4 - Koycegiz to Fethiye

The next day was very exciting and started with yet another sales room - this time carpets. Frist they showed us how they get the silk from the worms and then how each carpet is hand woven - some taking 4 years to complete and comprising 400 knots per square inch - mad! Then there was a long demonstration in the show room where about 6 staff threw carpets around and let us walk on them - they were lovely. Once again, being handmade they were massively expensive - starting about £1,000 for a welcome mat sized rug - and some actually cost more than my house so why they were bringing Fez Busers there is beyond me. Surprisingly no one bought anything, again.

We then headed to the highlight of the day - Saklikent Gorge where Col and I went tubing - basically heading down the river in an inner tube with a paddle. The catchphrases of the day were “Bums up!” as shouted constantly by the guides when the water became bum-grazingly shallow and “Go left! Go left!” while we all floundered on the right hand side unable to control our tubes against the current. It was brilliant fun. After a 5km paddle (although in eality it was more of a 5km float) we jumped out of our tubes and headed across to a mud bath where Col thought it would be funny to make me eat dirt - literally. Cue a 5 minute strop by me where I wouldn’t let Col go near me even though we were supposed to be smearing each other with mud (luckily the guide was more than happy to oblige) before getting our picture taken and going back into the gorge to rinse off. I was wearing a one piece cossie so all the mud collected in it and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get it all out so when we were herded onto a truck and had to stand the whole way back to the HQ the mud was leaking out of my cossie making it look like I’d had a very nasty accident - it was not pleasant. Once we were showered and dressed we ate lunch on a platform over the river and spent the afternoon relaxing and reading our books while the others walked up the gorge. We weren’t being lazy but have booked a gorge trip while on the Gulet so didn’t want to spoil that. After a wonderful afternoon we headed on to Fethiye, where for the first time we were not staying in the “House of Fez” accommodation but at Ferah Pension which could only be described as special.

We arrived and were introduced by the owner Tuna to his wife Monica, who on hearing that we were from the UK got very excited telling us about her regular trips to London and how much she loves shopping - she was almost jumping up and down she was that enthusiastic. One of the first things Tuna told us was how horrible all the local pensions were and how they were constantly turning backpackers away who had spent 1 night at other hostels and left in disgust because of the bedbugs. Monica then started telling us how clean the pension was stating “I am clean!” over and over again while thumping her chest - it was very funny and she was telling the truth - the whole place was spotless. We were given “the best room in the pension” a fabulous little room at the front with a balcony and gorgeous views over the harbour. One of the other highlights of the pension (apart from the lists on the walls of tour companies not to book with and places around Turkey where you shouldn’t stay) was Monica’s art - notable for her apparent obsession with the female form (and nipples) - which covered every available wall throughout the pension and in the rooms. It really was a great place to stay, full of character with a really nice communal area which was only spoilt by a large number of cats and dogs who were also resident. I was just glad that we weren’t staying in the dorm - according to the guest book one of the bigger dogs sleeps in there too and snores and farts loudly throughout the night!

The next day we headed to Oludeniz - famous for it’s blue lagoon which looks fabulous in photos. After an absolute nighmare trying to get a dolmus there we arrived to find that nowadays it’s more of a grey lagoon so we spent the day sunbathing on the sea side rather than the lagoon side. In the end it turned out to be a pretty expensive day for what it was but we enjoyed watching all the paragliders coming off the surrounding mountains. Wednesday was our chill out day - we treated ourselves and bought a Guardian and Times and sat in a cafe by the marina fantasising about buying a Gulet one day (a bargain at £75,000).

Fethiye was the first real tourist resort that we visited in Turkey and although the area we stayed in was fairly unspoilt and still had a local feel to it we passed through some proper Spanish style British enclaves - especially outside Oludeniz where the was one town the had been turned into Britland with everything priced in pounds, everywhere selling English Breakfasts complete with real pork sausages (the first time we’d seen pork since arriving in Turkey) and “Delboys” supermarkets. The Aussie’s on the bus couldn’t understand why British people had no interest in experiencing other cultures when travelling but my theory is that when it’s sunny for most of the year in your own country it’s easy to find the time to explore other cultures - when it rains every day and your only chance of getting some sun is your annual 2 week holiday then that is obviously going to be your priority. At this point it had been nearly 5 weeks since we had seen rain so if your planning a sun holiday I can definitely recommend Turkey - the weather is brilliant

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