Oludinez and Saklikent Gorge

Wednesday 8th September

Last night, after a couple of drinks at the campsite we headed to a pub in town to watch Switzerland v England. As expected there were quite alot of English people around, its a popular resort and some of them seemed to have actually retired here. I was seriously hoping we didnt lose since i had 2 Aussies with me, and i had, apparently, said I would wear the Germany shirt they bought me, if we lost. But England won quite easily and the Aussies went home! The rest of us stayed out for an hour or so longer, a few more drinks and some silly dancing, but it was silly expensive and there were not many people out so we wandered home.

We left Oludinez this morning. Stopped for a cheap kebab and shopping, then arrived here at Saklikent gorge. A few things to do here but a bit hot and lazed around. Will do stuff tomorrow. Not many good spots for our tents so i am up the hill in the bushes.

Thursday 9th September

This morning the others went tubing down the river. I couldn't be bothererd basically. So i just had a walk along the river and took pictures of the Gorge. We are staying next to Saklikent Gorge which is literally a crack in the Akdaglar Mountains. You can walk into the gorge, so we did. The first part is on a boardwalk attached to the cliff, above the river. Then you walk down the slippery, rocky bank into thigh-high freezing cold water. Dodging all the other tourists, with the strong current coming at you and with cold feet, it was a bit of a struggle to stay upright. After a while there is less water and for the next couple of kms we were up, down, over and under slippery rocks and in and out of waist-high water. Lots of fun. Pretty hard to get a grip at times to lift yourself over rocks and I nearly gave up, but finally we made it to the small waterfall which is as far as you can go, its a dead-end. Quite pleased with ourselves for making it that far as there were only a couple of others there. On the way back, slipped down a rock into the water but got it wrong and ended up fully submerged; good job me camera was in a plastic bag. It took 2.25 hours for the round trip.