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Published: October 8th 2013
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With hats and hoodies on we were ready to go. Leaving the town behind we quickly picked up the signs for Antalya, not quite our destination but on the right track.
Woolly says – we were back into the mountains on lovely turny roads which took us through rocky crags and formations, the views were as stunning as we have grown accustomed to and as each bend passed we marvelled more at the scenes in front of us. Jo spotted a sign for Tinazepe Cave, sounded like a plan! Remind me in the future to ignore her!
As it was just off the road it seemed like a good idea and it would break the journey up. Being Turkey’s longest cave I thought it was a must. It Covers 22KM of tunnels with only 1580 metres being open to the public, found in 1968 it was visited by Jacque Cousteau in 1970 who investigated the water system that would have run through the cave over 230 million years ago. We paid our 10TL each (approximately £3.25 GBP) and walked up to the start of cave one.
Woolly says – all seemed fine
until we started to walk along the wooden bridge we needed to follow, with holes everywhere and planks moving underfoot it didn’t feel very safe. Jo grimly gripped onto the handrail making small tentative steps and stopping every time there was any movement under her feet, I had a giggle but I don’t think she was impressed!
It was a horrible walk which made me feel quite sick as I imagined plunging the twenty feet down onto the river bed and I could only be grateful for each set of metal staircases we came to where I could pause for breath and try to stop jittering. The cave was very different to the caverns and grotts that we have visited before, in that there was very little to see and it was very poorly lit, making it difficult to see anything anyway. Finally after what seemed like weeks of walking we reached the end.
Woolly says – well if that was what we came to see I have to say it was a disappointment. There in front of us was a deep river bed and a 50 foot high wall where you could just
make out where the river trail would have gone. Feeling somewhat weary we padded our way back along the same rickety bridge with only a few tites to look at it, wasn’t the best, but there was always cave two!
The entrance to cave two involved a climb between the rocks before gaining a metal stair case which we climbed up only to find ourselves having to bend double (or triple in Ian’s case) as we traversed a long tunnel, one more staircase and we had reached the end.
Woolly says – well that was exciting, there were a couple of small mites and tities and that was it. This might be the longest cave in Turkey and the third longest in the world but I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re interested in river bed formations, I enjoyed the can of Fanta we shared at the end more!
We can’t get everything right and this was one attraction we wouldn’t be sorry to leave. Moving on we took off back through the mountains. Mile after mile passed as we started to descend from the heights….
Woolly says –
I saw the SEA! There it was laid out in front of us, even better we had started to discard clothing, hats off closely followed by the hoodies, bliss. I was in my bandana before I could shake a tusk. We had our usual list of campsites to check out and with the sun blazing down we struck lucky first time. Osay Camping just west of Manavgat was on the beach with grass to pitch on, clean facilities and filled with BRITS!!!!!! Who would believe it, not a Brit in weeks and here was a whole convey of British Motorhomers. We passed the time of day with them and compared campsites for a while before being joined by a young man who had just arrived and pitched with his bike, another Brit! You couldn’t work the odds on that happening, Rule Britannia.
We spent a most enjoyable evening with Jon the cyclist and his mascot Snoopy…..
Woolly says – not the most imaginative name for a mascot! He spent the evening chatting with us but, as I told Jo, he’s obviously come over because he heard I was present!
… discussing
the Turkish roads, camping and the delights we had all seen on our travels. John had biked from the UK and was making his way to Kenya, we had to take our hats off to him for not only cycling through the mountains but doing it alone.
Woolly says – that’s an awful lot of pedalling, having exchanged contact details and taken a few snaps of each other (I didn’t try to charge money this time!) we wished him well as we settled back with another cup of coffee and a few lazy days by the beach.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Old walkways
Those can be nerve wrecking. Glad you made it safely