lovely spring weather. From what we hear, England has had some good
weather to kick start the new growing season. Thankfully it never gets
cold enough to wear long trousers for very long, it's now shorts and
shirts for the remainder of our time here in Finike.
Gay and I have just returned with two friends (Tony and Clair from
Burnham on Crouch) from a week travelling through some of the remote
parts of the country. They are keen bird watchers so were happy to
join our trip to the east to visit a huge delta region of Goksu Milli
park, Silifke. The road has not been completed along the coast to this
area so we spent a good deal of the journey driving along a dirt track
cut into the mountains with no safety barriers, the views were amazing
down to the sea.
Our first day was complicated by strong wind so many birds were not
out of the scrub and in view from the many hides that ring the lakes.
We did see: Marsh Harrier, Ruddy Shelduck, Stork, Pelican, Hoopoe,
Hawks, Oyster catchers, Stilt, Spur winged Plover, Cetti's Warbler,
Woodchat Shrike, Spanish Sparrow, Hooded Crow, Linnet, Rock Bunting
and a strange animal that slunk past as we sat observing Hoopoe from
inside the car/hide that could have been a badger but it was not
really badger territory? We spent about five hours there before
heading for Cappadocia, missing the worst of the snow showers. Look up
the place on Google Earth, its quite spectacular.
We spent four days in Cappadocia in a small village away from the
worst of the tourist traps, staying in a 150yr old stable complex
called 'Killim pansion', also very clean with reasonable food. Our
yachtie friends Tertu and Heiki also turned up by coincidence, ( we
knew them from Tunisia) so we stayed another day to celebrate Heiki's
70th. Lukily a bunch of local Bankers were having a meal at our
pansion and had a couple of good local musicians to play for us all.
It turned into a long night of singing and dancing (and drinking) but
we got to hear some Turkish folk songs played on the traditional Ud, a
six string guitar type intrument but strung like a mandolin in pairs
and tuned half an octave lower per string to give it a unique sound? I
tried to play it but the technique is very different from a regular
guitar. (I cant play one of those either!)
Having avoided the obligatory balloon ride at 200 euro's a head (160
for cash!) we headed off to Konya as Gay wanted to see the Whirling
Dervishes. The free show is on sat night and 3000 locals (98% women)
come for the ceremony. It was too satanical for me and obviously a bit
of a farce but at least we can say weve seen them? We then drove out
to the lake area in the center of Turkey for more bird watching. Sadly
we didnt see many birds and no new species but passed through some
biblical villages as we crawled our way through the hills. Some of the
topography remided us all of france, lots of Poplar trees and tons of
Mistletoe growing down to the ground. Its not of any significance to
the locals so grows without regular harvesting from romantic
europeans. We stayed in a place recommended in Lonley planet at
Egirdir lake. A small settlement that was once populated by the greeks
till kicked out in 1923, part of a deal from Attaturk's new Turkey.
Bizzarely, our swedish friends also arrived about 20 min after us,
having read the same guide book! Our host spoke excellent english so
it was good to understand better how they came to be working at bed
and breakfast having come from the Black Sea part of Turkey. We sat on
our enclosed balcony and drunk the half litre of Rahki I borrowed from
the Kilim Pansion. ( I took it as compensation as the huge dog they
keep as a pet, bit my hand when I tried to stroke it! Good job I was
not a child.)
Our last day was spent driving over the last of the plains and a small
mountain back to Finike. We did just over 2000km and agreed we had
been very fortunate with the weather and the accomodation etc, it all
went well with no problems and lots of laughs.
Many of the winter residents in the marina have now gone west to
explore the Greek Islands and beyond, some of them are heading for the
Pacific and Asia, via the Carribean. We wont see most of them again I
fear....
We hope to leave for a month of cruising localy before coming back to
Finike and then leaving the boat as we return to the UK for the
summer.
Anyway, work to be done.
Love to all, G&G
