Fethiye (feti-YEAH!)

After a few days in Kas (see previous blog post) we headed to Fethiye, which was just a few hours away. We checked into the guesthouse (much more like a hostel, although we went with a double room. We're done with dorms) and headed into the town for a quick, cheap lunch (a kebab was 5 liras, so $2.50 each). 

This is the view from our room. It may be a hostel, but its got a glimpse of an amazing view! And its super cheap! 

After we were refuelled we went for a wander through the streets. Then we decided to do a walk that the owner of the guesthouse suggested, except in reverse to what he suggested. Two problems with this. One, Gemma forgot to put the SD card back in the camera. Two, there's a reason he suggested to start at the other end, and that's because it was quite steep, and the road forked into about 4 different streets and we didn't know which way to go. So we decided to be lazy, turn around, and give it a go another day. So we headed back to the hostel to chill out, and headed back into town (a nice 10 minute walk along the water) for dinner. 

The following morning, we walked to the mini bus station and got on a dolmus to Saklikent Gorge. It is about 50 kms from Fethiye, and took over an hour to reach. The gorge is 18 km long and 4 km of it can be accessed by visitors. Once we were there, we bought our tickets and headed along the boardwalk, with the gushing water underneath us. The boardwalk didn't last long. We were both pretty oblivious about what the gorge involved, thinking it'd be a leisurely walk along the boardwalk. Turns out, the boardwalk goes for about 100 meters or so. After that, you have to climb down rocks with water rushing over them, then grab a rope to help you to cross the deep part of the gorge (about hip height), going against the gushing water. Once you're through that, its mainly quite shallow (ankle deep, or less) with pebbles under our feet, and a small waterfall or some rocks to climb every few hundred metres. Jace was fine. Gem. Well, she had troubles and hasn't got too much confidence with footing. I held it together most of the way, until I just couldn't do it anymore. What a wimp! There were parents with kids on their shoulders whipping past and grandparents trucking on. I made it most of the way, but my adventurous nature had run out (quad biking, hiking and hot air ballooning and I'd reached my outdoorsy quota well and truly. Not bad for someone who normally prefers to read a book and drink tea). I sat on a rock, watching all the people pass, while Jace kept going. I didn't mind one bit. The temperature was much cooler in the gorge. At a guess wasn't more than 25 degrees, compared to the mid to high thirties we were getting used to. 

This was the easy part, along the path to the left of the photo. 

Also at the start of the walk, before we crossed the gushing water, clinging to a rope. 

The walls were so high, it was difficult to capture in a photo. 

One of the more narrow sections of the walk through the gorge. 

Enjoying lunch after the big adventure. I'm not sure what these are called, but you can sit just above the freezing water and take selfies.. I mean have lunch. And ice cream. If that's what you want to do. 

That night we went to a little family run restaurant back in Fethiye, which was amongst the fresh produce market, right near the fish markets. The waitress explained the concept of the restaurant; the customer goes to the fishmongers, chooses the seafood they'd like to have to eat, purchase it, the fishmongers clean and prepare it and return in to the restaurant of your choice, the restaurant cooks it and delivers it to your table! So the lovely lady helped us to choose and buy our fresh seafood and we were happy for her to suggest quantities and fish. She helped us to buy 6 huge prawns, 2 whole calamari and a small whole fish. It was delivered back to the restaurant (we were oblivious and too busy enjoying a beer and trying a fresh pomegranate juice, which is delicious by the way) and cooked by the waitress' father. He made us the most delicious garlic and lemon prawns with garlic bread, lightly battered and fried calamari and yoghurt sauce and grilled fish and salad. We were stuffed! But we were so content to be supporting a family run business and eating fish straight from the market to our plates! 

The next day we did the walk we started. It took us up a steep hill. Along the way, there were awesome view points where we could see the marina area of Fethiye. On the other side were 4th Century BC Lycian Rock Tombs, carved into the rocks.

The view on one side of our walk. 

Some more sights along the walk. 

Lycian Rock Tombs

Lycian Rock Tombs

From there we went to the markets, which are on each Tuesday in Fethiye. They are full of local produce, all so fresh, so vibrant and so cheap! We were mainly there for a look, but we bought a bag of cherries, some peaches and a punnet of berries and it was 7 liras for the lot, which is only about $3.50! On the way out there was mainly trashy tourist stuff. The guy in one of the photos below insisted we took his photo, saying something something that involved the words "sexy" and "ladies".

This is what we bought from the markets

I also ate this thing. I don't know what it was, but it tasted like honey, was oily, crispy on the outside, and soft and bready on the inside and was all kinds of delicious. 

Sexy market man. Smooth. 

On our last day in Fethiye, we decided to take another boat tour because we wanted to go to Butterfly Valley, which is best accessed by boat. We did the maths, and decided that by the time we got a water taxi to Butterfly Valley, we'd only have to pay a bit more, and get to explore lots of other areas including the Blue Cave, which sounded really cool, plus we got lunch. We got picked up from the hostel and driven to Oludeniz where the boat left from. We had to sit on the boat and wait for other passengers to arrive. This was good and bad. Good because it was really amusing watching a particular family on the pebble beach struggling big time walking on the pebbles, particularly the mother who ended up crawling on all fours. Bad because little waves were breaking under the boat, which wasn't amazing on the stomach. One of the staff members came to let us know that we wouldn't be able to go to Butterfly Valley or the Blue Cave because it was "too dangerous". We couldn't tell if he was joking. He wasn't. It didn't feel right to get upset about it, when you still get to spend the day sailing around the Mediterranean, but it we were all about Butterfly Valley! Google it, you'll work out why we were keen to go. But we still had a great day and saw a really big turtle! We stopped at St Nicholas Island and a spot they called Cold Water, which is a spot where fresh water from a stream filters down into the sea. 

Not a bit little stop to pull up for a BBQ 

One of the stops was St Nicholas Island. Jason climbed to the top. Gemma swam. This was an oven. 

Taken from the top of the hill on St Nicholas Island 

Also from the top of the hill of St Nicholas Island. 

Gozleme anyone?

That night we went to a hostel/pub that we walked past when we were on our way to the Lycian tombs. We noticed that it had awesome views, so we went back to check it out. The sun was just going down and it had amazing view of the water and mountains! We had beers and dinner. The food was delicious! 

 The view from the hostel/pub that we came across on our walk

Golden hour!  

And that's that! Next we'll tell you all about Selcuk! 

Love Gem & Jace. xx