Gorgeous Gorges

In the never ending quest to keep my blog up to date, I’m trying to do one a day to catch up.

So today’s blog is from about 2 weeks ago, when we decided to go super touristy and do a day tour to Saklikent Canyon from Fethiye, 50km away.

The Canyon is 300m deep and 18 km long, one of the deepest in the world. Four kilometres of the canyon are walkable after April, when most of the snow in the Taurus Mountains has melted and passed through on its way to the Med.

The bus trip was rather tedious, look left, look right with the guide beside himself that one of the passengers may wander off and break a leg.

Once we got there, he insisted that we all hire shoes for the walk up the canyon and Ewa was equally insistent that we wouldn’t. In the end our thongs (flip flops to you non-Australians) and bare feet did the trick.

The canyon was absolutely magnificent and we snapped away with our cameras as we walked along. About 2 thirds up, things started to get tricky and it was here we met John, our canyon guide for the day. He helped us clamber up small waterfalls and through water up to our chests. I think he especially liked helping Ewa.

I’d packed my camera and laptop in a water proof bag so we could keep things fully charged for the day not knowing what we were in for. Had I known I would have gone a bit lighter – certainly wouldn’t have brought my laptop. It was an interesting exercise passing my (pseudo) waterproof backpack over my head to John as we clambered through and over water falls and deep pools.

But it was really worth it as we made it to the waterfall at the end. Ewa loves having her photo taken and so we snapped away with her under the waterfall.

Back at the bus, we had the obligatory stop at a carpet weaving factory and outlet, which was half interesting and then onto lunch at a trout farm. Yum – fresh fish in a beautiful setting up in the mountains.

Last stop was the roman ruins at Tios, which was one of the six principal cities of Lycia (and one of the most powerful). It was eventually inhabited by Ottoman Turks.

The whole place is dominated by Acropolis Hill, which overlooks a lovely valley of fertile fields and orchards with mountains rising in the distance. There are lots of Lycian rock-cut tombs and sarcophagi at its base. Crowning the top is the fortress of Kanlı Ağı (‘Bloody Chief Ali’), a notorious Ottoman feudal lord, built upon the foundations of a Lycian fortress. The view from the top is spectacular with amazing 360 degree views over the Xanthos valley and the surrounding mountains.

There’s also a large Amphitheatre, an athletics track, markets, a gym, and two large baths, as well as the remains of an impressive temple. Lots more photo opportunities.

Next day, it was off to Gocek to pick up Ms. Deanne Trigg, who was flying into Dalaman Airport the next evening.

For photos see https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201979560443512.1073741927.1620379103&type=1&l=bcdf7fe4e2