Excursion to swamp country

39° 45′ 38.4804” N 26° 8′ 42.2916” E

May 14, 2022

Dalyan

She teaches us to drink Turkish tea, pronounced “Chai,” drink thick Turkish coffee, and eat flimsy cheese rolls for lunch. Her name is Emel, she is Turkish, loves Cuban cigars and has for some years been married to Swiss Andreas, with whom she shares life and daily life in an apartment in Istanbul, a rural cottage in Germany and a sailboat in the Mediterranean. Both are retired.

Today we have gone with Emel and Andreas on a trip in the swamp. We have rented a riverboat, which takes us west to the long Iztuzu Beach, the turtle beach where turtles go to lay eggs. Here we find an opening in the beach, and sail into the delta of the Dalyan River, which winds through man-high reeds and slowly reveals an enormous marsh area.

The first stop will be the ruin town of Caunos, which has only yet been partially excavated, but which is interesting, while among the ruins of the theater, temple, bathhouse and towers we are joined by a huge herd of goats, a donkey, a turtle and a snake more than one and a half meter long.

Later, we make a stop in the tourist town of Dalyan, which is especially known for its spectacular burial chambers carved into the mountainside high above the city.

Before the return trip, we visit the mud baths a little north of Dalyan and get the first mud bath of our lives. More special than actually nice

A super day. Most of all instructive because of Emel and Andreas, who generously pour out their Turkish knowledge.