We took a ferry from Rhodes to Marmaris,Turkey – this one was just a short trip of an hour! From here we made our way by a combination of walking, buses and a minibus to the riverside town of Dalyan.  Our first view across the river when we went to check in at our bungalow was this:

 

 

Sitting out on the dock looking at this, we felt pretty stoked to be in Turkey! We stayed in a cute little wooden bungalow on the river, and the next morning a boat came right to our jetty to pick us up for our boat tour. Since it is low season here, our tour was just another couple on us with a huge boat to ourselves!

 

 

(You might notice Reubs and I look like we are dressed for different seasons – I definitely feel the cold more than Reubs!)

First we went past the tombs that we had seen when we arrived – just as impressive in daylight.

 

Next, we headed out to the beach, a tranquil ride past herons and through a kind of gate into the area that we think might have been there to protect the turtles as they are supposed to be in a safe zone.  We stopped at a local fishing boat where they were using crabs to see if they could get a giant turtle to come near.  We didn’t see one then, but we got to see the crabs! I was unsure about “baiting” the turtles, but they weren’t trying to catch them, only to lure them in.

 

 

We then headed over to the local beach, where turtles lay their eggs.  Reubs braved the water, and I stayed on the beach trying to warm up a little! The day had started a little rainy but while we were at the beach the sun made a welcome appearance.

 

 

 

After we left the beach, we tried one more time to feed the turtles…and this time we were in luck and were awed to see a giant turtle coming to eat the crab.  It was breathtaking watching it glide through the water.  We hadn’t actually been aware we were looking for big turtles – we thought we were seeing little ones, so imagine our surprise when we saw this:

 

 

We took our boat back down the river for lunch – a whole fish each with a lot of salad!  Can’t say I’m such a fan of whole fish…but once I got all the bones out it was good.  After lunch we boated to the hot springs. These were so much fun! First, we got into the mud pool and slathered ourselves with mud from the slippery warm mud pool – the best gobs of mud were from under the fence – I just tried not to think about what else might be over there. Then, we had to walk over to the cold showers and wash…then the pool attendant hosed us down (memories of being a mucky little child getting hosed down flitted through my head)…then finally we were allowed to relax in the soothing hot pool.

 

 

 

After we dragged ourselves out of the blissful warm water, we went down to see the lake (which on warmer days is apparently awesome to swim in). Reuben got a bee sting and Karen learned that drawing blood is not an approved method of getting a stinger out.

 

 

After this, our tour actually did become a private one, as the other couple got off at the town and we headed down to see the ruins of Kaunos.  This is a city that overlooks both the river and the ocean – we didn’t know what to expect and it was dark by the time we finished looking at the theatre, Roman baths, temples and other ruins.