Back in Kaş! And speaking German constantly…

After the disappointment in Bodrum (no ferry to Datça), we choose to continue rather than wait for 5 days. So we left (after gorging ourselves on a lot of pide and ayran) and continued eastward along a rural road. When it was time to find a camping spot, we found a promising tip in the iOverlander app. People mentioned a perfect beach for wild camping. We forgot however that this app is mostly used for camper vans and 4×4 vehicles rather than touring bikes, and soon we found ourselves on the most horrible trail; steep, littered with sharp rocks and this is where we had the first flat tire. The beach was indeed perfect and we would have stayed another night, but we wanted to have the climb of that trail behind us as soon as possible. So we left the next day, and found a more accessible beach for camping the next night.

So we cycled long the coast, through quaint touristy Akyaka, swapping olive trees for citrus trees (oh, the smell of orange blossom!) along the lake of Köyceğiz and going up and down to Fethiye and final goal for now: Kaş.

3.5 years ago we had a five week holiday, which started here in Kaş with a week of diving. Kaş is a tourist town, but not filled with water parks and giant resorts and all you can eat buffets. No need to go out before breakfast to block your deck chair with a towel. For our first time here we arrived from Antalya by bus, this time we approached by bike from the other direction. And what a way to approach it, via the D400! Perfect asphalt, turquoise sea on our right side and red cliffs on our left side.

In Kaş we took some time off, even had a whole day without cycling, did laundry and met up with an old friend of Kevin. Adnan owns a diving school here and he and his lovely wife Isabella invited us to their home just outside town. Isabella is German, so Julia could also practice her language skills. That also leads us to the weird observation we made here:

German language practice in Turkey?

Before we started this trip, we discussed that every now and then we should speak German, rather than English. Just that Julia doesn’t lose it again and has to start at zero after the trip. But it seems that we will have plenty of practice here, as the following typical conversation with a local will show you:

Us, cycling through some village and seeing someone walking by, so naturally we shout cheerily “Merhaba! (Hello!)”
Random Turkish person: “Merhaba! Guten Tag! Kommt ihr vielleicht aus Deutschland?”
Us: “…. Eh.. Ja?”
Random Turkish person: “Willkommen! Schön, dass ihr da seid! Ich habe x Jahren in Hamburg/Dortmund/München gewohnt, bin aber *insert life story here*”
Us: “ach so!”
Random Turkish person: “Warte, ich gebe euch mein Handy Nummer, kannste immer anrufen ja? Wenn du Hilfe brauchst, sonst habe ich auch noch ein Onkel/Cousin/Urgroßvater der Platz für ein Zelt hat, OK? Gute Fahrt und tschüss!”

This has happened so many times, it’s almost unnerving. But we do have several phone numbers saved (or Instagram accounts added, depending on the generation to which the random Turkish person belongs to). Can you imagine this in the Netherlands or Germany? Offering some hobos on bikes to stay at your home or a ride?

For now, we will continue to follow the coast to Antalya (and blast right past it) until we reach Adana, where we will decide how to continue: inland or eastwards…