13th - 21st Jan 2007: Walking in Fethiye and Ölü Denız

Annie and I joined Dad for a week's holiday in Fethiye, staying at John and Barbara's luxury apartment. Here is a picture of the Ak Dag range from near John's place in the town.

Most of the time it felt like a Mediterranean Spring coming on Summer. We went on three walks in the area. The second took us up to the peak of Baba Dag and back down again - along the track that we'd been up and down in paragliding trucks in August. Snow started at 1,500m, and all footprints and tracks stopped at 1,600m. Between the 1,7oom take off and the top (1967m) there were snowdrifts on the track that made it impossible to make progress. You had to scramble along the steep face on the side of the track. It was exhausting. The views at the top were worth it though. (No pics of Annie or Dad since they opted to stay at the 1,700m take-off.)

After recovering from the Baba Dag expedition (!) we enjoyed a walk from Ovacik, through KayaKoy, and along the coast to Ölü Denız. Murat was enjoying the off-season with some friends at a cafe, and it was good to chat to him. There is a new take-off from the Ak Dag range he says, which might be good for Vol Bivouac in the Summer. A couple of cafes/restaurants were open. Everything else was dead, like the 'dead sea'. We saw a couple of paraglider pilots fly down from the 900m take-off - but no other action at this time of year. Cloud 9 cafe was lifeless too. The Efes beer and the Pide on the sea front were delicious.