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Akyaka was basically a stop to avoid the rain. It was a pretty nice place as it turned out. I particularly like the ladies river that ran though it. So pure and clear, with all the wildlife around it, it was a thing to behold.

WOMEN’S RANGE
The Range River, which flows into the Gulf of Gokova, is located right next to Akyaka, among the trees and reeds. The river is fed with many spring water. Since the women used to wash their clothes in this river since there was no water in the houses, the Range River was called Woman’s Range by the local people. The name of the river in the ancient period is ldimos. Azmak River, famous for its natural beauties, stretches for approximately 2.5 km and then connects to the sea.
The heat of the water is around 12-13 degrees every season. The river can be reached on foot or by boat. You can swim in the river from place to place. In summer heat, Woman’s Range is cooling the local and foreign tourists.
It is home to many creatures living in underwater vegetation. It contains many animal species such as fish, otters and sea turtle. The ducks gliding across the river add a distinct beauty to the river. In addition, the nice and charming restaurants on the edge of the river serve three meals and offer the tastes of fresh seafood on their menus. Boat rides called the aquarium can take 15-20 minutes. A more robust iron bridge was built due to the collapse of the new wooden bridge builtin 2007 immediately after the collapsed old wooden bridge on the river. There is a second stream that runs parallel to the Woman’s Range. The name of this river is Ferek Stream, and part of this river is poured into the Gulf of Gökova.

A branch that leaves the Ferek River passes through the Akçapınar Neighborhood. There are reeds that protect the natural ecosystem in the area between the Woman’s Range and the Ferek River, Akyaka is home to different kinds of migratory birds, storks, flamingos and pelicans that come to these reeds from time to time.

I got some reasonable priced seafood.

I’d been meaning to do this at the resorts. At resorts, the prices are very high, which doesn’t guarantee quality. It just gaurantees they’re trying to make a buck out of you. I know that, and I avoided them.

Seafood is the dish that doesn’t do mediocre, when you get the seafood buffs, of which I think I used to be one, the seafood they’re talking about is totally fresh, been cooked well and not been reared on a farm. I suspect that a lot of our seafood in the UK may not have reached maturity. That makes difference also. When seafood is good, it can be superlatively good. Elsewise, it just tends to slip toward the mediocre and forgettable.

I had a fish, the waitress just called it ‘big fish’, and some calamari. I think it may be a Dorado or bream. The calamari was not chewy, but the fish was really amazing. Just that light creamy consistency. Utterly magic. Could do it again and again!

After this, I pretty much went home. Had a walk around the docks to pass the time a bit, then walked up the hill toward the apartment.

The apartment was pretty noisy until about 11. There was some Turkish party going off and the music was super loud. It settled down after a bit and I went to sleep.

In the morning, I had to prepare my own breakfast, I’d bought a sandwich and also some yoghurt and coffee. I had this, paid the woman, and got on my way. It was about 9am.

Here’s some pictures from the journey.

Akyaka to Dalyan

Didn’t take long to get to Dalyan. 60k. 4 hours. Easy.

Holidaying in Dalyan

I may have been here many years ago. Don’t rightly remember.

Dalyan is located between a large freshwater lake and the sea. The two are joined up by the Dalyan Strait which boats tour up and down.

There are a number of sights and activities at the lake, in the mountains surrounding it and on the strait running down to the sea. So much so that I didn’t have enough time to take them in on the two days that I’ve been here.

I’ll just look at the ones I’ve been to.

Starting at the top.

River cruise on Dalyan Strait

These are the mud baths at Sultaniye. I paid 400tl which is exactly £10 for a trip to these, along the strait, and to the ruins at Kaunos. This ran from 2pm to 7pm and as I cycled around, I realised that this was obviously a good value option. Other people wanted £50 for 2 hours to rent a ship for a solo person seemed like a total waste of money.

Also, was a look at some of these ancient remnants…

These are viewable from parts of town, but you can definitely get a better view from the boat.

They are pretty impressive. They were build by dignitaries to give a salutary memory to their passed family members. They’re world heritage listed as part of the Kaunos site. They’re ancient, with an estimation being around 30BC.

The boat swirled around a bit for us to take some pictures, the continued up toward the mud baths at Sultaniye.

Mud baths at Sultaniye

The mud baths were not reachable by road. They’re on the side of a mountain on the western shore of lake Köyceğiz only reachable by boat.

There’s some baths, where you splash yourself with smelly mud. It’s recommended that you spend 20 mins splashing this smelly mud on yourself, once you’ve done this, you must dry the mud off and let it set hard.

I didn’t really get a picture because I was covered in mud myself, but these people come out looking pretty dirty muddy and smelly.

After that, you can either wash yourself off in the lake or jump under the stand pipe showers. Due to the fact the mud had got in my shorts velcro, they were virtually falling down, so I didn’t really fancy the lake as an option. I’m 100% certain my shorts would have done their own thing and made a bid for freedom whilst the muddy Scooby doo freaks looked on.

Showering after the mud proved to be a bit of a challenge as it had got into most of my orifices, and all of the pockets in my shorts.

After a while, I managed to get rid of the majority of it and made my way over to the bathing pools. These are fed by sulphurous springs and are smelly like the mud.

As you can see, they are naturally hot!

Most of them seem to be filled by old people. Like 80 year olds.

In the end, I went in the other one bathing pond, they people were a lot younger in there and I don’t feel so out of place.

We hung around here for about an hour and a half. After I finished in the baths I had a Turkish tea and waited for the boat to leave.

The boat took about 25 minutes.

The boat moves quicker on the lake. When it reached the river, it had to slow down, I think it had some speed restrictions. Everything was at a leisurely pace.

Kaunos ruins

These are a designated world heritage site. Unlike Pergamon and Pumukkale, they cost £3 to get in.

Unlike Pergamon, they are most spectacular.

Like Pumukkale, the city and the choice of location and backdrop, the mastery over the elements and geography all adding to a sense of godliness amongst it’s citizens.

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Similar to the pyramids, there is evidence of unexplained megalithic structure here. It is Criterion (i) amongst the listing criteria https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5906/.

After this, the boat dropped us back in town. It was about 8pm. I had a look round, got some dinner after I’d got changed. I had like a seafood Cagliari. Best food I’ve had in Turkey I think.

Turtle beach

Rather than move on. Today, I opted to spend some time on the beach!

Brush up on my tan.

At the end of the Dalyan Strait is another designated area, this time protected for nature. Namely turtles.

I didn’t see any, but the beach was nice. There was evidence of restrictions in order to protect their mating habits. The beach basically closes at 8pm. It doesn’t open again until the next day.

They place cages over where they think turtles have dug their nest to stop visits inadvertently digging them up when building their sand castles.

Gtg. Until next time!