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Free wheelin'
Mean machine, beautiful bayHaving followed the Turkish coastline for over a thousand kilometres since leavıng Istanbul, I finally arrived back in Fethiye - the seaside town that had sparked my love affair wıth Turkey one year ago. Upon checking into my hostel it should have come as no surprise that two of my roommates were Rich and Ryan - the same two Aussie lads I had already bumped into in Eecabat and again in Selçuk - as there is a definate 'east coast Australia' effect going on in Turkey, by which I mean that the vast majority of backpackers seem to be following the same route and stopping off at the same half-dozen-or-so places in much the same way as the 'backpacker super-highway' that exists between Sydney and Cairns in Australia. Nevertheless it was cool seeing the guys again as they're always good for a laugh; and I must admit I've grown to admire them for the fact that they always seem to be having more fun than anyone else.
Over beers at the bar on that first night in Fethiye the boys did a brilliant job of keeping myself and Stephen (our roommate from Wisconsin) entertained by re-counting their exploits from earlier
Ghost town
Abandoned houses in Kayaköy that day, when they had undertaken an adventurous trek from Kayaköy to Ölüdeniz. This captured my attention in particular as until then I'd had no idea that it was possible to walk between the two; and having already ticked off both Saklikent Gorge and the Twelve Islands boat cruise on my previous visit to Fethiye, that left Kayaköy and Ölüdeniz as the two destinations that I most wanted to get to this time around - so why not kill two birds with one stone and throw in a bit of adventure at the same time?!?
And so it was that the following day (friday 25th May) Stephen and I found ourselves taking a dolmuş (basically an overcrowded minivan) up into the hills behind Fethiye to Kayaköy, which unlike the tourist trap town of Hisarönü that we passed through along the way - or anywhere on the Mediterranean coast for that matter - is a genuine example of a ghost town.
Built across a number of adjacent hillsides overlooking a valley high up in the hills just inland from the coast, Kayaköy was previously known as Levissi when it was part of the Ottoman empire and populated by mostly
Village lost in time
More abandoned buildings in Kayaköy Greek christians, who then fled the town during the population exchange that occurred immediately after the Turkish War of Independence. The Greek muslims who then came to Levissi found the location undesirable and chose to settle elsewhere, and so the town now known as Kayaköy was left completely deserted.
After wandering around amongst the abandoned houses and hilltop churches of Kayaköy for a while, my American friend and I decided it was time to tackle the hike to Ölüdeniz - the spectacular curving beach that separates the Mediterranean Sea from the 'Blue Lagoon' (which in Turkish is known as Ölüdeniz - meaning 'Dead Sea'😉 and which had been the original inspiration for me to come to Turkey last year; yet which I had somehow failed to see despite it's proximity to Fethiye (and the fact that my sailing trip went straight past it).
It was at this point that we made a critical decision - rather than following the waymarked six kilometre path to the beach, we wanted to follow in the footsteps of Rich and Ryan who had scaled one of the hills surrounding Kayaköy and then bushwacked their way down toward the coast before eventually intercepting
Turkish version of Macchu Pichu
Kayaköy, with the infamous 'highest peak' looming behind the walking path closer to the beach - which according to the two Aussie lads had meant having to hack their way through some pretty dense foliage, but was worth the extra effort for the chance to get 'off the beaten track'. Well, to say that Stephen and I ended up 'blazing our own trail' would certainly be an understatement...
Picking out the highest peak overlooking Kayaköy - as we believed the two Aussie guys had done - we set off in that direction following nothing but the scant traces of old goat tracks and, sure enough, soon found ourselves struggling our way up the steepest of climbs whilst having our legs shredded by thorn bushes and plants with ridiculously sharp leaves. In fact the only thing keeping us from turning back was that we figured it would be too hazardous to try to go back down the way we had come up!
Onwards and upwards we slowly marched on, pausing every now and then to catch our breath, drink some water, nurse our wounds or simply try to figure out where on earth we were and how the hell we could possibly go any higher, until finally
Sharing the view
A mountain goat looking far more at home than we were we reached the top and laid eyes upon the impossibly blue sea far, far below us. Only then did we realize that the 'hill' we had just climbed was in fact only one end of a ridge running parallel to the coast - and that we were in fact standing at the lowest point along the length of this ridge! And after eventually managing to orientate myself using the memory of my sailing trip last year - at the beginning of which we had sailed along the same stretch of coastline that now lay hundreds of metres below our feet - it dawned on me that the object of our desires (the beach and lagoon at Ölüdenız) lay beyond the far end of this ridge, which continued to climb ever higher before us.
It was around this time that we began to wonder whether the Australians had in fact come this way after all. Still, faced with no real alternative but to make our way along the ridge - since at least at our present height we were able to avoid most of the foliage that carpeted the vally floor below us - we pressed on, passing a number
Destination unknown
Our first glimpse of the 'Blue Lagoon' of Ölüdeniz of rather bemused-looking mountain goats whose facial expressions seemed to say 'what took you guys so long?' and one lonesome tortoise who was presumably struck by the same mix of curiosity and disbelief at our sudden appearance as we were at his!
Whether this was some strange breed of 'mountain tortoise' or his sense of direction was just as bad as our own we couldn't be sure, but we both agreed it must have taken more than one generation of tortoise to make it up that far; whilst hoping for his sake that the second tortoise we passed about ten minutes further on was a female, so that at least his efforts might not be entirely in vain, and that perhaps future generations of 'mountain tortoises' might be able to feel the cool of the sea between their claws!
It was not long after passing tortoise number two (who we couldn't be sure was even still alive) that Stephen and I finally reached the far end of the ridge - or at least near enough to it to finally be able to see our intended destination. Our initial exuberance was soon replaced with trepidation however, when we realized
A view to die for...
The beach and lagoon of Ölüdeniz that we now had to get down off this ridge that had proven so difficult to get up onto in the first place!
Figuring by now that Rich and Ryan must have gone another way - given it had taken them only two hours to get to the beach from the ghost town; whereas we had taken almost as long just to reach the top of the ridge running between them - we started our descent ınto the steep-sided valley that we could see winding it's way down towards the lagoon. And while we had to stop fairly regularly to figure out how to proceed (which would usually consist of Stephen asking me 'how's it looking over you way?', to which I would reply 'I think it's possible!'😉 due to both the steepness of the slope and the amount of loose rocks that we would have to negotiate, getting down into the valley turned out to be a hell of a lot easier than getting out of it, as the further we went the more it seemed to change from a fertile valley to little more than a narrow tree-filled crevice.
Nevertheless, based on Stephen's theory that we
The finish line
Stephen looking defeated after the 'hike from hell' should follow the lowest possible route (or to quote him directly - 'if watching Man versus Wild has taught me anything it's to always follow the riverbed'😉 we fought our way through the increasingly tangled foliage - complete with razor-sharp, thorn-covered vines that constantly blocked our path - until we finally caught sight of the lagoon again; at which point we weren't sure whether to celebrate the fact that it was no longer so far below us, or rue the fact that it still seemed to be just as far away!
By now more convinced than ever that there was no possible way Rich and Ryan (or anybody else for that matter) could have come this way - and with the daylight hours quickly fading away - we continued to make slow but steady progress until eventually we came to a particularly tangled web of shrubs and vines, at which point my summation that 'it doesn't look good' was met with the rather emphatic (and somewhat deranged) response from Stephen who - with a mixture of exasperation and desperation - simply charged head-first into the web of branches... only to stumble out the other side into the astonished glare
Basking in our success
Me looking slightly more triumphant after the hike of an old man who was surely wondering where the hell we had come from; while we proceeded to hoot and holler like a pair of deranged apes while shouting things like 'dude, it's a freaking human being!' and 'we made it, we're alive!'
Needless to say we savoured every moment at the 'blue lagoon' of Ölüdeniz, celebrating our triumph (or more to the point, our survival) with a most refreshing - and well deserved - swim in our boxer shorts, as I continued to laugh maniacally whilst Steve stood quietly in stunned silence. Upon turning around and looking back up at where we had come from it occurred to us that noone in their right minds would ever try to go where we had just gone, as we each admitted that not only would neither of us have even attempted the trek if not for the belief that Rich and Ryan had done it already; and that each of us had considered turning back but had not wanted to be the first one to back out; but that as great as the view at the top and the feeling of reaching the lagoon at the bottom had been,
Sheltered cove
One of many on my scooter tour if we had the choice again we would take the path all the way and buy a freaking postcard at the end!
No sooner had we taken a dolmuş back to Fethiye and arrived back at the hostel than we encountered Ryan at the hostel bar who, when told of our exploits and asked whether they had indeed gone up the highest peak at Kayaköy as we had believed, had replied 'what - that one that looked like a bloody volcano?!? Nah, we just went up the one with the church on top', before launching into a bout of near-hysterical laughter! And so it turned out that our one-and-only justification for embarking on the 'hike from hell' in the first place had been nothing more than a simple misunderstanding!
Unsurprisingly we devoured our meals that evening after going out for dinner to the Eastern Anatolian-themed (and utterly amazing) Mozaik Bahçe restaurant in town, which the Australians themselves had recommended; but for which, true to form, I had left Ryan's map with directions back at the hostel. Then just as we were thinking an early night might be in order, we got back to our room at the hostel
Turquoise surrounded by green
Another picturesque cove on the peninsula to find Rich and Ryan polishing off a bottle of Istanblue vodka with none other than Dani for company - the same Canadian girl I had met in Marmaris only two nights earlier!
So before I knew it we were all heading back into town for drinks at the 'Car Cemetery' (don't ask) where Rich made an instant impression by ordering a metre of beer - which for the uninitiated is exactly what the name implies! After spending the next hour or so searching in vain for some club called Banana's - the closest we got was another club called Mango's - we eventually headed back to the hostel once again where Dani promptly fell asleep while Stephen and I finished off the litre bottles of beer we had brought back with us, followed by the bottle of pomegranate wine that he had bought in Sirinçe whilst staying at Attila's Getaway! The irony of the fact that we were the last two people in the hostel still awake (and still drinking - at 4:30am no less) after the day we had just had was certainly not lost on either of us!
Understandably I barely left the hostel all
Picture perfect
More stunning coastal scenery day on saturday, preferring instead to make the most of the sunny weather by relaxing by the pool with Rich and Ryan, whilst Dani and Stephen headed off on their sailing trips. Sunday brought more of the same, until I inevitably started to get restless sometime after lunch, at which point I set off to see if I could hire one of the little motor scooters that everyone else in Fethiye seemed to be getting around on. After lining up a 125cc scooter at one rental agency, only to be told that without a motorcycle license it was illegal for me to rent anything more powerful than 50cc, I was headed back toward the hostel when I came across another rental agency; and when I told the guy there that I didn't have a motorbike license he simply replied 'no worries - I give you helmet'! Well hey, if it was good enough for him then it was certainly good enough for me!
So with at least four hours of daylight still ahead of me I took off along the winding road that follows the coastline all the way around a nearby peninsula, past sheltered bays and secluded coves
blessed with fine beaches and that gorgeous turquoise water that only Turkey's Mediterranean coast seems to possess. Stopping off for a cool dip in the sea at a particularly nice beach, I soon found to my surprise that I had completed a full circuit of the peninsula - which I hadn't realized it was possible to do - and so with time still on my side I headed up behind Fethiye and found a back road to Kayaköy, which provided not only wonderful views of the entire valley but also a perfect profile of the ridge Stephen and I had climbed along two days earlier! From there it was only fitting to head down the other side of the mountains to the beach at Öiüdenız for one last swim, before heading back to Fethiye just in time to catch the sun setting over the bay - a fine end to what had probably been my finest day in Turkey so far.
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tranquiltere
non-member comment
Turkey sounds like a blast!
I had no idea there was a backpacker grape vine traversing Turkey. The ocean looks incredible. I'm planning a trip and I think I'll follow your path. Thanks for posting Cheers tranquiltere from Los Angeles