The main stop for the day was Saklikent Gorge, a natural water canyon. After paying the 50 cent admission fee to the nice man in the booth, I donned my Tevas and waddled up the canyon along with hundreds of other people, mostly Turkish families on vacation. Walking along slippery stones is the only option, and I am pretty good at it, despite my advanced age.
The canyon walls go up hundreds of feet, the river below where I was treading was anywhere from a foot deep to four feet deep, depending upon where you stepped. There were occasional ribald exclamations of surprise as I found myself quickly submerged after slipping on a algae covered river stone.
The Fez bunch had somehow gotten ahead of me. Those 20-somethings are a bit quicker than I. There were parts where I had to pull myself up using handholds and my natural Ehrlich agility. However, a combination of smooth algae-covered rocks and rushing water provided considerable amusement to onlookers as I tumbled backwards into the water repeatedly.
I am not sure of what was being said, but the translation from Turkish probably referred to what a delightful sight it was to watch the corpulent American slip and fall again and again. It was all in good humor though, I wasn’t the only one slipping, and the Turks were insistent that I let them provide a hand up over the slippery boulders.
Back on the bus and onwards to a Government run carpet cooperative. Everywhere one looks in Turkey there are carpets. This is not a bad thing, the carpets are beautiful and hard to resist. I cannot resist a bargain and carpets here (and away from Istanbul) are about one third the cost of a carpet in Berkeley.
The 4 X 6 ones that I hanker for are running about $600. The room-sized ones are about $2,000, but still much cheaper than at home. After all, I do have an unused Visa card along, and who knows when I will be back? Should I?
Well, no. I live in a home with wall to wall carpeting, I have a dog who shows her contempt by peeing on the rug when I don’t take her to the dog park often enough. A new handmade Turkish carpet will just have to wait until I make a killing on my North Face stock. In other words, never.
So now we are in Oludinez and I have hopped off the bus. The Fez bus has to stop somewhere, usually it is in a place that is suitable for budget backpackers. One is not required to stay where the bus stops, it is just often easier that way. Last night the bus stopped at a pit known as “Oludinez camping”. It is on the beach and there are tent sites, a hostel-style dorm and individual bungalows. I asked for the “Presidential Suite” and with a smirk, the young Australian showed me to my “suite”. It was a wooden cabin, suitable for storing garden tools. The Aussie tried the key and it would not work. He showed me that, since the door was severely warped, the trick was to press the toe of your left Teva against the bottom of the door to straighten the wood enough to cause the lock to function.
Inside, a double bed, an electric lightbulb and a lot of nothing presided. It was bloody hot and I immediately opened one of the windows. The bugscreen was intact and feeling better about the situation, decided to open the other window as to provide some cross ventilation. The other window opened easily enough, perhaps because a previous guest had ripped out the bug screen. Not wanting to become Soup du Joe for mosquitoes, I gave up and closed the second window and bolted it. One window will simply not do, I thought, two are needed for any draft to cool the place. I decided to give up and go in search of a chilled libation with the right balance of hops and barley, so grabbed the door handle and turned it. The handle came off in my hands. I re-inserted it to the door and turned again, this time more carefully. The door would not budge. I was trapped inside a dark, mosquito infested tool shed without any beer.
It immediately dawned on me that a previous resident must have been trapped as well. SO THAT is why the screen is missing. I opened the window, reached around and let myself out.
Can we not discuss the dinner? I will spare you.
Read all the adventures!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
