Staying at our first official Turkish campground!

We got on the road around 8:00am so that we could take advantage of the early Sunday morning lack of traffic in order to get ourselves out of the city. We took the coastal route, which is a little slower going but we had done the faster route in the car when we were here in December 2020 and it was not a scenic drive through a lot of industrial areas.

The coastal route in this area between Antalya and Alanya is loaded with big resort hotels... one after the other. 

It amazes us how they can be busy enough to support themselves, especially when most of them are only open during the warmer April through October time period.

There's a grand entranceway!

We made our way to the small seaside city of Side (pronounced See-day). We had been to Side in January 2021, but it was a long day and we didn't see everything we wanted to. So this was a good opportunity to finish up a visit to the ancient city part of that area.

The theater at Side.

The 2,000 year old road is still in use today.

Amazing.

The old town area has been taken over by tourist shops and small hotels and coffee shops over the past 20 or 30 years. But that is changing. We guess there has been some kind of government directive to tear down some of the current buildings and do some archeological excavations because there are still so many ruins beneath the current buildings. There is a lot of activity going on in that regard!

In other areas, there has been excavation done in past years and they have put in glass walkways so that you can see through to the ancient ruins.

Ruth on one of the glass walkways.

The photo doesn't show the effect as well as being there in person.

There are lots of areas like this.

The main drag. It was still early so it was pretty quiet.

Looking through to a 2,000 year old floor below.

Ruth and the Side sign.

This is a beautiful old building.

It was actually turning into a nice day.

Quite a few more tourists around than the last time we were here. Mostly from the UK where travel restrictions are almost back to normal.

Old harbor in Side.

Ruth, and the Apollon Temple.

This area is totally free to wander around.

Ancient church with walls reinforced.

A stone carving, just lying on the ground.

There is a lot of new excavation work in the old town area.

More see through floors.

We wondered what their criteria is for where they demolish something and where they don't.

What they think they ancient city would have looked like.

So strange to see this kind of excavation work with modern buildings all around.

Walking back to where Max was parked.

We needed to do some grocery shopping, so we found a 3M Migros store nearby. It was located in a big modern shopping mall. We noticed that there was a shoe store the same as the one where Ruth bought a cheap pair of walking shoes a month ago. Those shoes are starting to fall apart already, so we took them in to see what they would do. It was no problem at all, and we were quickly in and out with a different brand that was the same price.

Big modern shopping mall.

We actually found a store that had some decent women's hiking boots, but nothing in Ruth's size. And they had a Columbia outerwear store that had hiking boots, but they were way overpriced. Like double what we just paid for my new boots! Ruth's old boots still have a couple of miles left on them, so she will continue with them for the time being.

We carried on to our destination...

Entance to the Incekum Nature Park.

Friends Glen and Steve had stayed here in December and said it was a nice inexpensive campground with electricity. At only 45 lira ($4.15 CAD, $3.25 USD) per night, and yes, that is the total cost including electricity, modern bathrooms, water, dumping, and even use of a washing machine!

We are wanting the electricity because we have three full days of rain coming our way, so the timing is good to be at a place like this!

Max, staying at his first official Turkish campground.

It's pretty busy, but we arrived on a Sunday afternoon.

Our neighbor is a really nice guy who speaks pretty good English, and we met one of the other campers as well who speaks English. We are the only foreigners here... everybody else is Turkish.

There are a lot of tent camping sites... probably over 100.

More tent campsites.

The park has a nice beach.

We spent the rest of the day outside since we knew that we've got three days of rain coming.

It's odd to have this nice park space nestled in among the big resort hotels.

Glad we are not here during the busy summer season!

Incekum Nature Park.

Yesterday's drive, 117 kms (73 miles).

As expected, we woke up to rain this morning. That's okay...we have a lot of research to do regarding our onward travels!

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