AKYAKA - Exploring TURKEY's Hidden Gem | TURKEY Travel Series
Rural Turkey is awesome! On top of the world! This is a lovely spot! Gingerbread - wow! Absolutely breathtaking! We're Marianne and Chris and we've been traveling full time since May 2018. Whilst attempting to drive around the world in Trudy our home on wheels, this happened! The coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades As borders closed around us we decided to wait it out in Turkey until we were able to continue our adventure East. Right so we need to look at park4night and try and find somewhere to go in Akyaka. So we've just seen a tap sign by the side of the road and yes there is spring water and people filling up which is great.
So we get to fill up with water! So very often in Turkey when you're driving down the road by the side of the road, they have this mountain spring water and it must be good because all the local guys are here filling up their water bottles. Oh it's fast, yeah it's very fast. We're all restocked with water, let's hit the road again! How amazing is this view? Wow I just love these roads that just hug the coastline you can see for miles it's just absolutely breathtaking.
Look how far you can see now, I keep turning the camera on and off, because i've recorded enough b-roll already, but wow! This road is phenomenal. We had to pull over by the side of the road and just walk to this little spot here because the view is literally amazing! Oh that is beautiful! Wow look at that everybody on top of the world! We've managed to climb right up to the top here look at this view! You can really see all the way around here and we're heading up right in inland to the to the cove over here about 40 miles down here. Just when I thought the views couldn't get better, coming over the mountain and down it's just absolutely woo hoo ! There's not many roads that you get views like this and one thing Turkey is not short of ...
is beautiful mountain roads! I'm so pleased that we actually waited for today for the sun to come out because if we filmed yesterday when it was cloudy and windy it wouldn't have looked as wonderful as it does today. It might take us a little bit longer to get to our destination than planned today. Of course overtaking on corners on mountain roads is always a good idea here in Turkey! So here's one tip if you do drive in Turkey... If somebody overtakes you and gives a horn it's not a sign of get out of my way or anything over here, everybody horns at everybody and it is just to give you a little hello to say and just to let you know "i'm here" There is no aggression on the roads over here and everyone is very respectful of people in a hurry.
If they want to overtake you on a corner, just let them do it and just move over to the side to give them as much space as possible. I think if you drive with a foreign number plate as well people are very courteous towards us because yeah they appreciate that we don't necessarily know the road, so we don't always drive the speed limit or above the speed limit, Yeah. Beehives! beehives, and you can see them all buzzing around! Look at that! Obviously very big honey production up here, we have heard there is a massive organic farming ethos on the Datça peninsula.
So the sat-nav's taking us off the main road and we've got about 15 - 20 miles on this little country road here and it's always so much nicer to take the the side roads rather than the main road because it gives you much more of a real sense of rural Turkey and it's very pretty Marianne's just said "I've got a joke!" that's unusual! But let's see what she's going to say ..... What's the joke love? What fruit does a Turkish Pirate like? Actually i know the answer ..... Naaaarrrrr ! Because in Turkish, "nar" means pomegranate! Look how pointy that hill is, that must be an old volcano or have been volcanic, because it's like proper pointy ! Orange time! How can we not buy some delicious little oranges here? Hello .... There's another stand just down the road, oh never mind there's nobody there. Probably gone to have a cup of tea -. probably Pull in here maybe, there you go some more oranges.
Oh they look lovely don't they? they do Yeah massive pomegranates. Lemons, look at these these ... they look like a funny cauliflowers -what are they? Oh bergamot That's bergamot ? They make the tea out of them too thank you, wow bye-bye.
There you go, you learn something new every day. Bergamot never seen that before. We're just coming down to Akyaka, you can just see it down in the valley towards the sun there, it's a very small, little town but looks really picturesque by the sea there Welcome to Akyaka Lovely houses. That's it let's turn left here, go down to the sea.
So this is the car park that we found and the sun is just about to go down so we thought we'd have a little wander down to the beach because it looks amazing the sunset. Trudy looks very small, dwarfed by that big mountain behind, it's a lovely backdrop though isn't it? Look at that! It's a lovely little town, I'm looking forward to having a little wander around tomorrow, hopefully the weather's good. Okay this is a lovely spot, we've just come down to the seafront just on the end of this little jetty here, and there's a couple of guys fishing with the catch of the day by the looks of the bag moving and the cat looking at it and wow look at that sunset! Good morning we had a fabulous nights sleep here in Akyaka Isn't that a cool name? Akyaka ! it's just got a really nice ring to it So we thought this morning we'd go and have a little walk around the town, maybe up the river a little bit the sun is shining, it's going to be another beautiful day here in Turkey.
It's a beautiful place, how do we not know this coastline? Exactly and then what we'll do is we're going to head back towards Marmaris a little bit later on this afternoon. To give you an idea of where we're staying, there's Trudy's just over there it's nice and quiet we're right next to the river and the sea. There's a toilet block here which is perfect, it's got squatting normal toilets, there is Chris washing his hands! There's also a tap over there as well, so it's perfect for getting water. So it's lovely they got this little bridge here, it's better to use the steps, yeah.
What a perfectly idyllic spot! We met a couple of guys yesterday in Datça and they have recently moved to Turkey and they said that they really struggled between Datça and Akyaka and I can see why, it's idyllic! Look how clear the water is and you've got the geese there and with the mountains over there and then all the reeds around here ... It's just a perfectly perfect spot!I like it a lot! Oh look, i don't know if you can see down there ... but there is a cat having a drink from the river because it's glacial mountain fresh water coming down from the mountains and there are the geese having a drink too! Just coming over the bridge here look at this there's little estuaries and little waterways going off into the reeds here, boat tours is a really popular thing to do here, in the summer this town is ram packed, we've been told this is a very busy tourist destination and we've already seen a couple of boats with small tour groups going up and down these lovely waterways. Oh look we got a little kitten that's following us, aren't you lovely? So we've just come across this interesting sign, so here in Akyaka the name of the river is "woman's creek" and about %20 of the water is actually mineral water so it's where the salty water and the mineral water meet. The river goes up to 10 meters deep, has three species of fish, wild birds and you can even see turtles here if you are very very lucky probably because the bottom of the river is a moss like covering and probably the turtles feed off it i would think.
We're walking along the river here, they've got these little food stands and shops and the friendly cat that's still following me! We were told here that there are lots of fish restaurants and there are, but obviously due to closed season and covid everything's closed. But can you imagine in the summer when there's lots of people here the atmosphere that you'd get? To be honest Chris and I are really enjoying and feeling safe in the peace and quiet. It's such a shame all these restaurants are closed because look at some of this food, I could definitely eat some of that now they got lovely restaurants down here next to the river overlooked by these wonderful mountains and blue skies. If you do come to Akyaka it's definitely worth having a little walk up the river here, they've got little benches places to sit down eat your take away. We're going to try and have a little walk around and see if we can find a bakery or something for breakfast, but it's just absolutely stunning. I would imagine that water's very cold if it's come off the mountains.
The style of houses as you walk around Akyaka are amazing, look how beautiful that is and there everywhere, they look great, lovely wooden framed balconies, nice flowers it's a really nice town. We've arrived at the main sort of street with shops and restaurants so fingers crossed we can find a little bit of something for breakfast, but how is that for a backdrop? It's very dramatic mountains, it is, very dramatic, it feels a bit Swiss, doesn't it feels a bit Swiss ? Mountains at the front, Water at the front, what a lovely lovely place! Yeah I could definitely stay here for a while! Poarga, borek, we got it all going on! even gozleme ! so maybe we should get a take out of Gozleme, poarga and borek and then that will see us till dinner! good morning ! You are talking to me in Turkish ? a little bit, I am learning, for me it's important to be polite. Oh they've got more, what else have they got? Borek Well I consider myself to be a fairly awesome driver, but i have been contacted and i've arranged to meet up with a beautiful lady called Burcu, who is a famous rally driver here in Turkey .
Which is actually on my bucket list to do, so I'm going to see whether she can give me some tips! She and her son are coming, They're actually on the direction of Fethiye, the same direction as us, so we've arranged to meet on the road. We're going to catch up have a coffee and they've made some ginger cookies, oh nice! I think she also does TV presenter too isn't she? I think so. Yeah i don't know, for me we love meeting new people.
so that's great Marianne's very excited about the rally driving! What did you bring for them? we got some cookies! We made cookies! gingerbread cookies ! Wow we love gingerbread cookies! So that was lovely to meet up with her, what a great lady! And we're going to probably meet up with her when we arrive in Fethiye probably just after Christmas hopefully. So now we've jumped back into Trudy and we are heading to Marmaris which is another one of those destinations that we have to visit whilst we're here in Turkey heading down the coast. Oh you're so lovely, are you breaking down? are you weakening? No Cat ! I don't know if you're like me, i like to set the sat nav before we start driving because once i start doing things on the mood, it makes me all go giddy! On the mood? did i say on the mood? on the mood! I definitely meant on the move! The river goes to up the three two one back in the room All right i've just finished the next video! I think it started raining again again ... Oh you're still there, seriously guys that is the end of the show ! There's nothing more on this episode, we hope you enjoyed it if you did click the subscription and press that notification bell and we will see you next time, where we explore the Turkish city of Marmaris! Bye for now
2021-01-14 03:29
