Week 15 , Fethiye, Turkey

Dear Ethel, Family and Friends,

We have finally made it to Turkey. Only been here a few days and feeling a bit out of our comfort zone after Greece. We had an earthquake the day we left for Turkey at 6am, the ground, building and bed shook... Scary. It was 6.2 on the scale and 200km north and 65km down (underground) from Rhodes we were told. We haven’t seen any damage to speak of luckily.

We spent 3 days in Marmarus where the ferry arrives from Rhodes, not a particularly nice town, more a wholesale holiday package deal kind of town... (as described by Lonely Planet). Any way we did our research there and have a few things planned out now. We hired a car and drove to a nicer town, Fethiye, a bit further south for 3 day.

It’s more appealing here in Fethiye as we are staying right in town and overlooking the marina. Elsewhere up and down the coast is the same tourist package deal places or more marinas. Not as many restored monuments and ruins as I would have expected. We did a boat tour around the 12 Islands, the Islands surrounding Fethine. It took us to 6 or so ‘secret’ swimming spots, known to only 20 or 30 other tour boat operators. Nice day out all the same.

Next we are doing a bare boat hire. We are hiring a 32 foot yacht and sailing it in a flotilla of 15 other yachts up the coast for a week. Yep it's a big one and expensive as well but we can justify it if we say it really fast and pretend it's not in pounds...800 pounds. Still it is a good price as it is a last minute offer and we are here. Will let you know all about it.

No thought of work yet but after our expensive yacht trip we will look for a place to lay low for a while and will resume our research into teaching work in Turkey.

All the best for now

Ric & Louise

PS: Turkey has banned Youtube so I can’t upload any video... so that will be on hold for a while.

Week 14 , Rhodes, Greece

Dear Ethel, Family and Friends,

Well I’m pleased and sad that we have left Crete. Aghios Nikolaos was a good place to hold up for a week and we had really enjoyed Crete, but it was time to be moving on, high season is approaching fast and we can’t afford to be in Greece paying in Euro’s. We caught the ferry to Kathapos a smaller island on the way to Rhodes. It’s a long trip, 7 hours and we weren’t smart enough to get a seat with a power point so we could use the laptop, so we read. We arrived about 8pm and found accommodation easily enough 25 Euro a night (good price). We decided to stay 4 nights. We started with a recovery and recon day. Day 2 we did a tourist day trip to Delphi and Olympos which involves a boat trip to the northern end of the Island to Delphi and a bus trip to Olympos.

Olympos was a traditional although tourist oriented village. Traditional in the fact that the locals all get about in their traditional cloths, (even to hang out the washing) and do their traditional work, be it baking bread, making shoes or traditional clothes and working the windmill (yep a working windmill), all this for the tourists of course, but it’s great to see and the mill had a cafe attached so we had to have lunch there. I mean where else can you see a working Greek windmill... on my youtube site of course. (see the link below). A good days outing although it is a full day, 8.30 till 5pm.

Day 3 we hired a motor scooter, I usually hate the 50cc ones as I think they are under powered and dangerous, so I got a 125 model, however it turned out to be an automatic as well and a bit overpowered (2 stroke) for its weight, can’t win em all. So we set out around the Island on our yellow rocket, however as we had noticed since we have been in the Eastern part of the Med, it’s very windy, like 20 to 30 knots on some of the roads as the Island has lots of very steep hills funnelling the wind down like wind tunnels. So it was a slow start to our ride, but as we moved to the Northern and western part of the Island, the wind calmed down a bit. Just as well as we came to this side of the Island mainly for the beach at Lefkos. Well worth it, beautiful pristine white sandy beach (high praise coming from a Coolum Beach resident) however, still the Med’s chilly temperature. We spent the afternoon then a ride back down the windy hills on the other side. We enjoyed Karpathos although we thought it resembled a quarry in parts, not much vegetation at all. All in all, a good Island to visit.

Saturday we moved on to Rhodes, although not until six in the evening and arrived at half past midnight. However we did arrange accommodation for when we arrived and our host was there waiting for us, bless her. Pension Sophie we can recommend however we are paying more now we are in Rhodes. 50 Euros a night, admittedly it is a new room, all the rooms freshly renovated. Food and attractions are also a bit more expensive. We visited the Palace of the Grand Masters and the Archaeological Museum this morning and this afternoon I had a bit of a Hardy Boys adventure on my own, walking the ramparts, climbing towers and descending into dungeons under the old moat (all free).But we will be leaving on Tuesday to Marmaris, Turkey.

All the best for now,

Ric & Louise