After the adventures of a 14km hike and a little over indulgence in celebration of making it safely to camp Dave and I decided to pass on the next 11km which the rest of the group set off to do. The previous day had been amazing and so scenic but we had been advised by our group leader that it was a harder hike and the weather would be hotter. Being so unfit would have made that incredibly unenjoyable so instead as we waved goodbye to the others we walked up the driveway to a bus stop where a local bus service took us back to Fethiye and we were back at the Hotel Kemal for the morning.

We enjoyed a nice shower and an early lunch at the restaurant we had visited previously. I had a tuna salad (trying to be healthy!!!). It was lovely to have had a bit of time just Dave and I and we felt much more rested and ready for the next lot of activity in Kas in the days ahead.

We were joined by the rest of the group shortly before 3pm when we caught a bus for about 5 hours to our next stop, Kas. As it was a public bus we walked from the station for 10 minutes up to our hotel overlooking the sea. The room was very nicely presented here and they even made hearts out of the towels for us. The hotel felt like absolute luxury after sleeping in the heat and noise of the tree hut the previous night (let’s just say the night wasn’t as cool and enjoyable as we had initially thought it may be – not much sleep was had by many of us).

Own photo

This afternoon I had a Hamam which I was very excited about. I had really enjoyed the hamam in Marrakech. Unfortunately the experience was not a touch on the previous one. I felt it was too rough and the massage after nearly had me in tears – of fustration at how unenjoyable it was and in pain at the massuers lack of skill- not a happy chappy, but you live and learn. I have learnt not to assume that a name of something in a few countries will be the same thing!

Half the group at the hamam left earlier than the others and instead of waiting they left a note for me in reception to tell me where they had gone. (this is where things get a little comic…) Dave was asleep all this time so when he woke and found everyone gone the man at reception gave him the note intended for me (but with my name at the bottom like a signature!) and he thought it was from me telling him to go there. Meanwhile we were on our way back and in fact, we even drove past Dave not far from the hotel. I banged on the window to get his attention to no avail and once the car had stopped and I discovered he had the room key too I chased after him but he was gone, vanished! This is where I walked off feeling very dejected to get myself some food with just 20TL which is next to nothing in a tourist town like Kas. (Also…it was nearly 9pm now so I wasn’t going to sit and wait!) When Dave got down to the restaurant he saw I wasn’t there and realised his mistake – and ran back to the hotel to leave a note for me in our room. Finally on my way back to our room feeling thoroughly sorry for myself we bumped into each other! It was not so funny for me at the time but telling the story now and thinking about all the running backwards and forwards does make me giggle a little.

After all that excitement we had a good night’s sleep, ready to kayak the next day.