DALYAN

Dalyon ("fishing weir" in Turkish), a laid back fishing village comprising a harbor, square and a few main streets, lies midway along the Dalyan River channel from Lake Koycegiz to the sea. Bass, mullet and sea bream swim upstream to the lake to spawn and when returning, they are caught in the "dalyans".  Red roe caviar, sold in pots sealed with beeswax, is a local market specialty.  Dalyon, for now, is a day trip destination for those wanting to visit the ruins of Caunos, Iztuzu Beach and Sultaniye Hot  Springs.  The region around Dalyan is a productive cotton, fruit and vegetable area.

Hotel Caria; room with a view; and the only time we can say we could brush our teeth, go to the toilet and shower at the same time IF we wanted to.  An interesting bathroom.

 Caunos marked the border between Caria and Lycia, the ruins showing styles from both cultures, as well as Roman and Byzantine influences.  The city was abandoned after it's harbor silted up, the fate it seems of all the ancient harbor towns.  The rock tombs (400BC) we could see illuminated the night before from our window were part of Caunos.  The tombs and a glimpse of some walls were the only views we had of the ancient city as we saved that visit for another trip.

Iztuzu Beach is reached only by boat, 30 minutes through the reed beds.  Once a developed area with restaurants and hotels that have all been removed, its now a protected breeding ground for Loggerhead Turtles, the symbol of Dalyan, and a "day use only" beach.  

There are numerous day trip excursions offering tours to Kaunos, the beach, the turtles, the  mud baths, running from 6:30 a.m. until after dark.  That experience, too, will wait for the next visit....but we did find a tour guide that would do a personal day tour, including a barbque lunch, for 140TL or roughly $80 US.

As you can see, there are 100's of those excursion boats, holding 30+ people each.

The top sign is what caught our attention when we struck up a conversation with the boat owner that would do private tours

Sultaniye Hot Springs, with mud baths at a constant 104F, are said to be good for rheumatism, if not just for the fun of it.  It is a 10 minute boat ride from Dalyan.

We had a lovely terrace top Turkish Breakfast and enjoyed gorgeous weather and views of the tombs, river reed beds and boats coming and going.

A typical Turkish Breakfast - Bread, olives, tomato, cucumber, cheese, salami, jams, eggs of some kind, usually boiled, but in this case a cross between scrambled and fried, and of course tea, my favorite, Apple Tea

  
We took a stroll from our hotel , which was just a stones throw from the river, along the riverside walk that ended up, of all places, at the town square.  No wonder the travel agent said she would walk back; it couldn't have taken us 5 minutes to walk there.

Road from hotel to river, we are standing in front of the hotel; restaurants were scattered all along the river walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dolmus (Dolmush), usually refers to a bus that takes people on a set route that never changes, but in this instance, the dolmus was a row boat, ferrying people back and forth across the river.  Then there were the ladies coming across for their daily shopping.

Dalyan town square, the Mosque, a statue of Ataturk, and the Turkish Flag

Courtyard views of the Mosque from the almost Alamo look, to the prayer sandals on the rack in the ablutions area, to the minaret with green and black olives in the foreground

Typical of men gathering in the square or a tea house; yes, that is my tractor/trailer rig, you have a problem with my parking space?

 

 

There was more to see and explore in Dalyan than we had expected and we were later leaving on the next leg of our journey which was to have been Ephesus.  But, we wanted to drop down onto the Datca Peninsula (Datcha) and see where the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea meet, so decided we would alter our plans and find a place to stay on the peninsula.  Wonder if we will get there before dark?