Turkey's Magical Highways Day 14

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We were greeted after breakfast this morning by a river boat (long, narrow boat that could seat 40 people) where we boarded and were taken on a side trip up the Dalyan River. To get there, we had to leave the Ekincik Cove into the open sea --- waves came crashing at us and the ride was a bit rough. Our guide called ahead and was able to arrange for a bus to meet us at our destination and take us by land to our next destination (rather than returning to the gullet. This saved us from some very rough seas and the probable outcome of us all losing contents of our stomachs. The river that we did get to cruise down was beautiful with much wildlife including turtles and birds. We took a hike into the ancient Lycian site of Caunus, a fishing village, which is a site of ancient temples, baths, nympheum and an ancient theatre that seated 5,000 folk. The estimate is that in it's time, the theatre served 50 - 60,000 people. Pictured are also the Lycian temple tombs where the important people were entombed in the side of the rocky mountains.

The town is a vacation spot for many Europeans and Russians, the small resort hotels hugged the river and the town was full of restaurants, bars, high end stores and souvenir shops. We took the bus to Marmaris which was a wonderful idea. Upon our arrival back on the gullet we discovered that it took the crew about 3.5 hours to make the trip that normally would have taken 1.5 hours.

We spent much of the afternoon walking the streets (and I caught up on this Blog in a local restaurant). It is like being in Miami with many vacationers staying on the Bay although this is the end of the season. We seldom hear English but lots of other European languages and Russian. The wind was blowing heavy and the waves large. Our boat moored at the Bay so that we could have easy on-off access that afternoon but in the evening we moved further into the Bay for more stability for our last night on board. Tomorrow a.m. we will say good-bye to the crew of 3 -- father is the Captain, mother the cook and son, 24 years old.

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Photos

Ekincik Cove on Dalyan River
Small fishing town on river -- resort area.

Dalyan fishing village.
Home of loggerhead sea turtles.

Caunus -- ancient site
We climbed to the top of the hill and explored temples, baths, nympheum & ancient theatre.

Lycien Temple Tombs
Carved out of the mountainous rocks (like caves).