Tombs and Trails of Kaş

Posted by Melissa

Mid October 2010

After settling in our new apartment, it was time to explore the town.  We immediately noticed the large number of rock cut tombs in the area.  Modern Kaş was built atop the remains of the ancient Lycian city of  Habesos or Habesa, built in the 4th century BC.  It is one of the oldest settlements in the region of Lycia.  The Greeks later called it Antiphellos. Phellos, the Greek word for 'stony place' was a perfect choice!

This tomb, called Krai Mezari (King's Tomb), is right at the top of our street. It was carved from a single block and has eight lines of script in the Lycian language which have yet to be deciphered. The lid of the sarcophagus contains four lion heads, two on each side.

Krai Mezari (King's Tomb)

Other tombs are scattered throughout town.  This one has a house built right on top of it!

This one is carved into the hillside a few blocks from our apartment, near the edge of town.

I guess when you have so many tombs around, they just don't seem as special as they might if they were discovered in, oh I don't know, maybe Grass Valley!  This tomb is in a dusty area used as the parking lot for the weekly market.

As we were exploring town one day, this little lady motioned for us to follow her.  She took us down a little street, past a snarling dog, through rocks and brush and then to this tomb.  Amazing. 

And then to this one.  Of course, she requested a little compensation for her efforts which we were very happy to pay.  We would not have found these on our own.

We discovered this tomb overlooking the harbor at the edge of town.

After a few days exploring in town it was time for a bigger hike.  We headed out to the Lycian Way, a 509 kilometer trail that extends Fethiye to Antalya.  I think just a few miles will do for us today.

To get to the trail, we hiked south out of town, down to this little beach and back up the other side.

Through oak forests that remind me a bit of California.

And up through some homes built above the beach.  Thane loved this sign!  I wonder if they get many clients stopping in after hiking the trail.  I'll have to keep this in mind for the way back out!

It took a while, but we finally found the trail.

And a guide!  This little guy found us before we found the trail.  He stuck with us for the entire hike.  He seemed to know the trail very well and encouraged us to to follow him whenever we came to a fork in the trail.  We eventually decided to trust him and he did us right!

We passed this house a couple of miles into our hike.  With no road nearby, it appears that they have to hike in just as we did.  The lady of the house was standing on the back patio washing dishes and waved a hello to us.  It seemed like a history book photo come alive!

Another day found us heading north out of town, hiking around a peninsula of newer, very upscale homes over looking the Greek Island of Meis.  Although it is only a 20 minute ferry ride from Kaş, and we were there for three weeks, we somehow didn't find the time to visit. We attended a couple of parties with the mayor of Meis and he chided us for our oversight.  I guess we'll just have to go back!

Our next hike had a nice surprise for us - a torrential downpour.  We ducked under cover to try to wait out the storm.  When Thane pointed the camera at me I thought he was just playing around.  Nope, he captured a soaking, tired, me giving him a "what are you doing?" look. 

Time to head back to the apartment for some hot tea and a warm shower!

Up Next:  More about Kaş, the people, the doors, the festivities!

Blue Cruise on the Gorgeous Mediterranean and a Visit to St. Nick

Posted by Melissa

October 4 to 8, 2010

After many cruises with our friends from BN, we find ourselves preparing for a cruise without them. We'll miss them, but it should be fun being a passenger with no staff duties for a change! We arrived in the little coastal town of Fethiye the night before the cruise and met up with our soon to be boatmates for a seafood dinner. We enjoyed a beautiful view from our room.

This time we are heading out for a Blue Cruise on a Turkish gulet.  A Blue Cruise is generally a short cruise aboard a small sail boat with about 6 - 8 cabins and a crew of 3, including captain, cook, and general deck hand.  The cabins are quite small and not air conditioned, so that most people sleep on deck at night.  We are cruising rather late in the year, so the cabins are relatively comfortable.  I understand that during the heat of a Turkish summer, they are pretty much unbearable.  Good news for us then.

Day 1 - Depart Fethiye mid day. Stop at Butterfly Valley for a swim.  (note the light colored bluff on the left of the pic - we stayed at a small pension in the little village of Faralya located at the top of this bluff about a week or so after our cruise).

Butterfly Valley and beach - over 100 different types of butterflies and moths live in the valley

A little time for swimming before lunch.

The water is amazingly clear - and just a bit cooler than perfect

And a little hammock time with a self portrait by Thane!

And of course, there is always tavla!!  Looks like we both take this very seriously - no smiles at all.

We spend our first night tethered to St. Nicholaus island.  Turns out that ALL the gulets spend the night in the same place.  By the time it gets dark, the place is starting to look a little bit like a campground for motorhomes.  The other boats are so close that you can hear them and smell their food.  I don't much care for the parking lot vibe of this setting.  The sea is so beautiful with such a dark starry night - it would have been so much better to be in a quiet little cove with just our boat.

Day 2 - Off we go to more beautiful bays.

One of several small boats that approached our boat selling goodies such as ice cream, gözleme and pashminas.

Also on Day 2, we stop at Kaş.  Kaş is where we hoped to find an apartment to rent for the rest of October, so we were very excited to check things out.  We found an apartment within the first 20 minutes!  Our soon to be home has the little green balcony that you can see in about the middle of this pic.

Day 3 brings us to Sunken City of Kekova (this Lycian-Roman archaeological site is protected, so only looking!) Kekova was partially destroyed by an earthquake which left some of the city underwater. 

We stopped at the quaint village of Simena, a very small traditional fishing village accessible only by boat and located across from Kekova.  It is topped by a Byzantine/Ottoman castle.

We took off immediately for the top of the hill and passed this tiny school on the way up. It is the primary school in town. Five students, three grades, and one teacher.

Lycian tombs are scattered down the hillside from the castle to the water.  These olive oil trees are several hundred years old.  The tombs, much older!

As we walked up the hill, a local woman joined us.  She told us about the school, the tombs, the castle and was generally good company.  We liked chatting with her, but at some point would have enjoyed being alone for a while.  Try as we may, we were unable to get away.  As we walked back down to town, we found out why.  Of course!  She wanted to sell us something.  After having her as our unofficial "guide" I felt obliged to purchase one of her lace edged sarongs.  Although I have very little room in my backpack to add souvenirs and don't generally buy things, I'll now have a beautiful memento of this island when I use the sarong next summer!

One of just a few small walking streets in "downtown" Simena.

Day 3 also included a bus transfer to Demre for the St.Nicholas Church.  St. Nicholaus, the inspiration for Santa Claus, was born in this area .

Church of St. Nicholas - Interior fresco

Church of St. Nicholas - Interior fresco

Church of St. Nicholas - Interior

The Tomb of St. Nicholas

The cruise ended on day 4 with a bus transfer to Olympos. A very sweet place, and our next blog entry.

Overall the cruise had it's high and low spots. The scenery was great but it would have been much better in hot weather when the sea would have been much more inviting and refreshing.  It was also fairly expensive, the boat never sailed, it only used it's noisy diesel motor, and it had a bit of a motorhome caravan feel since each night was spent in view of adjacent gulets.  We don't think we'd do it again, although keep in mind that we do frequent cruises as our side "job."

Up next: A delightful stay in a little bungalow in Olympos, and a hike to the Chimera, an ever burning flame erupting from rock on the side of the mountain.