On the road again

Antalya to Finike

Thursday, June 4.

We are ready to depart from our simple but adequate little Blue Sea Garden Family Hotel. We have arranged with them to take us to the domestic airport from where we have lined up an Europecar vehicle. We made the transport arrangements yesterday afternoon and impressed upon them that it is for 10.30am tomorrow morning (that is this morning). However, through a misunderstanding, soon after we have bedded down last night, there is a knock on our door at 10.30pm. Communications breakdown! Never mind. I found it difficult to drop off to sleep quickly but that is the way it goes.

View from our window. Some essential washing and drying is always an issue when you travel modestly.

Our friendly and helpful driver takes us right up to the rental car office. I make sure that our booking is OK before he leaves. The equally friendly Europecar clerk greets us expectantly. We have a relaxed banter as we deal with the paper work. We also rent a GPS which he plugs in and check. All seems to be go. He briefs us on our Renault Clio and off we go. It is Lois‘s job to keep an eye on the route. Regrettably, there are no voice instructions or none that we have discovered.

Understandably we are both a bit tense driving through the city, on the right side of the road, no GPS, not having driven much at all in the last month and a manual car with opposite controls. However, so far we have managed fine without being abused by the locals. The Turkish driving style could be described as somewhat more informal (and even tolerant) than ours.

I have recorded photographically the tiny marks on the body.

As we leave the airport boom gate, L tells me that the GPS does not seem to be functioning properly. Sure enough, the screen appears black. We better turn around quickly and head back. Our friend checks it out again and it looks fine. We are still within sight of the airport when the screen blanks out again. We are not going back this time. We were given verbal instructions on how to get to the D400 route we need. We pick up the signs and continue to our first destination – Aspendos. 

I know the word awesome has been abused but the old Roman theatre is one of the old world’s largest and best preserved examples of its kind and it is truly awesome. It was built in the time of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD) and accommodates 15,000 with what would have been excellent acoustics and faultless visibility to the performance area.

The white pieces is restoration work. Note the arrangement of the steps.

On the way out we seem to have scraped something under the car – no doubt some protruding object as is often the case with low clearance cars. As we make a slow turn past an old farmer leaning on his fence, he gestures that something is not right with the car. I get out and discover that indeed a piece of thin plastic cover near the rear axel has become partly detached. I cannot push it back in place because of the one way fixings. I ask our mate if he would have a piece of string or wire. He signals in the negative. We cannot drive on like this. The only thing is to rip the whole thing off as it does not seem to have a functional role nor is it body damage that can be seen without putting the car on a ramp or hoist. My hands are dirty with black oily dust. I wipe them as best I can on the dry grass. I notice that there is a small concrete irrigation channel along the road. I recall pinching a piece of hand soap from our last hotel. That is just what I need to get cleaned up. Not a bad emergency job all round!

Aspendos has been a small detour so we turn around and head West and back through Antalya and our destination of Finike for the night.

We drive through some grand and very impressive mountain scenery. It is the range we saw from Antalya over the bay. The road is good and not very busy but it is a pity the atmosphere is very hazy with clouds hanging on to the mountain tops. It is so beautiful that even Lois finds it hard to resist not trying to take some photographs through the car window.

The road continues to be good but spotting a place for a bit of food is difficult and there are few places to pull off to look for a shop. By 4pm we are almost reaching a point of desperation when we notice a roadside ‘restaurant’. If we want food, there is little choice. It turns out to be an excellent decision. It is a little basic but has a lovely setting, overlooking a small waterfall. The host even speaks enough English for a simple sociable conversation. He is very helpful and obliging. We end up having one of our most enjoyable but simple local meals – and stacks of warm Turkish bread which he wraps up for us to take.

It is an informal and relaxing setting in the company of some local road workers, above a small stream.

But how are we going to get through all the delicious fresh bread?

......as well as this!

We find Finike easily enough as it is quite a large town. However, beyond having got to what looks like the centre of town, our GPS is of no help at all. How do we get to our overnight destination? In the end, asking the locals is the best solution. We pull up a number of times and receive only non-specific directions but are told to keep going. All this navigation help is by gesture only. Finally, someone suggests that we need to take the next right but beyond that, we are blind again. Having done our right turn, we better seek some more help. Here is someone with a smattering of English. He tries hard enough with his limited vocabulary but then we both realise we are not getting anywhere. He suggests that his mate can get in the car and direct us (with hand gestures only), as long as I bring him back. He assures us that it is only a minute away. 

The very indifferent Finike.

We are moving towards what is clearly the edge of town. I am surprised that this is where there might be some hotels. Finally, we arrive at what is clearly a recent housing estate. No wonder it was difficult to direct us because there is no street address as such. It is known by the name of the estate and then the names of the various blocks. All this looks pretty curious.

I confirm, mainly by sign language, that we have in fact arrived at the proper destination where I booked, on the internet, a whole apartment for the night. Having had a quick look at our accommodation, I take our guide back and then get ourselves installed in our large and spacious sparsely but fully furnished flat. 

The housing estate.

What seems to have happened is this. To us it is irrelevant whether it is a block generally for rental or some form of social housing but here is a flat that is vacant. The owner or manager has got a bit entrepreneurial and put it on the internet for short term rentals. 

The view from our balcony.

The strange and crowded skyline of roof mounted solar hot water systems. It seems that just about all residential buildings have them.

Having moved in, we sort ourselves out without delay, seeing that we want to make an early getaway in the morning. We don't even unpack. The flat is clean and in fact all the necessities are there. However, the estate itself is a bit raw. There is a community party in the somewhat underdeveloped park around the corner. Many of the residents are very smartly dressed for the occasion. This does not look like social housing. As we finally settle in for the night, there is some noise of popular music but it all ceases immediately before the late evening prayer call. The party ends with quite an impressive short fireworks display.

We will examine our surroundings more closely by daylight in the morning. However, before we finally retire, we book our accommodation via the net for three nights at Selcuk, our destination tomorrow.