Turkey - Fethiye

We departed Koycezia at 9am set for Fethiye. 

After a couple of hours drive we stopped at the Lycian ruins at Tlos, these were amazing.

Back on the bus we headed to a carpet manufacturing place.  Here we were shown how the carpets are hand made and what to look out for when buying a carpet.  Trace was given a go at weaving a carpet, not a career she would like to move to. 

They then showed us how silk was extracted from the silk cocoons of the butterfly.  This was so amazing, one cocoon produces about 1 mile of silk.

Once we had been through the sales process with the Turkish carpet men we were then back on the bus (no purchases, we found one we quite liked but at 500 pounds for about a 2 metre by 3 metre carpet - little out of our price range).  Although, considering it was approximately 10 months of work by one women working 6 hours 5 days a week. I wouldn’t like to calculate the hourly rate!

 

After an hours drive we arrived at Sakklient Gorge.  This was an incredible Gorge which has a huge natural spring pumping a raging river out of the ground! The gorge went for about 15 kilometres and is the longest and deepest Gorge in Turkey, however about 200m into the gorge the springs come out of the ground so there’s not much water beyond this point in summer.   We walked for about an hour up into the Gorge with some of the people off the FEZ bus, this involved a crossing the river downstream from the springs… This water was freezing! the comp for our long you could keep your feet in the water was won somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes!  Unbelievably cold!! Especially as it was 40 degree temperature outside.  The tour guides smirk when he described the water as “refreshing” was suddenly understood.

We arrived in Fethiye at 6pm to our accommodation – V-Go hostel, this was about a 15 minutes walk out of Fethiye but overlooked the harbour which was beautiful.

The hostel was really nice, had a pool and great feel to it.  That night we had dinner and talked with our new friends off the FEZ bus Davin and Jess.

DAY ONE 

It was up at 9am and off on a 12 island cruise around Fethiye.  This was a lot like sail Croatia, so many beautiful islands.  We swam and sunbathed the day away.

 

Dinner back at the hostel – the food was really nice here.

The hostel Pool

view from our room

DAY TWO

Up at 9 and off paragliding, yes this was Mike’s idea of fun and Trace tagged along. 

The ride up on the back of a jeep truck was interesting, with steep cliffs on the side of the road . . . .  it was almost more scary than the Paragliding itself.  We eventually made it to the top of the cliff where we were to run and jump off after about a 40 minute drive, this was 3000 feet above sea level.

   

Trace took the walk, run and then jump first with her guide then Mike followed.  It was a great feeling flying above Fethiye and Oludeniz beach.  After a few tricks in the air and flying around we were made back to land with two feet on the ground.

Not a bad view!

Mike’s view looking up at Trace

Trace’s view looking down on Mike

Trace finishing a view tricks… Her guy was more adventurous! Looking down over the “blue lagoon”

That afternoon we spent at Blue Lagoon, Oludeniz beach (this was voted one of Europe’s top beaches), you have to pay to get into it.  We still think our NZ beaches beat this hands down but it was lovely to spend the afternoon reading and relaxing by the water.

We made it back to the hostel for dinner and a few drinks later that evening.

Also it has to be said there was a guy who worked behind the bar that enjoyed to arm wrestle (this was all he seemed to do all day) we watched him beat a bunch of drunk aussies quoting “beat me an you'll get a free beer”.  Mike waited until his arm looked sore and made a move… Unfortunately he declined saying it’d have to wait until tomorrow . . . . . . Eventually he challenged Mike at the bar… He lost in about 3 seconds and wasn’t seen for the next couple of hours.  No beer. later appeared and said “again, tomorrow”. The next day he challenged again but with a friend that spoke better English.  He held their hands and counted down. Lost again… Round 2 he said… 3, 2, 1 Lost again… No beer, but there were plenty of thumbs up and smiles for the remainder of the stay.