The village where we are staying is called Gökçe. I would try and tell you how to pronounce it, but we would only be guessing ourselves! Gökçe is actually bigger than a village... I would say it's probably about 1,200 people. A small town.
We went out for a walk Saturday just to explore the area. We ended up on a dirt road and we had no idea where it went, so we just went and did some exploring. The dirt road led us to a really neat spot!
We did end up getting a nice view of the town...
They have spent the dry season rebuilding the walls of the canal.
There must be an awfully lot of water running through here during rainy season, which is about to start.
The town of Gökçe.
Bee keeping is a common thing around here.
In fact, when you are driving on the nearby highways there are a lot of stores set up selling just honey. We bought some honey in the grocery store in Fethiye, but we should have waited. I just checked the honey we had bought and it says it was produced in a Turkish cooperative.
Walking along the dirt road there are rows of bee hive boxes.
Lots of bees buzzing around, but none of them seemed at all interested in us. When we got into the forest a little later on, there was one big flowering tree that had so many bees around it there was just a loud buzzzz as you walked by the tree!
We only saw a few people, but everybody is very friendly.
We ended up following this path up hill.
Ruth.
So we're half way up this steep narrow track when we hear a vehicle coming. Very strange because it looked like the track was too steep and narrow for a vehicle, and it looked like it had been a long time since anything motorized had driven up this hill. But sure enough a small 4WD truck comes climbing up behind us and the driver had a big grin and a wave as he passed by us. It turned out that this little path went up to a pipeline of some kind that brought water down to the village, and we think the truck was marked as a municipal vehicle.
In case you need somewhere to sit and rest along the way!
We didn't see the spider, but he must be a fair size!
Another cave.
We came to a river bed of sorts that during rainy season must have a ton of water flowing. But at this time of year it was just a bunch of big boulders. I climbed on ahead to see if there was anything worth seeing.
There's me, climbing on ahead.
And it wasn't long after that that I called down to Ruth to follow me up. There was a big rock formation where at certain times of the year there must be a big waterfall. But even with no water it was really neat...
This picture is a bit deceiving.
This one gives a better idea of the size.
During rainy season, the water level would be about four feet above Ruth's head.
Climbing back down.
Back on the road, one of the beekeepers was checking on his honey.
I kept walking because me and bees don't get along (I have an allergy to bee stings) but Ruth got a little closer to see what he was doing. He was trying to explain things but of course our Turkish is pretty much non existent other than saying hello and goodbye (and please and thank you and we can count to three now!) so it was a bit difficult. Still, he was friendly enough to try though.
Our rental car and our cottage.
Back at the cottage, we heard a voice calling. No idea what it was saying though! It turned out to be one of the neighbors bringing us some fresh type of doughnuts!
Like I said, everybody is really nice and welcoming!
Today we are driving about 100 kms (60 miles) down the Datça Peninsula to the ruins of the ancient city of Knidos on the Aegean Sea.
We walked 9.5 kms (6 miles) on Saturday.
Total distance walked in Turkey 89 kms (55 miles).
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I have a friend from Istanbul. Her name is Gokce. It is pronounced as "Go Chee".
ReplyDeleteYep, that is how they say the name of the town too. Thanks! :-)
DeleteWhat a cute little cottage.
ReplyDeleteIt is a cute little cottage although it is lacking a little in the kitchen for my liking but I can work with it. Not quite as quiet as we had hoped for though.
DeleteWhat a wonderful town and lovely country side. Do you see many tourists?
ReplyDeleteIt is a pretty little town and all the locals seem really nice and very friendly. In this town, no we don't see tourists but some of the near by towns we do. Not many at this time of year from what we have heard though. This is the end of high season for this area. The few tourists that we do see seem to be mostly British, although we did see a couple of German motorhomes back in Fethiye.
DeleteHi Guys! I've been enjoying your Turkey travel reports. It looks really pretty, historic, and the food prices are great! I do believe the veggies are cheaper than in Mexico, even. Has anyone told you that you have spammers diligently commenting on your blog posts? Since I have old subscriptions to many of your posts, I am getting a ton of these...probably around 50 over the past three days? I have set up filters in Thunderbird, which I use for email on my laptop, but on my phone there is not a great way to do that, since blocking them blocks all comments from blogger. I have no idea why people don't have better things to do than this! Just wanted to let you know in case you can block them on your end somehow. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSo glad that you are enjoying our Turkey reports. Turkey reminds us of Mexico in many ways, the beautiful scenery, the amazing history and ruins that we are seeing, the friendly people and the prices. Kevin and I have already said that we think the fruit and veggies prices are better than Mexico too.
DeleteYes, we know about the spammers but thankfully blogger catches them and deletes them right away. Not quite sure how they are getting through to your email though. If you ever notice one show up in the actual post please let us know. I don't know why we are all of a sudden being hit with some many of them all at once. Anyways we have been checking them and I think only one actually made it to a post, which I deleted right away. We are notified of every comment though our email and we definitely stay on top of them. Thank you for letting us know.
Yes, that is strange. I assume I am getting them because I have subscriptions to many of your posts so get all the comments. I don't normally get spam comments, though, so not sure how these are slipping through. They all have the same content, just different "from" names. Hopefully the idiots sending them will get tired of their little game soon!
DeleteIt is definitely strange that you are seeing them because Blogger shows them as unpublished. As long as Blogger is catching them we are OK with that, I just have to zap them from my email. I do check randomly on the different posts just to make sure that they never showed up. I think those idiots have some kind of computer generated program in order to send off that many comments at one time, that it probably why Blogger picks them up as spam.
DeleteIt sounds like you found a friendly town! And a neighbor with donuts, wow, that is sweet! he-he.
ReplyDeleteYou 2 are very good explorers. I learn a lot in the comfort the very comfort of my own bed! Take care! Rawn
I think we have but then we seem to find friendly people all over the world when we travel. :-)
DeleteWe are glad that we can bring our adventures to you from the comfort of your own home.
The old saying goes, "it takes one to know one"! And you 2 are friendly folks. My wife and I are very much alike, and we meet a lot of friendly people!
DeleteWe definitely agree with you on that! :-)
DeleteI checked the 1st city on the web and many of the houses have what looks to be solar, but now I'm thinking hot water?..Do you know?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is definitely solar hot water and just about every house has this system. Some places also have an electric or gas water heater as well, for the cold or rainy months just to supplement the solar hot water.
DeleteWhat friendly neighbors you have! Looks like they want you to leave with a very good impression of their village and country as a whole especially given the negative news going in the capital. Does the honey taste better than the ones in Mexico?
ReplyDeleteWe think that most people here are very friendly, and yes I am sure they want to leave a good impression on us, for their country.
DeleteThe media is not where you want to get the real news from, it is always sided on the negative, just like it is in Mexico. Yes, there are certain areas in Turkey that aren't safe to go to, just like Mexico but it is a big country and in general a very safe country.
I won't say it tastes better than the ones in Mexico or at home, just different because they are getting the nectar from different plants than they do at home or in Mexico.