DATҪA HIKE DAY 2 PART 1

Our turn around point was this abandoned site. 

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John, Debbie and Michael climbed to the top of the fortress.  I stayed below (where the red line is)  where we ate lunch.  As of late, avoiding breaking my neck or any other limb has become uppermost when off on an adventure. 

“A point of note on the general settlement pattern of these villages is that the locations chosen were never in the immediate coastline, but always at a mile’s distance or more from the sea and at a relatively safe altitude on the slopes of a hill. The reason was from times immemorial was the fear of pirates, advantaged as they were by the intricate geology of shores of southwestern Turkey and of the many islands and islets that are its natural extensions, in an environment not unlike that of the Caribbean Sea. Piracy remained a serious security problem well until the beginning of the 20th century and especially during the weakening of the Ottoman Empire and the issue often necessitated foreign intervention.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dat%C3%A7a#Tourism

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Blooming time for poppies.

Poppies always make me think of the WW1 poem “In Flanders Fields” by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.   We checked into Turkey in Ҫanakkale  which is the biggest town near to Gallipoli.  Before our cruising days I only knew of Gallipoli from the Mel Gibson movie.  Now I know Aussies and Kiwis and ANZAC Day. 

http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/thepoem.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHJeto0ObxI  is a 6 part series about Australian and New Zealand nurses who served in the Dardanelles and other  the battle sites.  Though fiction, it is based on real nurses who took part and made a real difference in the survival rate of the soldiers and in the advances in the care of soldiers.

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Debbie and John who always had a flask and his tea!

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Michael holding a poppy.  We really are “miles from nowhere.”

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Sparkling wine to go with our bread, cheese and tomato sandwiches. 

I thought my pack was heavy, but John had lugged up a full glass bottle of very cold wine.  I shared mine with Rhino Randal who then needed a snooze.  

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It was lovely sitting and relaxing over some sparkling wine until it was time to get going and my legs felt like lead!  I always walk several miles each day, but Marmaris miles aren’t mountainous miles and I can certainly tell the difference.  I think we averaged 2.something miles per hour the second day.  John’s phone had an app that calculated his mileage and calories burned.  Maybe we broke even considering the breakfast the hotel provided and the snacks along the way.  They also provided a half loaf of crusty bread as a sandwich for lunch which I managed to eat every bit of.

Yea!  Goats!!

Just at the end we finally saw some goats.  We’d seen goat poop and donkey poop and cow poop but no animals except for a couple of turtles/tortoises 

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Michael’s photo 

Datҫa hike day 2 Part 1

B Dock Netsel Marina

Marmaris, Turkey

Merhaba,

   Sending photos has been an issue lately.  Very frustrating.  I’ve divided up Day 2 of our hike into 2 parts.  And I’ve saved our visit to Old Datҫa for the final email of this story.  We met for our huge hotel breakfast at 9 am.  Eggs, cheese, bread, börek, and more.  Should have been able to walk back to Marmaris on that food.  The hotel packed us a lunch to go.  We checked out from the hotel, loaded the car and went off to hike the other side of the peninsula which overlooks the Aegean.

Ru

DoraMac

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This hike was an out and back.  It was shorter but perhaps steeper.  Or maybe my legs were just tired from the 8 miles the day before.  Legs, lungs, everything!

The peninsula – between 15 kilometers and 500 meters wide and with the highest point, being the 1.162 meter high Kocabağ mountain, which at times rises steeply up from both the Agean and Mediterranean sea – extends approximately a hundred kilometers from Marmaris in a westerly direction until Knidos. Besides this important excavation site there are further such sites on the eastern side of Datça itself and below the village of Emecik. Those who go hiking and look closely, can discover little known historic settlements and cultural sites from the Carian and Mycenian cultures through to the Knidian and Roman and up until the Byzantine times. “The Turkish settlement of the peninsula probably began from the sea during the time of the Seljuks”, wrote the specialist in Middle Eastern and oriental studies Horst Unbehaun. According to his analysis the Roman name Stadia for the Dorian city of Knidos changed to Dadya in Ottoman times, out of which emerged the name Datça in the 1930’s.

http://www.gebekum.de/e/gd_e_010.htm

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Michael’s photo

Here we are pointing the way.   And very color coordinated I must say.

I can’t really balance my way across the rocky streambeds so had picked up a light stick the first day.  There was a brisk chilly breeze, but it definitely warmed up as we walked up.

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John has explored many of the hiking trails in the area and had chosen the routes.

A few days prior to the hikes, he had driven to Datҫa to check the routes for bees and rushing streams which can be a problem this time of year.

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An abandoned stone house in a lovely setting.  Very reminiscent of the area around Karpaz on North Cyprus.

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A sign post indicating the route was part of the Karia Yolu or Carian Trail.

http://www.cariantrail.com/

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My camera, John the photographer.

Abandoned stone fountains and plantersin what looked like a planned garden area made a great resting place.  We all managed to have some snack too though it was less than two hours since breakfast. 

Hiking the Datca Peninsula, Day 1

B Dock Netsel Marina

Marmaris, Turkey

Merhaba,

Gwen tries to organize trips to meet a variety of interests. Some of us wanted a “trek” so that’s what we got. We were a small, but very companionable group. The weather cooperated; the hotel was comfortable; and the food really good.

The trek was led by John who has been the leader of several local hikes and who is very familiar with many of the forest trails in the area. We met Wednesday morning at 9 am and were at the start of our hike before mid-morning. Randal continued his work on DoraMac so Rhino Randal came along.

Ru

DoraMac

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In 2013 Rhino Randal came on a day trip to Datҫa, but this was his first hiking adventure.

Turkey’s nine environmental ‘hotspots’ (Datҫa was on the list)

Datҫa and Bozburun Peninsula

Located In the southwestern Muğla Province, this 80-kilometer-long peninsula separates the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. A tourist spot in the summer, it features sandy beaches, many natural beauties, and ancient cities, such as Knidos and Amos. The peninsula is also known from Can Yücel, one of Turkey’s most acclaimed “bad boy” poets, who famously declared in his poem “Testament,” “Bury me, my dear, in Datça, near that view by the sea.”

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkeys-nine-environmental-hotspots.aspx?pageID=238&nID=69042&NewsCatID=340

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Michael, John and Debbie taking the photo of the trail map

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I also took a photo showing the loop trail.

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Views from our lunch spot overlooking the Mediterranean.

Back in Marmaris is was raining, but 40 minutes further along the peninsula towards Datҫa we had a mix of clouds and sun and cool breezes and t-shirt weather.

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Most of the trail was packed dirt road.

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Rhino Randal, me, John and Debbie

Michael used my camera to take the photo. Hard to know how to credit photos when they are taken by someone else with my camera.

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Debbie had requested we see some turtles/tortoises and one showed up each day.

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I think they must have opened the hotel just for us; we seemed to be the only guests this time of the year.

http://www.adaburnu.com/default-eng.htm hotel website

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View from my balcony

We arrived at our hotel around 2:30 and after checking in met up at the restaurant for something to drink. While we were there, a man joined us who claimed to be the hotel manager. He also had a farm nearby with goats and he demonstrated that they were goats by making ‘milking motions.’ Though his English was somewhat limited, Debbie understood him to say the hotel provided a beach area for nudists. After a bit, the restaurant manager brought him a glass of cherry juice mixed with vodka and we began to think it wasn’t his first of the day. John, refreshed from a short nap, came along and suggested a drive to Old Datҫa and off we went leaving our pal to his Vodka and cherry juice. But he wasn’t kidding about the nudist beach.

Turkey’s first hotel for nudists welcomes foreign guests to bare all

By Travelmail Reporter

Updated: 12:32 GMT, 29 April 2010

Nude sunbathers will, however, have to share their beach with the goats and chickens that belong to the hotel owners

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1268851/Turkeys-nudist-hotel-Adaburnu-Golmar-opens-May.html#ixzz3UwZJUTST

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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1268851/Turkeys-nudist-hotel-Adaburnu-Golmar-opens-May.html#ixzz3UwYyHjvB

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1268851/Turkeys-nudist-hotel-Adaburnu-Golmar-opens-May.html

Websites about the Carian Trail which included our second hike.

http://www.cariantrail.com/index.php/sections/datca-peninsula http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/the-carian-trail-turkey-on-two-feet-9698085.html