Turquoise coast to Kas

A stinky sweltering humid start to the day here…..this was the view from the hotel restaurant at breakfast, visibility was about 250m through a fug of moisture. The sun burned it  off pretty quickly. At least I hadn't been staying 100km up the road in Antalya last night where they had 50C according to the receptionist at the hotel. I was dripping by the time I had put the luggage on the bike and was desperate to get going on the open road to get some wind on my face.

As I was leaving town, a bike pulled up next to me and a guy said 'come for a tea'….Another carpet salesman I thought, and gave it some gas to get awey. He caught up and repeated his invite. Then a policeman jumped out in front of us and waved us to the side of the road. Bugger, I thought, done for speeding away from a tout. The police asked me for my documents and as I was getting them, my 'tout' talked them out of it…he claimed that he had egged me on and so the cops let us off. I had to go for tea then.

Turns out that, my tout was the local photography shop owner who is also a bit of a biker and when he saw me go past, he gave chase just to meet me. Abdulkerim gave up smoking and saves the 5TL a day so that every few years he can go on a trip. Last time, he negotiated a 30-45 day trip (depending on where the bike broke down) with his wife and was gone for 4 months (that's japanese reliability for you), 25,000km through 32 countries, sleeping in parks and on the beach. Fascinating guy. I lost track of time sipping tea exchanging travel stories until I noticed it was 1pm and I had only done 2km. I had to break off but we exchanged details so maybe I will get to see some of his pictures. Apparently, he has been asked to hold an exhibition in the town.

The road to Antalya is one long stretch of beach resorts which offer anyone staying no view of what Turkey is really like. Each one seems to be roughly the same, a place to spend a week or two getting alternately scorched and drunk. Nothing else there except hotels and sand. I have done my share of that sort of thing but to see so many of them in a row is a little depressing. Maybe I am getting a little snobby in my old age.

I didn't stop in Antalya but skirted it and headed for the coast road beyond which looked nice and wiggly. The humidity and the heat made me loath to stop and take pictures. Every time I had to pull up at traffic lights, the pores started pumping. I lost the rag with a couple of drivers cutting me up and I discovered the secret to Turkish driving, drive aggressively and they back off. Give an inch and they take a mile so for a while I took on the guys in their equivalent of the XR4i and saw them off on the twisty roads. Then sanity returned, helped by the fact that the tar was shining like a mirror in the heat and I got far enough out into the boonies to want to take a look at the scenery. 

This part is called the Turquoise coast and is the countryside is very rugged. The mountains come right to the sea and where there are valleys, the agriculture can be fairly intensive. A lot of it is in greenhouses. I had hoped at the start of the day to be in Marmaris tonight, but with a late start I decided not to ride too late so I stopped in Kas, pretty little up and coming tourist town which because it has no airport near is still pretty calm. Going to watch Ireland try to bring the Italians home on the same plane in to footie tonight.