From one continent to another

 We made it, we’re now in Turkey, and for about ten days already… time really flies!

And of course, we’ve had a few more adventures to add to our list, because otherwise it wouldn’t be fun 😁. So, back to the island of Rhodes, where we left you last time. Once the bad weather had passed, we set off as planned to explore the island. Although it’s fairly large compared to other Greek islands, it’s only 80 km long and 38 km wide, so you can really take your time. The city of Rhodes is at the very north of the island, and we headed to the opposite end where, despite the short distance, you get a bit of an “end of the world” feeling…

The road follows the coastline, with long sandy beaches and small villages that look just like postcard Greece, with their white façades…

And the sea, never very far away 😎.

While we were making the “long” crossing from east to west under bright sunshine, we noticed we were heading towards much cloudier skies. Since we’ve been a bit short on sunshine lately, we turned around and went back towards the light 🌞. So in rhe end we only explored the east coast of the island. That said, our little getaway was cut a bit short. As the weather was about to get bad again, the departure of our boat to the island of Kos was brought forward by several hours. The good news was that this change allowed us to catch the boat to Bodrum, Turkey, the very same day. It was a bold move, we only had 30 minutes between the two boats, but it worked! 👍. So instead of spending 3 days on Kos, we ended up staying only half an hour, just enough time to go from one boat…

To another, much, much smaller one. And we understood why the crossing wasn’t cheap for our little home. It took up 100% of the available vehicle space 😂.

The wind was starting to blow pretty strongly again and the sea was picking up,  our little house got a good shaking during the one-hour crossing! Let’s just say we didn’t open a beer when we arrived 😅. But we made it safely and drove our first kilometers on Turkish soil, and in Asia. Yep, remember your geography lessons: most of Turkey’s territory is on the Asian continent 😊.

The first few days we didn’t move much, because the bad weather arrived just as forecasted: thunderstorms, wind, rain, and even hail! On the second night, just as things were finally calming down and we were settled in a small harbor a few kilometers from Bodrum, there was a knock on the door at 11 p.m. It was the police!! They told us we couldn’t stay there, that it was forbidden because of migrants trying to cross to Greece. They checked our papers and couldn’t understand how we were already in the region when we had only been in Turkey for 48 hours… We had to explain our boat story. No doubt about it, we definitely didn’t take the classic route to get here 😂. But they were polite, told us where we could go, and half an hour later we were settled somewhere else and slept peacefully.

With a beautiful day finally ahead of us, we headed north towards Lake Bafa, a stop suggested by Maude and Pierre, the young couple we met in Olympia and met again here in Turkey. The place is indeed lovely. You can park right on the beach, we took out our chairs in the sun — it felt so good!!!

And there’s a “small” curiosity on this beach… an airplane!!

According to locals we spoke with, it’s been there for a few years. It crashed (without major damage) following a malfunction. Interesting fact: it’s a Canadair which, given its age, was probably built at the Montreal factory near where I grew up. It might even have done a test flight over our house! Life is really full of surprises 😄.

After this very pleasant stop, we hit the road again heading… south. At first, we had planned to slowly head up towards Istanbul, roughly following the coast and making a detour to the Black Sea. But Maude and Pierre convinced us to go south instead. Since they arrived from Greece by road (in their case 😂), they had more or less done the route we were considering and could tell us what it was like. And also tell us that it’s really not very warm in northern Turkey at this time of year. Sold! Plans changed! Those youngsters are pretty convincing 😉. So we met up again near Dalyan to discover a local product: thermal springs and mud baths. You cover yourself in mud, let it dry, then get rinsed off with a hose before soaking in hot water.  

Quite an experience! It’s supposed to be good for the skin and apparently also rejuvenating! We looked carefully, no wrinkles have disappeared and we don’t have fewer gray hair either 👵. 

Our little youth treatment done, we continued our journey the four of us together, enjoying the magnificent landscapes of this part of Turkey known as the Lycian Coast, trying to catch every ray of sunshine from sunrise…

To sunset. Yes, the sun finally decided to stay with us for a few days 🌞. 

In Fethiye, we met Audrey, a young traveler Maude and Pierre had met in Greece, who travels by hitchhiking. So the five of us enjoyed a magnificent day hiking a section of the “Lycian Way,” a trail of more than 400 km linking Fethiye to Antalya. We did a 15 km section between Faralya and Ölüdeniz. An absolutely extraordinary day that I can only describe through pictures:

We were right to listen to them young people 😉.

To see all the beautiful photos: it's here

Jérôme & Sophie