Day 23-26 Brits on a Boat and a Goat Spit Roast
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2010
1
17
76
Trip End
Feb 14, 2011
Where I stayed
Oludeniz, Turkish Aegean Coast, Turkey
Monday, August 23, 2010
Max and Dick were up early to get the fire going ready for truck breakfast, before we all packed away and continued on our journey towards Olu Deniz. But first it was a short journey to Hieropolis to see the Travertines that the romans found use for back in their day, building a bath spa settlement. The calcite deposit looked eerily like snow as we approached the town just as midday hit. The heat and the steep climb put Max and I off, after an early and smokey morning, so a touristy lunch followed.
After lunch Max and I decided to check out the calcite deposits we could see (without the 20 lira price tag) and promptly got whistled away by a security guard! We then boarded the truck and made a food shop stop at Kipa (aka tesco in disguise, as they are owned by tesco), but the security guard wouldnt let us on the car park, so we had to park up the road, which Ali managed to blag for free. When we were stocked up we boarded the truck to see Ali go and get the police as she argued with the car park attendant who had since changed his mind and tried to charge a ridiculous price for an hours parking. The police wavered the fee and we headed for our bush camp for the evening. Our bush camp of the night was spent high up in the hills about 80km from Oludeniz and the cooler air was obvious, even though the mosquitos didn't bugger off! Dinner that night was spag bol with garlic bread, so I was in garlic heaven as it was my first garlic bread since leaving home, mmm! Cook group did an amazing job considering they were cooking in the dark. The mission of the evening was to collect firewood to fill up our wood store on the back of the truck, so the boys set about sawing down a tree and using an axe to breack the wood up into smaller pieces, it was funny watching the men at work, 'must chop wood’. The night continued in true Irish fashion with Owen singing tunes around the circle with many people joining in and singing. At the end of the night we made our way back to our tent thinking that it was cooler than normal, only to wake up in the middle of the night absolutley freezing in our cotton sleeping bag liners, Max had left his bag on the truck, so our sleeping bags were locked away. Note to self, always take bag of the truck before bed time!
Day 24
We woke up still cold to the sound of a local goat herder driving his herd through our campsite at 6.30am, I should have recorded the sound, it works a treat as an alarm clock! The truck ride to Oludeniz was a short one and we were pitching our tents at the Sugar Beach Club by 10am, which was great as it meant we gained an extra day by the beach. We swam in the lagoon, with beautiful scenery and relaxed in the beach front bar, listening to beach chill out music and drinking ice cold beer, perfecto! That day another ‘overland’ truck from a rival company arrived, Oasis overland, are currently travelling from Cairo to Istanbul and one of their stops was Turkey. I can safely say that a few looks were exchanged between groups, each eyeing up each others’ vehicle, before we all looked at each other and in a rather child like fashion said ‘OUR TRUCK IS BIGGER THAN YOURS!’ After the initial eyeing up of each other, the groups got talking, and it was great to see fellow overlanders who where granted doing a considerably shorter journey (38 days) , but still had the same interests and outlook on life as the UKTOOZ’ers. Both truck were checked out and some swapping took place of eggs and sugar and frying pans. The windows on the Oasis truck did not exsist, they had roll down canvas and the truck seats were set out so their backs were to the window. They also slept on a giant sleeping mat together in no tents! So I had visions of me as a giant, walking, talking mosquito bite as part of the Oasis team. We did later find out that they had army style tents that come with the truck, but they hadn’t bothered on the trip so far. The oasis guys did invite everybody out in Oludeniz for drinks but we declined because of the tourist price for beer.
Day 25
Boat trip time, and one of the funniest days so far! The morning started with a great truck breakfast of yoghurt and honey, free scambled eggs, fresh bread, cereal, fruit, tea and coffee. The boaters for the day left via an open topped jeep towards the beach of Oludeniz, where we then boarded the Mr Focus boat (the one playing the extra loud party music). On board we grabbed a sunbed mattress in the shade and eyed up our fellow saliers, who appeared to be first day on holiday brits. I then turned round to see Hilton, Stu, Rebecca and Caleb stumble onto the boat, realise that club music was playing and whilst still drunk from the previous evening, start making shapes to the beat of the music. Very funny to watch the reaction of the very to do tourists, thinking ‘oh great, we’ve picked the wrong boat!’ We set sail and sunbathed before our 5 stops of the day in coves, beaches and abandoned villages.
The first stop was at Butterfly cove and we disembarked to swim in the rough tide, but beautiful turquoise waters. Stuart was not quite sober from drinking the previous night with the Oasis overlanders and was slightly merry, he very kindly decided to help me into the water, as I kept getting knocked over on the shingle beach, only to swim directly into a lady swimming by, Stu gave a full left hook in the face, apologised and carried on swimming. I almost drowned from laughing so much! The next stop delivered lunch and we sat down happily to homemade chips, chicken/fish/meatballs and salad.
The rest of the day was spent dipping in and out of the water at the various stops, one where Max had a turtle pop out of the water next to him, take a look and then dive again. The final stop saw a natural plunge pool fed by spring water, sit in a little cove. This made the surrounding sea water cooler than average, and the plunge pool itself almost freezing, said to make you 5 years younger by swimming in it for 5 mins. So a lot of screaming and huffing and puffing went on as many sailers made their way into the pool. Max turned to me and said ' this won't be Max cold' and proceeded to sit in the pool for over 10 mins!
At the end of the trip we arrived back on shore and walked the short distance back to the campsite. The rest of the group had been brilliant and had been tending to a fire and spit roasting goat all day. The goat was delivered to the campground around 1pm and was mounted onto the fire and turned every half hour as it slowly cooked. Dinner was served/carved with fresh colslaw and jacket potatoes, marvelous!
Day 26
The day started again in a relaxed fashion and Max and I found ourselves strolling into the centre of Oludeniz for some 'genuine fake' sunglasses as mine had been washed away to sea! Back at the campsite we had a lazy lunch at the beach front bar, before Max departed for a Quad Biking Safari. As expected Max and the lads were stopped on numerous occasions and told off for their stunt like activities, with Max's stunts actually causing the whole group to stopped, oops! They all returned sporting a 5 o'clock dust shadow around their faces, but with a look of content after biking around all afternoon.
I on the other hand had washed the clothes, got up to date on blogging and had relaxed swimming in the lagoon and sitting in the shade, excellent.
In the morning we set off for Olympus, where our accommodation sees us in tree houses. Onwards and Eastwards!
