On the receiving end of TURKISH Hospitality in DATCA TURKEY
I'm looking forward to Datça Everyone's just so lovely! But somehow he's come up trumps again! It always makes it so much better when the sun is out! I don't know which one's which, or my left or right, but it's somewhere around here! Yeah you can't go down there! We're Marianne and Chris and we've been traveling full time since May 2018. We must be insane! Whilst attempting to drive around the world in Trudy our home on wheels this happened! All British travellers abroad are advised, advised to return now. As borders closed around us we decided to wait it out in Turkey until we were able to continue our adventure East We're just arriving at Datça and the landscape is a lot more different than i would have thought, it looks very jurassic and mountainous, I don't know if you can see in the background over there but it's beautiful blue skies and then it completely disappears where the rain clouds are.
We had quite a lot of rain whilst we are on the boat, we're just going to go down to Trudy and look how pretty this is, there's a rainbow over there! And there's a windmill over there we're just coming into the port now. I'm looking forward to Datça, are you looking forward to Datça? it looks amazing! Right we need to reverse off the boat, Oh there's a motorbike there, isn't there ? thats very tricky, can you watch that motorbike? you're fine. The motorbike you've cleared. pull it around, yeah So we're going to try and find a campsite for the weekend just because of the curfew, it just makes life a little bit easier.
So we've found one about 20 minutes drive away that we're going to go and check out. So we've just pulled up to this hotel which apparently has a campsite on the side so Marianne's just popped in to see if that's open, because the gates are closed and it looks closed that is the problem we say it time and time again. Most places, hotels, campsites are closed. We've been lucky enough to find a few that are open but it is just easier at the weekends with the curfew, just waiting because the police they'll probably ask you what you're doing out and about parked up, so it just saves explaining it. I just thought i'd try my luck really and i just asked obviously for the curfew purposes we sort of try and get off the main road and i just went in and i said "look i know your closed, but could you tell me somewhere for camping? and they said, "come in we'll open the gate for you"! Oh amazing, there you go! He's waiting for you, opening the gate, oh he's moving the car, yeah he's going to move the car ! How amazing is that? literally amazing! Everyone's just so lovely! That's the point isn't it? Just everyone is so lovely! And he said that all the land here is his, so if we need we can walk around and just stay and use all the area! Ah and he said you can park anywhere here! So i said we'll park in the sun if that's okay? And he said park wherever you need to park! So this is our little spot for the weekend, we're just going to hang out here for the weekend.
The weather is terrible this weekend and there's a curfew, so it's perfect for us just to catch up on our editing and answering all your comments before we explore this area and head a little bit further south next week. It's funny actually before I came to Turkey i thought the weather was going to be warm all year round, Hey? Me too! And it's not! they lied!! It does get quite chilly here at night time, the further south we're getting the warmer it is, I mean i'm still in a t-shirt you know but it's probably about 16 degrees today i would guess, it didn't take long for us to get a few furry friends coming to visit did it? oh we got a cat! They're lovely now we've got happy cats! We are struggling a little bit for power but we've managed to plug in to the building over there they very kindly let us plug in. I can't wait to get our power oak batterybank, we've run out of power it's our second day we've really struggled we've been idling the engine, which I know everyone's messaging saying it's bad, so we're going the day after tomorrow we're arranging to meet the company that got it shipped over here for us.
So we're super excited and yeah we'll share that with you. It's Tuesday morning we had a fab weekend here at this hotel, and uh it's so nice of them to let us stay here for the curfew last weekend. We were going to go out filming on Monday but unfortunately the heavens opened and the weather over the weekend and yesterday was absolutely terrible, but the sun today is shining behind us it's come out we've got amazing blue skies so this morning we're going to go and explore the little area around Datça which everyone's told us is absolutely amazing. So let's go to Datça! Thank you very much! Wow what a lovely lovely family, amazing! So this is the hotel that looked after us for the weekend the Palm Bay Beach Hotel and we want to say a massive thank you to Elkin and the family here for letting us stay. And another example of true Turkish hospitality! Right let's go to Datça! Okay look at that view there ! If you like hiking and walking whilst you're here, you have to come up. It's amazing, i'm looking forward to having a little look around today.
When we're static on quarantine weekends working we need the internet and it's always a concern but we had a really good one because there's two massive antennas literally 2 or 3 roads down behind the hotel here. We're just getting little glimpses of Datça in the distance at the bottom of these mountains and next to the sea. It's got a beautiful backdrop it's a really really lovely area with the sun shining this morning. We haven't checked the tire pressures for a while, so we thought best just give them a checkover.
The glasses are there my sweetness! Marianne and glasses! she needs a rope around her neck, because she's always looses them !! I've got two pairs, in fact i've got a couple of spares, but i've got reading like close-up and then the tv far away and I literally juggle ! She does lose them all the time, oh there's a tractor going past! Massey Ferguson! There you go, so the tyres are all topped up, they were a little bit low, so we've just given them a bit more and right let's carry on to Datça! I'm going that way? That way! So when we visit these towns that we've never been to we just kind of pick a point on google maps that's somewhere near the seafront and we just try and figure it out as we get there, and sometimes you end up in the most beautiful spot and sometimes you end up in a residential estate or wasteland! So today i've just put it in and we'll see where we end up!! So the the town names here in Turkey they always put the population, so Datça has 20,800 residents. So we have to stop by the side of the road here because there's this amazing view over Datça here, that's where we're heading that looks like the main sort of seafront, so we're going to be driving around and heading sort of down in that direction. So we found this little parking spot, I think it's probably a pretty good location, because i can see the coast behind me and i can see the blue sea behind me that way, which means we haven't got far to go and where there's blue sea there's a seafront and that is normally pretty nice so we're going to go and have a little look around this lovely town. I love it Chris always says "i'm not sure where we're going" but somehow he's come up trumps again! Look at this place it's lovely we're right by the sea front this is the coast this must be a bar in the high season because there's like loads of tables and benches, but look at that view! Datça is gorgeous! I think we've i think we've actually arrived on that little peninsula bit that was sticking out that we saw up on the hill, yeah very nice! You know when you're a full-time van lifer is when you see a hose pipe and a tap and think I need water!! That's the thing i think that's the weirdest is you don't just turn taps on or you don't just flush toilets like normal people, you suddenly start to think about all the resources that you're using and how to conserve water and how to like be really really frugal with all your services whether it's electric or water or gas, it's a very strange existence! I've noticed a lot of van lifers are taking a break and going into houses and i think it's something that's really important actually, just going to touch on this in another video but i've started talking now! When we decided to become full-time travel bloggers we already decided that we would be in our van or with a backpack visiting every country. So i don't feel like my entire existence is in the van,
I feel as though we're going to shake it up a bit, so i don't know but i'm thinking we won't get tired of van life because for us it's like going on a little holiday, even if it is for a year or two years or three years, but we know that when we finish this adventure of driving around the world we're going to be picking our rucksacks up and going backpacking for like six six to eight months and doing places that we can't take a van, like little islands, peninsulas and islands, maybe Indonesia and dotting through all the islands, which would be impossible to take Trudy, so yeah resources really important! I'm liking the look of this, look at this! So looking this way they've got this beach area i'm sure that's really busy in the summer and all the way along here they've got electric points so normally i think this must be filled with boats all the way along the seafront here. And this area looks like it's probably used for food and there's a pizza restaurant and it's just absolutely lovely. We've come down to the front and I've just noticed all this decking, this metal decking, I'm assuming because it's got ridges that it will be filled with lovely wooden decking, so people can sit by the water! But i'm looking underneath there's so many baby fish, it's just gorgeous, i can completely see why people come here and live and stay here. So we're just walking out on this little peninsula, So you got the water there and the water there, and I'm curious to see the town, what's around the corner here? Oh this is lovely, so it goes all the way around. We actually slept down the coastline, where we spent the weekend was sort of on the mainland here. So this peninsula goes round and down to Marmaris this way, it's nice isn't it? it's beautiful.
It always makes it so much better when the sun is out! Yeah so I think we're going to have a little wander along the seafront, see what we find and see if we can find somewhere to get a little bit of breakfast, lunch or as i say Blunch ! Oh we love scuba diving and in fact had this trip carried on we should be somewhere like Baja California Mexico! Uh we should also have spent five weeks scuba diving in Malaysia, So uh i've seen these boats and i'm feeling incredibly nostalgic to going back to dive with our friends at Scuba Junkie in Borneo and Malaysia and Indonesia, seeing these boats I really want to get some diving in Turkey but obviously with Covid i'm not even sure what's running? Uh but we'll look into that as we go down the coast a little bit further. It's funny, we've literally just walked around the corner and it's suddenly gone really windy where we were was definitely much more sheltered. The boat behind us has actually got a wind turbine on it which is flying around! I want a wind turbine! Can you imagine the power if we have one of those on each side of Trudy and some of the places we stayed? I think we would have taken off! Some of you have been asking how we're getting footage without it sounding really windy, so i'm just going to put this little thing that we got off the amazon - i think the link's on on our support us page. It's just a little, it's just basically a little wind cover that slips over, it's just raw and ready, it just slips on and the holes aren't necessarily always in the right place when you get these things. our one the on buttons is on the wrong side to the the power button, but it works! So Datça is a quiet fishing town and is located about 75 kms West of Marmaris and this is where the Aegean and the Mediterranean seas meet ....
I don't know which one's which, or my left or right but it's somewhere around here! So we're just walking along and we saw this notice board here and it's basically saying that they have a blue flag award for this beach and bay here and that's a sign that the marine life, everything is clean, well looked after, no pollution, no sewage, that's really ... nice good job Datça, Good job Datça! How nice is this building here? it's actually a bar, it's be closed now but normally it would sell raki and fish. We've noticed along this pedestrian walkway on top of these seating areas here they've got little dove cotes at the top and uh that is a very cool looking birdbath statue! oh look at that because it looks so delicious and this one! Do you want one of those as well? just one ..... the breakfast is amazing!
This bakery is called Nokta and it was 40 TL for all of that! how delicious is that I know it's out of season and I know it's Covid times, but these little streets are just lovely they're cobbled, they've got lovely tiling in the floor and then of course there's beautiful little boutiques, patisseries, estate agents and there's loads of cool shops, loads of cool shops! Walking around I always get lost Chris said that Trudy's just up here so we've just walked up all those stairs and I'm right! You're always right ! Just there ... you're always right! look Oh wow yeah you did it again! We have a joke in the family because I always get lost, so I drive and Chris navigates! That i have a homing pigeon .... but it's dead! I think it's a little mean!! Look at this! breakfast is sorted! I'm so hungry, what are you doing love? I'm messaging the power bank guy to ask him if he can print out our Van insurance! yes good plan! When we ask and when Ersel sorted the insurance out for us we had no way of printing it, so we're meeting the the gentleman from the company who's bringing the power bank tomorrow, and how excited are we because the last few days we've run out of power so many times! It's been a real battle during the curfew, if it's raining and we don't go anywhere, so for us that's a priority for us tomorrow.
Which is why our time is cut short here, yeah priorities is power, power is priority, anyway this breakfast looks lovely! Okay sorry time to eat ! We finished lunch and we're going to start making our way to Akyaka which is probably nearly two hours from Datça, it's past Marmaras because that is where we're meeting our contact, who is Racep who very kindly, his company is the company that we used to send the power bank over, so we're going to go and he's driving up from Fetihiye to Izmir and we'll be passing through that town tomorrow, so if we want it before Christmas we need to get it tomorrow, so I know we want it so we want it so we're going to Akyaka. It didn't take long for us to take a wrong turn! I can see windmills, can you see them? oh yeah, i think it's like a tractor road .. yeah, you can't go down there ! You can see the old windmills but i don't know how to get to them. So we're just driving actually the view of the windmills is better here from the main road, there's lots of old windmills and you can see in the distance there's also lots of new modern wind turbines because this region just outside of Datça is the windiest part of this peninsula. So if you do find yourself in Marmaris and you have access to a car, or transport or get to do a day trip, I would definitely recommend coming down to Datça, it's an absolutely lovely little town by the sea, um and the whole peninsula looks amazing, uh it's unfortunate we don't actually have more time on our hands to go and explore because there are lots of beaches and little coves, and the sort of roads turned to dirt tracks further down the peninsula and it would have been great to go and explore that area but for us today the power bank is the priority because that we need for the world trip, and as we're driving down the turquoise coast i have no doubt there is going to be some lovely beautiful coves, oh yeah we've got a couple of months of lovely blue seas we won't get bored of sharing them that's for sure!! It makes all the difference having a blue sky though, doesn't it? it really does, i just feel better after four days of heavy rain being in the van working it is lovely to get out and about and just move.
You know when it's raining and you're in the van for those of you with a camper van and you have a week's holiday and it's raining you know what it's like, no fun! no fun whatsoever! so we've noticed at the top of this ... uh what is it? yeah what's it called? Just in case anybody was wondering whether Chris had wings .... yes he does! he does today! There you go we can finally see the windmills look right there they're literally just behind that shed!! Sorry ...
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2021-01-09 00:06
