We’d been asked to go to Turkey and pick up a boat and bring it back to Lefkas. We’d been trying to get away for a week, but were held up with paperwork. As soon as we knew it was all sorted we booked the journey, it looked like this …..
07.00 Coach from Lefkas to Athens – 5 hours (incident – automatic door closed on me at the bus station and now I have a black eye)
13.30 Bus from Athens Bus Station to Airport – 1 hour
16.00Flight from Athens to Rhodes – 1 hour
17.30 Taxi from Rhodes Airport to hotel – 20 mins
We would stay in Rhodes 1 night before getting the ferry to Fethiye in turkey because you can’t complete the whole journey in one day.
Our Pension right in the heart of the Old Town
So we get up the next morning (Tuesday) to go book the ferry tickets – ferries run 4 days a week till the end of October, it’s the 26th – we arrive at the booking office and ask for 2 tickets for this afternoon to Fethiye please. The lady in the office looks apologetic and tells us the man from the ferry company in Turkey came in on Saturday and told her they were stopping the 4 ferries a week early and would only be running once a week from now on and that’s on Thursdays. Great!! So what’s an alternative – we can catch a ferry to Marmaris the next day (Wednesday) but it’s miles away from where we need to be, but if we don’t get that one, we’re stuck here till Thursday and only one day to get the boat ready and provision before setting off on Saturday. We opt for the Marmaris ferry and bus down to Gocek (where the boat is).
My views of Rhodes Old Town
hereNo problem getting on the ferry, the Sunsail rep picks us up from the terminal and takes us to the bus stop – she thinks it will be about and hour and a half to Gocek, when we get there the petrol station will be open and we can ask the attendant to ring us a taxi to get to the marina, it’s 5 kilometres away and we had lots of luggage – simple you might say. So the next part of the journey looked like this …..
18.30 Bus from Marmaris to Gocek – 2 ½ hours!
21.00 arrive at Petrol Station – closed, a man filling up with pay at pump facilities and a sign with a number for a taxi. We ask the man if he spoke English – yes a little – could he speak to the taxi driver and explain we want to go to the Marina. ‘I am a taxi’ he says. Really, his vehicle looks like a regular Joe – who cares, we’re tired, hungry, got HEAVY luggage and just want to get there. We say yes. Well the marina may have only been 5 kilometres away, but its 5 kilometres round the edge of a large bay and is like a rally track. It’s in the middle of NOWHERE!
21.20 arrive at boat – man what a journey. Next problem, the boat is so far off the key there’s no way we can jump on and no plank or passerale. BUGGER!! Taxi driver to the rescue, Mark pulls the stern lines in a little and he takes a running jump, I thought he was in but he made it – well done Mr Taxi driver. He lets the bow line off like he’s a pro and moves the boat back enough to get our older legs on.
We ask the taxi driver if he will take us into the centre so we can get something to eat – yes no problem. He drops us off at a restaurant and nearly next door is a small supermarket – great can get something for breakfast and lunch for the next day. He says he will come back for us and we agree on an hour. Best bit of the day, we have a nice meal and relax a bit.
He comes back just a promised and takes us back to the boat. We wander along happily to the boat and find it’s been moved back out again – will this day with its aggravations never end!
Mark goes off to find a marinero and I walk down the pontoon and spy a plank. Yes I steal it!! But only for a while – by the time Mark gets back, I’m on and loosened the bow line again so we can get on and off. I just want to go to bed now – NOW!!
Lovely sleep later we get up to a grey rainy day and start checking the boat over ready to go a bit further south to Fethiye where we’ll provision and complete the paperwork so we can leave the country. Thinking about leaving and out of nowhere BIG winds begin to blow, boats are heaving all over the place and it’s chucking it down. We’re not going anywhere right now that’s for sure. We go below and make a cup of tea.
An hour later, rain and wind have stopped and sun is shinning. Off we go to Fethiye. Three hours later we arrive, moor up and start shopping. By Friday afternoon, we’ve done all the shopping, it’s all stowed and I’m off to the Turkish Baths.
I’ve never been to a Turkish Bath before and am not quite sure what to expect. I read the pamphlet before I go and find I can wear a swimsuit (don’t have one with me) or use the little red wrap around they give you. OK it’s the wrap around. I’m going on my own – Mark wouldn’t be seen dead in a place like that so I’m asking myself - will there be men and women together or will they be separate?? Will a man or woman wash me? Will a man or woman massage me? Do I have any more inane questions before undertaking this new experience? Just get on with it Maureen!!
So I arrive at the bath house, it’s been there since the 16th century I’m told, but this doesn’t matter right now as I’m a little trepidatious, there only seem to be men around. I’m told to go into a little changing room and get my kit off (my words not theirs) and put my little wrap around on and some plastic sandals. I’m taken into the bath house which has had it’s centre a raised octagonal seating area, with 5 small ante rooms off at angles around the room. Four of these anti rooms have beautiful stone sinks and taps and one has showers. I’m told to sit or lay on the octagonal area, which is lovely and warm and someone will come back in 20 minutes. I’m on my own, not sure if that’s good or bad at this point. Will it be a man or a woman that comes back, I ask myself. Well it’s too late to worry about that now, I’m here.
Twenty minutes goes by, and I’m warm and relaxed and in comes a man, a big man, middle aged with only a wrap around on, humming and singing softly and starts to run water into one of the stone sinks. Well that’s one question answered, I’m to be washed by a man! He tells me to come and sit by one of the sinks and he starts pouring hot water over me, rinsing me down ready for my scrub. I lie down again on the warm octagonal area and think about how much of me is going to be exposed! I try not to think about it as he starts on my back. Well there wasn’t a square inch from the tip of my toes to the base of my neck not scrubbed with the lamb wool hand mitt (don’t be fooled by the lamb wool, it’s like being scrubbed with a pan scrubber). Time to turn over – have stopped worrying about it now, it’s too late – am just going to enjoy it, but will keep my eyes closed! Well my ‘little triangle area down there’ was covered at all times but every inch of my front from the tip of my toes to the top of my face was scrubbed. Back to the sink and more rinsing, great big bowls of water thrown over my head, it’s certainly invigorating. Back to the warm octagonal for the soaping and massage. Back first and I’m covered with lots of lovely suds then massaged to within an inch of my life. I’ve never had a massage like it. I’ve gone numb from my feet to my neck. I feel like I’m going to leave an imprint of me on the marble slab. My back has not felt this good in years. It’s difficult to tell if its pleasure or pain, it’s on that border line all the time. What the hell is he going to do to my front! I turn over. He massages my feet (lovely), legs, middle then stretches my arms above my head and seems to massage all the pain right up and out of my finger tips. Heaven. Now I don’t want it to stop. But it does. Back to the sink, shampoo and head massage, more rinsing with hot and cold water then wrapped up in a clean wrap around and given a cool drink.
Now for the Rose Oil massage – another man. What he did with my back and shoulders defies description. He seemed to have 6 arms and they were everywhere doing things I’ve never experienced before. I tell you no bit of a body would dare not to be relaxed after that. It was the same for my front and it was all finished off with a face massage. I can’t describe how great I felt walking out of that bath house. If I lived here I would be in there every week, what fantastic value for money at 25 euro. Would I go again – you bet!!
On a more sedate note here's a few shots of us coming through the Corinth
here
Queenstown to Glaciers NZ Part 4May 24th, we're leaving Queenstown and it's getting colder, I need a new hat .......
I'll never be recognised in this one!!
We drive through Arrowtown, a beautiful little gold mining town set in a fantastic mountainous landscape. It's raining so we have a quick walk around and visit the museum, it's well worth a visit, full of really cool stuff from the gold mining era. We drive up through Lake Wanaka, one of the most beautiful lake areas in the South Island and past Lake Hawera to stay at Makaroa in the middle of nowhere near to Haast Pass. This Pass will take us through the Southern Alps over to the West Coast for a few days. We stop at the only camp site and took ourselves into the bar for a drink. we start chatting to the Bar Manager and bugger me if he wasn't from Hebden Bridge (just a few miles from where we lived in the UK) – amazing. He’s been there 3 years and has no intention of moving back. We decide to stay for dinner. The Lamb shanks are recommended and it was the most enormous meal I've ever had put in front of me. It was two shanks, roast potatoes, kumara, pumpkin and green beans. I didn't know whether to climb it or eat it!! I did my best but finally had to ask for a doggy bag. I expected he would take it away and pack it for me – NO, he literally slapped a 'paper bag' on the table next to me – pack whatever you want he said – fantastic!!! In the bar they had the biggest piece of greenstone I’ve every seen, weighing in at somewhere in the region of 130kilos. The story goes that anyone that can carry it out can have it – it was worth a fortune.
May 25th, drive through Haast Pass and up to Fox Glacier, the first of the glaciers we’ll visit. The weather is closing in on us from behind. The bridge pictured here runs across the Haast River, one lane and reminds me of the bridge driving across the river into Dundee in Scotland.
News today is heavy rain and flooding north of Dunedin.
Here on the West Coast it’s quite nice. Walked up to the glacier and again is so hard to take in the scale of the mountains with this ‘wall’ of ice filling the gap.
Mark replicates the retreat proceedure as shown on the sign behind him at the foot of Fox Glacier.......
Look at the very small people, it gives some scale as to the size of the glacier face
Like all glaciers it’s slowly receding, leaving the typical flat terrain exposed. It’s very eerie. You can hear it creaking and see the occasional rock fall. The face is partly covered with scree, but where it is clear it is the most brilliant icy blue colour. A constant flow of milky white water runs from the beneath the glacier, it's melting from the bottom and washing crushed rock down the valley. It's truly awe inspiring. We just stand and try to take it all in but it's difficult. This force of nature makes you feel totally insignificant.
Down in Fox village we called into the Glacier helicopter office to see when we could go up, but the weather was on our tail again and it wasn’t looking good for the next morning. That evening in the village as the sun was setting, the mountains to the east were lit up in the most amazing vibrant reds and oranges and changing by the second. As the sun set then the clouds in the west were seemingly on fire. It was obviously a spectacular sunset even for the locals because they they were coming out of bars, shops and houses just to stand and watch with awe as the sunset went through its motions. Unfortunately we didn’t have our camera with us, but it was one of the defining sites of the trip so far.
May 26th, down to the helicopter office for our helicopter trip up the glacier and around Mt Cook, but it was not to be, the weather has scuppered us again, the winds between two big weather systems were growing stronger and making any flying impossible. So we drive up to Franz Joseph Glacier and walk up to the glacier face, I think this one is even more impressive if that’s possible. Walking up the valley we experienced gusts over 100km per hour, nearly lifting me off my feet on a couple of occasions. Apart from the wind, it was a lovely sunny day, on the east coast and in the south the weather continues to worsen. We couldn’t fly up the glaciers so we decide to continue north.
Next installment we cross the Southern Alps in the first whiteout of the season.
Some more piccies of Arrowtown, Haast Pass and the Glaciers
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The towns form a string of civilisation between the sea and the very rocky barren range of mountains inland. Situated in the Middle East close to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, etc you would think it would be similar in that massive building and tourism has taken over, but you would be wrong. Oman is an independent country, ruled by the Sultan and hasn’t been seduced to the modern overdevelopment seen elsewhere in the Middle East.
Eve’s mum and dad had spent 7 years living in India and the bed came with them when they moved to Oman. Other house guests; Oli, Eve’s brother who had arrived minus his luggage after a very protracted journey from UK, unfortunately he was transporting the Xmas pud - oops. Meg, Eve’s sister, arrived back in Middle East from NZ and Simon, a friend of Eve’s mum and dad from Goa.
The guys were in the water straight away, but wimpy me thought it was too cold even though I’d taken my wetsuit. After lunch though I was in and Mike and I went in search of Nemo. We found him too, along with Dory and some of his other friends – fab!! What a great way to spend our last day. The next morning we had to be up at 3am, and a sad goodbye to Mike and Eve, hoping we will see them before they go to NZ but no guarantee. In the terminal we look at the departures board to find our check in gate to discover our flight has been cancelled - bugger! We got shuffled over to Qatar Airways and luckily flight times weren’t that different. We must have been in a parallel world after checking in cos we didn’t look at our watches or hear our flight called. A tap on the shoulder from a Qatar airways guy telling us the flight was ready to leave and we were holding it up bought us back to planet earth. How embarrassing, last on the plane and sideline looks from everyone else seated and waiting to leave.
