Travels

Day 4

This was a transit day. We got up ridiculously early – pre-call to prayer - for a Backpacker’s shuttle to the distant Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW) for an 8AM Pegasus Air flight to Antalya. 110TL for the shuttle. At least there was virtually no traffic for this one hour drive over the 'old' bridge & through the seemingly endless sprawl of apartment blocks that crowd the hills on the eastern side. At this airport & elsewhere in Turkey, you must pass through the first security as you enter the terminal. After check-in at the counter (remember to be aggressive in line) you must clear another security station to get to the gate area. They don’t care about shoes or water bottles btw. Food & drink in the terminal was a crazy price but we had coffees & tost (a flattened feta cheese sandwich) anyway. It was a good thing, since Pegasus charges you heavily for everything accept a small bunnette. Coffee is 6TL onboard. These flights had animal seating so if you have carry on, get in line as soon as you see it start to form at the gate. When the gate attendant arrives, this usually signals the start. But you won’t board for another 10 -15 minutes. And as above, there will be the usual spate of line jumpers. The seat spacing on Pegasus was not generous but sufficient for the average – like AA’s tight seating or Air Transat etc. The ~1 hour flight left & arrived on time without incident. We saw some snowcapped mountains peeking out amongst the clouds enroute.

Our luggage arrived as well, thankfully – I had paid 10TL for extra weight when I booked – and we secured a free cart to haul it to the Europcar trailer for our wheels. A manual Renault midsize diesel sedan rented through AutoEurope. The rental guy hurried us away since the supplied parking exit ticket only had 10 minutes. I had to pull over outside the airport to finish programming the GPS. I set it for co-ordinates that I had thoughtfully looked up on Google earth, since street names didn’t appear to work & there were numerous Ҫirali options – none of which appeared to be right. We set out happily around 10AM from Antalya’s airport - which is east of the city.

Of course, we got somewhat lost almost instantly. The TomTom map for Turkey leaves a lot to be desired & Turkish road signage is mediocre at best. Street signs are next to impossible to find or see, as they are attached to the side of buildings. And, Turkish drivers are second cousins to Sicilian & southern Italians in their creative approach to driving. They obeyed the traffic lights & they obeyed the – no right turn on red – rule that is law in Turkey. Of course, there appears to be a lot of traffic light cameras in use so that might just have a lot to do with this obedience. Speed limits are ignored but not flaunted, if you know what I mean. Disconcertingly, they always lean on the left side of any lane they are in. In town, on the highway, everywhere. And they all do it. Sometimes I swear that our mirrors almost hit oncoming car’s mirrors, but they always seemed to correct (swerve slightly) at just the right time. This can be unsettling when you are passing – especially on twisty coast roads. You would be wise to rent a car with a real engine if you intend to drive these very hilly roads.

As I said, we got lost almost immediately. Due to a confusing road split, I missed a turn & it was game over. Traffic was quite busy & the TomTom decided that we needed a city tour to complement our early morning flight. It (actually a 'she' btw) calculated that the shortest – not best - but shortest – route was to ignore the bypass routing & slice directly through town & then - to start mountain climbing in the western suburbs. I knew that I was on the wrong path – but in the right direction – so I stayed with it until the mountain climbing. Then I made some good guesses & we finally got on the divided coast highway heading south, just as it was opening up after construction. An easy & very scenic drive, I might add. A couple of tunnels & several stoplights in the bigger towns. The TomTom righted itself & started being accurate until she decided that we needed another detour on the cutoff just before the right cutoff. Yea! Some forest track must have been 1/10 of a kilometer shorter. Anyways . . . we finally turned onto the 1 ½ lane paved & twisty Ҫirali road for the last ~10kms. We passed by Canada House .5kms from the bridge that puts you into the hamlet of Ҫirali. This had been our other possible stay option. After a left turn over the bridge, I followed the road straight rather than catching the right turn that I should have taken in the 'metropolis' of Ҫirali, so we did an almost complete circuit of the whole of the greater Ҫirali area. Directions from the scooter rental guy near the beach put us on the right track & we pulled into the main beach section of the Arcadia Hotel around 2 ½ hours after seizing the wheel in Antalya. Without our 'detours' it would have been 1 1/2 hours. After leaving Antalya’s burbs, it was an easy drive that I enjoyed. My wife – as usual – not so much. The Ҫirali road was nail-biting for her. I guess our past encounter with Sicily really did her in.

The Arcadia Hotel is one of many pensions that line both sides of the ring road - interspersed with farms & fruit groves & forest on the mountain side. With five cabins & the restaurant/main office nestled amongst lemon, orange & apricot trees with a patio that abutted the wide sand & smooth rock beach, it was perfect. Without any check-in formalities, Nadim hopped on a bicycle & led us to the five newer & more private ‘out’ cabins down a 150m laneway. These were also nestled in lemon & orange trees with their own – but never used – main building. All of the cabins are made of pine with thatched roofs added on top. Ours had a great bed & a modern shower & fridge etc. AC & no TV.

Ahhh. Just what we needed after the madness of Istanbul. We were very pleased. We were in the Zambak Cabin - 90€ per night (discounted to 85.50€ for cash). Privacy & peace & tranquility. We quickly unpacked & drove into Ҫirali central for some supplies & lunch. We had a home cooked pizza at the Simge outdoor restaurant & listened to a table of loud Americans from Michigan try to drown out the reggae music from the restaurant's boom box. Good food & not pricey but you can expect pretty laid back service from the owner. Back to the cabin, we both flaked out for an afternoon nap. The clucking of the chickens lulled us to sleep.

We woke up & wandered down to the beach where Nadim had set up tables around a fire. When we checked in (or didn't really) he had told us that there is no fixed mealtime. He said it was whenever we wanted a meal. But we certainly could not resist the urge to dine on the beach (white tablecloths etc) & we had a wonderful dinner – chicken leg & lamp şiş I think – with the obligatory bottle of Anatolian wine, while watching the night fall on the ocean & the crackling of the fire. The man birds (local Turkish name) calling to each other up & down the beach & the gentle surf, added to the scene & helped to block the Russian couple with the firebug son & the quietly whiney daughter, to let the romance shine through. Another good day & a perfect spot.

The restaurant/office

Ducklings on the lawn

Dinner on the beach

Day 5 Ҫirali is a small village with a 3.5kms beach surrounded by mountains, about a two hour drive south of Antalya. The beach is sand with some smooth stones getting stonier closer to the water - where it is nothing but stone. So, it is not a (actually two beaches in one) run merrily into the water type of beach. The flat coastal plain is filled with lemon & orange groves intermingled with family-run pensions in all shapes & varieties. They have banned building with cinder blocks (from what I hear) which stops any & all major development. The ruins of Roman Olympos mixed with some Medieval additions are located at the southern end of the beach straddling a river which runs up the adjacent Olympos Valley. The popular tree house accommodations (cabins on stilts) are found strung up here. This corner of the beach is the party area with boats mooring offshore, music etc. A second lazy river empties into the sea partway up the beach & most of the beach restaurants are located just north of this crossing. A few other restaurants are dotted in & around the village itself. The area is a popular gateway to the Lycian Road hikes in the mountains. A ring road encircles the plain with one spur that leads to the parking lot for the Flames of Chimeara hike up the mountain. These flames can be seen from the sea & the north part of the plain on a clear night & have spawned some ancient legends. I did see them from our cabin, once I had made the hike & knew where to look. For interest sake, as a young officer, Julius Caesar might have helped flush out some pirates from the southern part of the beach. I don’t know if this is related to his kidnapping by pirates incident. The Arcadia Hotel is about 2/3 of the way up the beach heading north & it appears to be the most deluxe accommodation in the area. And for the record, it is not a hotel but a collection of ten cabins split into two areas with a main restaurant building in the older section nearer the beach. Everything - except the beach chairs - is set back about 100 meters from the sea. It is a five minute walk down a gravel laneway from the new to the old. Chickens & cats & ducks wander around at will & they all like handouts. Not to forget the very vocal roosters either. A car is the easiest access from Antalya but there are shuttles available for those that don’t want to drive. And the squiggle under the C in Ҫirali means that it is pronounced chir-AL-ee although the Turks seem to slip a slight J sound in with the chir part. My wife says I spend too much time writing about driving – which she says is boring stuff – so I will try to be more descriptive about other topics as well. ;) I woke up early to the sounds of the call to prayer echoing off the mountains that ring Ҫirali. Magical. This brought the roosters to life & as I sat on our balcony, I fed the chickens that wandered by, some small apricots that were on a plate in the room when we checked in. Who knew that chickens liked apricots? They attacked them with relish & neatly ate every bit of fruit without the pit. I picked an orange from the tree in front of our cabin for a pre-breakfast snack. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day with the temps noticeably higher than they had been in Istanbul. Everywhere we went, people were remarking about the cool spring (fall downunder in Oz) weather that the entire world seems to be experiencing this year. We eventually walked over to the main building & had a great breakfast buffet that Nadim set up right on our table in the sun on the patio facing the sea & the beach. Very, very nice.
Breakfast at your table		The road from the out cabins		The beach looking north
It seemed to be a great day for a daytrip, so we hopped in the beast & set out for a destination that I had wanted to see: the Lycian ruins of Arycanda (Arykanda). This ancient ruin predates the Roman conquest & climbs up a mountain just off the highway well north of Finike on the southern coast. It was an easy 1 ½ hour drive there, although the road & site didn’t exist on my TomTom, so once again, I worked with co-ordinates. Just a quick driving note: Watch the center passing lanes aka ‘suicide’ lanes, which both (or sometimes only one) directions can use in the mountains. I saw several cars passing in these around corners etc when they shouldn’t have been there. The cutoff for Arycanda is just to the north of the small village of Catallar. A tight 180 turn & then up a one lane gravel road. The attendant wasn’t in his booth but was sitting under a tree talking with some buddies. He did accept our 5(?)TL however & he tried to sell us the deluxe English book for 25 TL. We said no & only got a small brochure in Turkish - which was useless. And he bummed some cigarettes from me. With only two other cars in the parking lot, it certainly was not a busy place. This site is poorly signed with no logical paths to follow that we could find. The lower ruins are very accessible but we got on small paths to the north (the left) which started to get nastier & nastier as we scrambled up to see more structures. In hindsight, we should have headed up immediately rather than wandering sideways. The views are stunning everywhere. Huge snow-capped peaks to the east make the site very dramatic.
Looking west from Arycanda			Arycanda
Mosaic floor - Arycanda			Arycanda
Blanca at Arycanda
It is funny that you can know somebody for decades & still discover something new about them. I didn’t know that my wife can have panic attacks when she thinks that there is a chance of falling from a height. Even if the danger is not huge, she can freeze up. I guess you know what I am leading up to. We were near several villa foundations & we ran across a bit of scree on a slope that we had to cross. No problem for me. But my wife sat down & refused to move. Her panic had set in & there was nothing I could do or say to make her try. And this is where my subtitle was coined. I tried to coax her by saying the amphitheater should be just around the next bend. Her response was: “(Expletive deleted). It’s just a jumble of (expletive deleted) rocks, anyway!” After a tearful interval, we retraced our steps down & called it a quits. On the drive back, I detoured slightly to peek at the amphitheater of Limrya. It is in a shabby suburb of Kamluca with a broken road leading through a rundown part of town. I took pictures from the car - which was enough.
Amphitheater at Limrya
After a late lunch at the Arcadia, we relaxed & then made the drive over to the start of the Fires of Chimeara hike. Yea! More climbing. 3 or 4TL (I think) A lot of the guidebooks suggest that you do this at dusk & take a flashlight. No thanks. It is a forty-five minute slug up rough, uneven slippery stone steps & paths with some nice close drop-offs into the forest valley below. It was a workout & not something I would want to attempt – up or down – in the dark. Couples that we met on the way up & down appeared to have the same difficulty that we did. I guess we’re just not good potential hiking athletes. The fires are numerous methane vents on a seventy-five meter uphill rock face with the ruins of an old church and/or shrine below. Kind of anti-climactic after the climb up, if you want the truth. Some people brought sausages to roast . . . c’mon folks, have some respect. These are the fires of ancient legend. Beacons for mariners & they were thought to be mythical beasts of the forests. Blocks of hewn limestone laying scattered around with Greek inscriptions attest to their age. Somehow weenies on a stick broke that spell. The walk down was ½ an hour. For dinner, we ventured into the village to a restaurant called Oleander. The owner Cemal, greeted us & we sat in their outdoor patio under the trees. We noticed that there were at least twenty local women sitting in several groups. It turns out that it was women’s card night in Ҫirali. At one point several started singing Turkish ballads around the central fire pit - which was quite lovely. They got a real kick out of my wife’s applause at the end of a song. The waiter brought over a poppy seed fresh-baked flat bread - which was amazing with olive oil. Speaking of bread, the Turks have bread down pat. It was great everywhere we went. They must have learned how to make good loaf bread from the French but their own raised flatbreads are wonderful. A good meal of lamb & chicken şiş or equivalent & a bottle of nice wine - Likya Kizilbel Boḡazkere Cabernet 2008 - plus a great conversation with a friend of the restaurant owner at the next table, made it a fun evening. P.S. The big old dog that wanders around is friendly.
Uphill to the Fires of Chimeara	The Fires of Chimeara				View south from our veranda
Day 6 This was designated a loaf around day. It started with a brief rain shower at 5:30AM, shortly after the call to prayer woke the roosters. The rain blew out quickly & we went over for the ‘usual’ personal breakfast buffet – albeit inside this morning. What a treat. Nadim’s brother is the cook & he will make fried eggs or scrambled etc. A nice touch. Olympos, at the south end of the beach was our only destination for the day. We drove to the public parking & started the walk down. Not an easy walk on the stony beach. We had to ford the first river which is just over ankle depth with all smooth rocks underfoot. About a kilometer down, a path follows the bigger river into the forest & up the Valley of Olympos. No attendant was on the beach side, so we got free admittance to the site. If you come down from the treehouse cabin side, you will pay. The ruins are spread in the forest on each side of the shallow river. Most people only see the well-travelled north side with several tombs & medieval buildings with a Roman gate in the forest. Fording the shallow spring-fed river (cold!) you can see the Roman amphitheater & baths along a rough trail in the woods. The whole site is in-situ & has never been excavated, which gives it a unique tumbledown effect. This is truly just a jumble of rocks, to quote my wife. By the time we got back to the beach in front of Olympos, it was getting busy with 20s-something day users & I would imagine that it would be packed in the summer. A party boat anchored off-shore & blared music for them. Thankfully, the Arcadia is well removed from this.
The busy south end of the beach			Olympos
Roman gate		Roman baths		Rubble of the amphitheater
We trudged back up the beach & stopped for lunch at one of the beach restaurants north of the second river. A nice repast of Adana kebap & chicken wings - which was actually a whole chunk of chicken with a wing attached. Note: I will do a restaurant summary at the end of this long narrative but I did forget the name of this one. The sky darkened with an incoming storm (that never happened) & we headed back to the beach in front of the Arcadia for a rest in the sun. I sampled the Med briefly for a dip, but it was pretty cold. While we were sunning, we met Aladdin & his wife Abril who are frequent visitors of the Arcadia. They live in the Black Sea area of Istanbul & were very surprised that we had come all the way from Canada & had found this idyllic spot. They like to think of it as their own private get-away. We talked about the congestion of Istanbul – which they hate – hence their flat being so far north of the city proper. Later after dinner (same wine as last night) – inside at the Arcadia this time due to the weather – we had coffee & chatted some more with them. It is always nice to get a local perspective on vacation destinations. Another good day came to a close.
Restaurants on the beach			Abril, Blanca, Ian & Aladdin
		Our wake up call