Sunday August 31
It was difficult to leave the beautiful town of Fethiye, and the fantastic hotel. Fethiye is near to so many great places to explore and enjoy.

But yet another Turkish treasure awaited us. It was just a short hour’s drive to Saklikent Gorge, a beautiful fresh water narrow gorge which is fed by millions of megalitres of water from huge springs visible from the boardwalk. The springs gush out of the rock and become a freezing cold river. The force of water was similar to Huka Falls in New Zealand, but due to a very different reason. There are two months of the year when tubing down the river is not possible because of the melting winter snows, adding to the spring water. Fortunately that didn’t affect us, and we had a wonderful hour and a half of tubing down the freezing waters.

The story of Saklikent Gorge is an interesting one. It was not publicly discovered until 1949 when a shepherd lost a goat and came upon the gorge on his search. Since that time, it has been open to the public, and for the first 50 years, half the entry fee went to the shepherd, and the other half to the government.

The 4 hour afternoon drive through the Taurus Mountains was spectacular! It is obvious to the naked eye that these mountains have had a volatile history. At various points the strata was not just at angles, but quite often you could see that what was once horizontal is now vertical. Lots of ‘wows’ at various points. The scenery was stunning, but so hard to take good photographs from a bus.

We came to Antalya, a beautiful Mediterranean city, that is now a huge tourist destination. Antalya is the third most visited city in the world, mainly due to Russian and German tourism. We first visited a tremendous waterfall, from a river that originates in the Taurus mountains. The waterfall comes straight off the cliff into the Mediterranean basically in the middle of the city.

Our Antalyan hotel, the Baruk Park, has just finished a one year renovation, and it was certainly very stylish, with amazing decor and superb food. We felt very spoiled, and the view was ‘to die for’.

Monday September 1
We left Antalya for another very long day of driving to get to Cappadocia. Our first stop was at Aspendos where there is a first century theatre in very good condition, and is still used today. There have been some renovations in the last few years. It is so wonderful that a theatre built 2,000 years ago can still be used for performances today and enjoyed by the public.

Driving through the magnificent Taurus Mountains again today was wonderful, but of course, slowed the trip because of the steep and winding roads.

We had a quick stop at a Muslim museum to look at the history of an old Islamic sect called the Whirling Dervishes. This sect was formed through disagreements early in the development of Islam, and the main characteristic is the style of dance which originates in focussing the heart on Allah. The dancer bows their head towards the heart, the right arm points up to receive from God and the left arm is down to share God’s blessing with the world. As the music starts, the dancer goes into a trance and then spins faster and faster, in an anti-clockwise direction.

Our afternoon stop was at a 13 century caravanserai on the Silk Road, where travelling traders had safety and shelter for the night. These caravanserai were about a days camel ride apart [about 30-35 km] and the one we visited was the 2nd biggest in Turkey, and in incredible condition.

We arrived in Urgup, Cappadocia about 7pm and look forward to our two nights in this unique environment.