Friday, August 03, 2012

Thursday 2nd August 2012…road trip and yes another girl in my life!!

I could not post last night do not know why so now it is 7pm Friday and I will try to post this now and do another post later tonight!!

Meet Tina the yellow Turkish heart throb!!!

DSCF3831We are together for the day and she only cost 30 Lira for the whole day.

I studied some books and maps and away we went lots of drinks and food on board.

The back roads are good and well signed and I found my first stop ..no name but very pretty!!!

 

DSCF3793I really like the way my shot captured the glimmering water before it goes over the falls!!

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The next stop was the small but lovely waterfall at Manavgat!!

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The guide book told me of some ruins in the middle of no where with good directions and after passing the old Ottoman Bridge

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and then the old Roman aqueduct

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and after 7 km on a gravel road like this

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I came to these ruins

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The ruins are on a hill top surrounded by pine trees and these birds that make a really shrill noise, a beautiful setting!!!

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It was wonderful to be surrounded by so much history and to have it all to myself!!!!

Now it was time to head into canyon country  the Green canyon and Green Lake!!!

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As the norm this is where the trip gets interesting because I stopped the scooter to take this photo

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then drove about 500 meters to this sign

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which I decided to take and was a bumpy gravel road

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after the two Km  I did not like the look of the place so I just turned around and on the way down I spotted a good place I thought to stop for a swim..so I headed back up the hill.

When I got to the place for the swim I went to turn the engine off and NO KEY!!!!!!!!

Obviously the bumps had dislodged the key somewhere so what do I do I have to keep the engine running so it means I cannot stop for lunch, swim anything…perfect I thought!!!

I had no choice so I slowly retraced my ride back down to the restaurant and turned around and went all the way back to the tunnel..still no key.

So I drove back to the signpost and went down all the way to the restaurant again and turned around and on the way back in the gravel I was so lucky to spot the KEY!!!!!

Turns out the spot to swim was not suitable but found this place and had lunch

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and got ready for  my swim…..I got as far as my knees……there was no way I was going any further the water was freezing!!!!  So I scooped some water over my head and face and walked out and thought what a chicken you are Pearson’s Boy!!!!

So I turned around got as far as my knees again and agreed yes I am a chicken and came out!!!

I spent over an hour touring the canyon’s back roads..

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The views were quite dramatic and lovely!!!

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I had gone by now over 60km and wanted to check out the town of Manavgat..I had read somewhere that the Mosque in that town was one of the biggest…now I do not remember if it said biggest in Turkey or in this part of the country anyway I found it and it was huge…too big to get all in my shot!!!

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I really wanted to see if I could go inside here so I washed my feet

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put my towel around my legs and slowly and quietly opened the door….

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The ceiling

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A more beautiful building hard to find and again I felt humbled to be stood in the midst of something so stunning!!!

I stopped at a supermarket and bought some drinks for tomorrow but needed bread and they did not sell what I wanted but passed this shop

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The bread was hot it does not get any fresher and I may even have bought two chocolate cream filled éclairs!!!!

Some of the vehicles I had to pass to get home…

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Got home around 6pm and took the scooter back to the rental office and on the walk back I went by the barber shop and Ali came running out and said I needed another shave…so I did, had a great shave!!!!

All packed up and ready to leave tomorrow.

The plan as I mentioned a couple of days ago is that I am joining a group on a tour to Cappadocia about 600km away and the bus leaves at 7am tomorrow…..the cost includes some tours two night accommodation and dinner and breakfast a full day tour on Saturday and all for 130 Lira..just over $65 dollars…this saves me all the trouble of finding my own way there and when the group comes back on Sunday I will stay in the town for another night before heading to my final stop Istanbul!!!

Hopefully will have internet tomorrow…blessings to all!!

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