Fethiye to Olympos

Saturday 18th

Caught the midday bus to Fethiye and arrived at about 5pm. After hitting a few dead ends with the accomodation (they were all full) we found a place nice and close to the Marina with a dorm room all to ourselves. ( ive never been so hot and sweaty in all my life walking up hills with our packs) It was kind of an afterthought dorm room stuck in the backyard of the Pansiyon.

We went strolling along the Marina enjoying the fabulous sunset. The view from Fethiye is really beautiful. Its a bay and there are mountains on the mainland but then theres islands etc dotted around as well, makes for an interesting view. Whilst sitting on the wharf a big green sea turtle swam up and took a few breaths right in from of us. It was really cool. When we come back in September on the boat trip, we have the opportunity to go on a fishermans boat up the river to see the turtles nesting.

After much searching up and down the main strip we found a little resaturant in a backstreet called Mosaic Garden. The food was devine! we shared a mezze plate and a salad and everything was delicious.

Sunday 19th

After a quiet morning checking out Fethiye we got some lunch (turkish Pide) before heading to Olu Deniz. Olu Deniz is this lagoon next to a beach (they're joined), its about 30 mins by Dolmus from Fethiye. On the way you go through these hideous 'fake towns' Ovacik and Hisaronu, just full of holiday houses and tourist shops and bars, every price is in british pounds and the place IS Little Britain. It is truly horrifying. But if you make it through you end up at the village of Olu Deniz and get to the most beautiful lagoon.
First we went to the free beach but there were too many boats hanging around (I don't like the smell of diesel), so we headed over to the national park bit (the lagoon) and it was much nicer. Nick and I spent all day there swimming around and trying to drown each other. There are no waves and a rocky outcrop separates you from the actual sea so you can just swim out and bob around for hours.There are also pontoons to hang around/ jump off. Because the water is sooo clear we would pick out rocks on the sea floor and get the other person to swim down and try to carry it back up. I was less good at this as the slimy rocks grossed me out and I would drop them after a second. I got a couple out though. Then you would drop them again from the surface and watch them slide down the sandy bottom down to where you couldn't see.

Heavenly OluDeniz... sooo beautiful I could live there.

We headed back to Fethiye in the evening and went back to Mosaic again (I insisted). I tried another delicious salad (Olives & thyme) and Nick had a really nice Chicken shish kebab. The waiters brought us complimentary tea as well which was nice.

Monday 20th

We decided to have the day in Fethiye. We had lunch at a place with wifi and took the opportunity to ring Negin and Ali about our Iran trip. They have offered to take a car and come with us to Ishfahan and Shiraz (as well as Tehran of course) because we only have such a short time. After lunch we went shopping for some much needed swimmers. I got a new red pair and Nick got some new boardies. This took up most of the day until about 5:30 when we rang Sarp, the guy we were couchsurfing with for the next two days. We went to his office (he's a civil engineer who has a family development company), so he and Nick had lots to talk about, Sarp's father was the architect though. Sarp drove us to his place which was ont like a block back from the water and he actually has the whole building to himself but only lives on one floor... so he gave us the top floor to stay in, a whole apartment :)


We went and hung out on his floor for a while then he said he would take us to his favourite restaurant, which was on Calis beach (this is the beach actually in Fethiye). The restaurant had a fabulous location. It was on this sandy spit, so there was water all around and beach, and it had a view back towards Fethiye and also over the water and the mountains and a few islands near by. Very nice. The food was delicious too and I had a steak which I hadn't had since Newcastle I think. Sarp was best friends with the owner so we had great service!

At SAT restaurant with Sarp.

Next he took us to his favourite bar. Called Car Cemetary, which was owned by and Aussie girl and one of his oldest friends who is married to the Aussie girl. It was a pretty fun bar, they played lots of good music. On the weekends they have live music as well. Yet again we had good service (helps when the owner is sitting at the table) although its a little dangerous when you don't have to get up to get your drinks!

Tuesday 21st

After a quick breakfast we headed off to Oludeniz again. This time we invested in renting some lounges and an umbrella which makes sitting on the beach much more pleasant in the 40 degree heat.(by the end of the day i couldnt imagine just lying on the sand!...like an animal!) We swam over to the other side of the lagoon and hung out on the rocks for a while.
While we were swimming over there were these fishermen swimming over with rods and reels and holding their shoes and bait in a bag above their heads. One of them couldn't swim so he had a floaty and was just kind of kicking while the other guy swam alongside and gave him a pep talk. After a while we swam back and hung out on the pontoon for a while then spent the day alternating between the beach and the water. We stayed until about 5 o'clock.
Then we had a quick dinner at Mosaics again!! I couldn't leave without having some more of their delicious salad!! Nick had chircken wings and I had some ravioli and we shared a salad. We had a quick chat with Sarp again but we really needed showers so we retreated back to our floor for showers, packing and TV.

Wednesday 22nd

We left for Olympos at 12:30 and we finally got to Olympos (after a gazillion stops) at about 6pm. The coastline on the way to Olympos made the slow trip worthwhile!

We had decided to stay at Kadir's treehouses because it is supposedly the 'original' tree house place in Olympos. Olympos is in this amazing valley with imposing rock faces coming up on either side, then as you get further down the valley closer to the beach there are these Lycian ruins dotting the valley everywhere you look. After dinner we walked to the beach through the ruins in the dark. You could see a bit at the beach and the water was sooo clear, it was beautiful. Then we stumbled back through the dark and just when we came to the darkest spot that crosses a little creek some people came along with a torch so we could see... hooray!

Ruins at Olympos
more ruins, they are everywhere at Olympos...

Thursday 23rd

After a late night we slept in then headed to the beach. Olympos beach is really rocky (like a river bed) probably because there is a river bed that runs down into it. The river doesn't actually flow out into the Medditeranean sea though, it just ends behind the beach of stones and eventually seeps through them, so everynow and then while you're swimming in the warm water you get a rush of cold river water wash past you. While we were there the breeze was quite strong and there was actually a bit of a current. A person on a lilo went waaaaay out past everyone else... we immediately thought, Czech person! Then we think a lady was calling out to them cos they fell off the lilo then got back on and paddled like crazy back towards the shore. Eventually we headed back to Kadir's to have our yummy free dinner. Last night it was completely vego but tonight we got some tasty fish, on top of the veg creations.
stopping by the creek to cool off.
the walk to the beach
hanging out in the ruins
a Lycian Sarcophogas
Olmypos beach and the Akdeniz (Mediterranean Sea)
The treehouses.... Kadirs was pretty cool, there were haphazardly built treehouses everywhere

Friday 24th July

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABE FURBER!!!! 12 years old...
Also 3 months exactly since we left Australia!!
On our way to Antalya today..........