After leaving Fethiye at 9am we headed for Olympos. Two hours into the bus journey we had a swim stop at a great little beach, the waves were the best we have seen over here, and pretty powerful. It was amusing watching tourists that appeared to be experiencing waves for the first time!
Back on the bus we had lunch at a nice little turkish cafe in Kas, back on the road we arrived in Olympos at 5pm.
Roaming the back streets of Kas after lunch
Olympos, how would you described it?
The best way we can think of is pretend you are walking into a western movie set, there are wooden shanties all over the place. It a pretty unusual place and very chilled out.
The village runs off generators – We hoped and prayed that they wouldn’t overheat as then we would loose air con and its more than 40 degrees here. Night and day.
We paid about $20 NZD each for the night in a double private room with an ensuite, this included dinner and breakfast – very cheap!!
DAY ONE
With only one day in Olympos and after getting talking to another NZ couple who were planning on going to try an watch turtle hatching the next day, they’d already worked it all out (ya go the Kiwi’s, these are the first ones we have meet since being away), it was destiny that we tagged along!
This time of the year is apparently the time to do it, with nests cordoned off on the beach and these apparently hatch at sunrise . . . .apparently. . . . .
So 4.30am we rose and Mike and Trace started their walk down to the beach to see the miracle of life. As we headed out of our hostel the security guard said hello and asked where we were from and what we were doing, we replied we were from New Zealand and we’re off to see the Turtle hatching at the beach. His reply was “oh Kai ora Bro” in a Turkish accent.
Next we were greeted at the gate of the hostel by a guy who was still drinking and on his way home, (this place does not have a lot to do and therefore people tend to drink into the early hours of the morning) he offered us a beer and informed us the beach did not open until 6am and was guarded by a policemen but we decided to keep going seen as we were up and weren’t sure how accurate his info would be.
Our next friend we came across was a white dog, then came a brown dog… Shortly after this a very happy Turkish guy came along with a dog and chatted briefly before stopping to buy an icecream… He’d collected a dog of his own who he’d now passed on to us when he stopped. The dogs seem to like walking with anyone who’s on the move… We carried on with 3 dogs now.
After finally reaching the beach where we were greeted by a sleepy looking policemen, he said that the beach was closed and we could not go on, just as we were about to give up our ice cream eating Turkish friend caught up. They spoke Turkish to one another back and forward and some how we were allowed to continue.
We tried to explain to our new friend that we were off to see the Turtles hatching, his reply was “sorry I am too high to understand”. He was a nice guy and was working as a singer in one of the bars and on his way home. We carried on our way making small chat with our new found friend. Now on the turtle mission we had Trace, Mike, a stoned Turkish guy, a brown dog, a black dog and a white dog. . . . . . who was to join us next. . . . it was anyone's guess . . . . .
Once almost at the beach we stumbled across another man who was drunk and couldn’t find his way home. . . . he began to follow us too. The 4 of us and 3 dogs continued…
After reaching the beach the drunk man asked what we had come to see and we again tried to explain about the turtles and how we were hoping to see them hatch, he said that we were way to early and don’t bother until 5am. We all checked our watchers and to his surprise we confirmed it was in fact 5.05am. “This is an expensive watch, it’s meant to work” he said. He reset his broken watch to match Mike’s time, but it was still not working.
After walking down the beach for 10 minutes we decided it was time to leave the group, give up on turtles and watch the sun rise, we couldn't see any turtle nests and really had no idea what we were looking for in the dark with our flashlight. After sitting down, the other NZ couple stumbled over us and we began to proceed down the beach to where the turtle nests were.
Here we sat, we waited and we hoped that a miracle would happen. To our disappointment it wasn't to be but we did see an amazing sunrise and had a good old kiwi chat. Then a very uneventful walk back to the accommodation in the light.
Mount Olympos in the background
Walking back from the beach
After some breakfast (Omelette, tomatoes, cucumber, eggs,and of course more bread) we headed back to bed for a couple of hours to catch up on some sleep before we had to check out of our room at 11am.
Once we had checked out we sat up in the common room (tree house) area and updated our blog, played cards and read. A lovely way to spend the afternoon and evening. Avoiding the sun and heat of the day!
Below are some photos of the accommodation we stayed at in Olympos
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