Scenic and Other Driving in Turkey

Scenes from the last two days' driving...we probably didn't cover a hundred miles, but they're all interesting...

We've seen many of the world's scenic coasts--a few

more to go--and they are all spectacular in their own ways--

but Turkey's Mediterranean coast rivals the best of them

Sea camel

Nearby islands, many of them



The clarity of the water is exceptional

The great Kaputas chasm, right on the road--

only a few feet wide, a couple hundred high

Issues in this small isolated beach

Actually, animals on the road are pretty unusual for Turkey,

but the bridge here framed such an exceptional shot, I had to

do it

Turkey has some 70 million citizens and some 150 million

restaurant/cafe/snack bar seats; they line the roads, they

are at every intersection, every rest area...

Here's a pastry shop on wheels, baklava and all those other

good things; yes, we did; how can you not support this

kind of entrepreneurship?

We have been astonished at the number and variety of gas

stations in Turkey; most of the traffic is commercial, trucks,

buses, maxitaxis (dolmus), relatively few private automobiles

in sight; diesel is running well over $8 a gallon, and gasoline

way more than that; yet there appear to be thousands of gas

stations, nearly all of them quite new and quite nice, nearly

all with little markets or cafes; all of them offer you free tea

or coffee as well as trinkets with larger purchases; and--this

seems to be the major competing point--all of them offer free

car or truck washing facilities; Turks are fastidious, not to

say obsessive, about keeping their cars and trucks clean; we

once watched a young man take 20 minutes to rinse, lather,

wash, scrub, rinse, and rinse again, his motor scooter; we

should have videotaped it; anyhow, under this kind of social

pressure, we have now ourselves washed the Grey Wanderer

more times in Turkey than in all other countries combined;

free

And then there are Turkish drivers (very nearly without

exception, males), who are on the whole quite good, if not,

um, linear, if you get my "drift"

Myra and Santa Claus

From Olympos we drove on, across mountains and then into some of the coast's intensively agricultural zones, citrus and tomatoes mostly, the tomatoes mostly in plastic-covered greenhouses, acres of them, miles of them in the valleys, reminiscent of southern Spain, whole towns covered in plastic wrap. We stopped at Demre, to see the Lycian/Roman ruins at nearby Myra and also the shrine, etc., of St. Nicholas, who was bishop of Myra way back in the 4th century.

At Myra the thing to see is the Lycian house tombs, many

carved into the cliffs

Also the theatrical stuff

To wit...

But mostly the tombs

The St. Nicholas, patron saint of fishermen,
children, bakers, butchers, candle-stick makers,
et al.

Despite the fact there are no Greeks nor

Christians around (it's a long, unpleasant

story), Demre nonetheless has a

flourishing St. Nick trade--half a dozen

stores like this

Interior of St. Nick store; looks pretty Christmassy, right?

Trouble is, all they sell are these icon things...

which hardly make good tree ornaments;

nary a "ho, ho, ho!" in these precincts, nor

Rudolph, nor elves; so what you have here,
in my interpretation, is a Muslim take on a
Greek Orthodox saint, whose bones were
stolen from Myra by Roman Christians and
taken to Bari, Italy....and the rest is history...
well, actually, little of it is history, except the
theft part, but it's one of Christianity's most
beloved stories, except the theft part, and
we mustn't be too fussy about things like 
history, reality, etc.

Demre, plastic-wrapped city

Chimaera

From Phaselis we drove on, now beautiful coast, now mountain heights, then dropping down to the seaside village of Olympos and then back up the canyon and the slopes of Olympos where, a kilometer up the mountain, reside the mythical Chimaera. The Chimaera are eternally-burning gaseous vents on the mountainside, known from earliest antiquity, the stuff of the myths of Bellapharon and Pegasus who slew the dragon. We arrived in the afternoon, I did a reconnaissance hike, then we viewed the Chimaera together, then, after dinner, I did the hike up again to see it all in darkness. So much of antiquity is a matter of ruin and trace and conjecture. Here the natural and the mythical intersect and are intact. We stayed overnight in the parking lot, 15YLT, no extra charge for roosters, barking dogs, the taxi at 2:30AM, nor the usual muezzin.

On the trail to the Chimaera, a love tree (so I was told); lovers

tie knots around the limbs and vines





So we tied a knot of duct tape--known world-wide as

"American tape"--to mark our passage and love

The Chimaera; this day, about twenty open, burning vents

Temple ruins

Looking down the mountainside to the sea

Closer up; the exact composition is unknown, but it

combusts on contact with the atmosphere, no ignition

required, thank you

Ditto, among the temple ruins

Vicki, warming up

Me roasting Turkish Delight

I walked back up the mountain that evening; one imagines

in such circumstances having the place to himself; but not

this place; cars and vans had kept arriving, and, despite the

moonless night and poor footing, the mountainside was

covered with small groups of people

Families mostly, telling stories; it's probably been just like

this for many millennia...

A last look at a singular place

Phaselis

Reluctantly, we left our little beach campsite and drove on down the beautiful coast to Phaselis, another Graeco/Roman colony city/port. Phaselis is noted not merely for its ruins--the usual baths, agora, gate, theatre--but for its idyllic setting, the small harbors ranged around the town.

Parking in the shade of the aquaduct

Baths



Remains of Hadrian's Gate

North harbor and Mt. Olympos

North harbor, other direction

Main street, Phaselis

Small baths and heating apparatus

Theatre



November, bulbs are coming up, flowers are blooming...

Middle harbor...the water is so incredibly clear here and all along this coast

Me, by the middle harbor

Aquaduct, again

Antalya Outtakes

Billboard-sized ad on a big rug store; we are still processing

this one...

I was trying to take a picture of the sign when the guard

came out and told me the bugger off...



More stone recycling in city walls...this time using Arabic



Cat on a mission; the bird got away

Small world after all: the Don Quijote Cafe in Antalya,

Turkey, where you can get eine tasse caffee [sic] und apfel

kuchen for just 3 euros

School kids all over Turkey wear uniforms, smart-loooking

uniforms, I think, and this is a display outside a school

uniform store near the bazaar

Unusual pose for Ataturk

Driving out of town, sign on a building advertising

kick-boxing, fitness, and muay thai: "the best muay thai, get

there earlier..."; really thai'd things together for us...

So we drove on, west, around the bay and found a beach

camping site at a place called Beldibi Tatil Koyleri; looking

back toward Antalya

Actually, we liked it so much, and the weather was so good,

we stayed two nights