The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Day trip to Simena Castle and the ruins at Kaleköy, Turkey

Yesterday's weather turned out to be far better than what they had originally called for. So we decided to drive about 35 kms (22 miles) west of where we are staying to a castle and very different village and ruins site called Kaleköy.

The village of Kaleköy can only be reached by foot or by boat. The village has been continuously inhabited for over 1,600 years.

We headed out at around 11:00am.

The valley to the left is covered in a thick fog!

Traffic jam!

Scenery along the way.

Lots of greenhouses.

We parked in the village of Kaleüçağız and walked. I had read that you can drive to a closer parking area, but we needed some exercise. Besides, did I mention that it was another beautiful day?

The village of Kaleüçağız where we parked is itself a ruins site. Most of the houses in the village include parts of old ruins, and in fact we parked right beside an ancient sarcophagus. The village is also the tourist port for boats going to the nearby Sunken City of Kekova. It's where part of an island community sunk into the sea during an earthquake in the 2nd century. You have to take a boat trip to get there, and while it would have been fun, we decided we had enough to do without spending the extra money. 

Yet another ancient tomb.

In the village of Kaleüçağız.

Ruins in their backyard!

The port in Kaleüçağız.

Odd rocks that poke out above the brush.

What a beautiful area!

We walked about 2.5 kms (1.5 miles) to another parking area, then there is a rocky trail that leads to several more sarcophagi on a hill. Lots of beautiful views!

A very old cemetery.

There are lots of these tombs on the hill.



We are headed for that castle!


Ruth, at the right beside the tomb.


Looking down on Kaleköy.

Guessing this is part of an area that sunk during the big earthquake.


We paid the 14 lira ($2.30 CAD, $1.80 USD) to enter the castle. Well worth it just for the view alone!

Thick castle walls.

One of the castle residents.

More beautiful views.

Wow.

We love visiting castles!



Ruth, enjoying the views.

Look over there!

Looking back at Kaleüçağız where we had parked the car.

Me!

Some kind of old floor. 
This was taken from above in the castle, and we couldn't figure out how to get down there. It may have been on private property.

From the top of the castle.

Ruth at the small castle amphitheater.

More scenery.

More rock tombs.

You can rent kayaks here.

On one of the docks, we met some young people. Two guys and a girl, probably in their late 20's. You never know what language people might speak, but we look like English speaking people, and they initiated the conversation. Two of them spoke quite good English, and it turns out they are from Russia. We had a good conversation for 15 or 20 minutes. We had heard that Turkey is a popular place for Russian visitors because they can come for up to 60 days and don't require a visa to do so. And of course it's getting cold in Russia now, so Turkey is an easy and inexpensive nice weather destination for them.

This is a great boondocking spot!
GPS 36.19759, 29.862506


Walking back to the car.

We stopped for fuel on the way home, and then for some grocery shopping in town. What a great afternoon we had!

This morning is also starting off better than they said, we are headed out on a 10 km (6.2 mile) walk out the Kas peninsula.

We need to get our walking in between now and Friday because Turkey has announced new stringent lockdown measures that include a full weekend curfew from 9pm Friday until 5am Monday. We aren't positive yet that this includes tourists, but we plan to follow that curfew as it is in place. It's only two days, and maybe we can still get out for a walk. We'll see.

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10 comments:

  1. What a beautiful and interesting area.

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    1. It sure is! I would love to go back and do some kayaking around the bays, it is just so picturesque and the colour of the water is to die for. :-)

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  2. If you buy property is the ruin yours to do whatever you want or are they protected? Also where are all the bodies from the tombs? Are they moved to a cemetery or something?

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    1. To be honest we have no idea what the rules/laws would be concerning that but I would expect that they must be preserved or at least left untouched.

      We figure that the bodies/bones and anything in the tombs were raided centuries or even millennia ago, sometimes even as shortly after the burials, tombs would be looted according to the research that I could find at that time is was more for the objects in the tombs than the bodies.

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  3. Kevin and Ruth-- catching up on several months-- weather has been gorgeous for you and Turkey is my favorite type of view-- water, rocks, waterand lots of pure space.Your accomadations look very nice too and your upcoming RV is fabuloso! Best wishes Carol

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    1. Oh gosh, you will have been doing a little bit of reading then?!

      The weather has been so beautiful and much better than what we were expecting. The views here in Turkey have been spectacular, we are really loving it here, there is so much to see and to do. We aren't having any problems keeping ourselves busy that is for sure.

      And yes, we have had really nice accommodations and great prices.

      As much as we are enjoying ourselves here, we are looking forward to getting to our motorhome and traveling around Europe in it. :-)

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  4. Wow, that one shot of the clouds and Sun was very cool! Maybe save that. You 2 are modern explorers!
    You make my wife and I want to go there! We will put that on the bucket list. Keep it up, modern explorers! Rawn & Joann Stone

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    1. No worries, we save most of our photos. :-)

      We do tend to think of ourselves as modern day explores, we certainly have lots of fun checking out so many of the out of the way places, and just hiking down any old road because you just never know what you may find.

      I think Turkey should be on everyone's list of a country to visit, it truly is a special place.

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  5. Wow....I’m just catching up on your blogs too. Sometimes I pick a random date coz I forgot where I left off! Lol! But omigosh! Your pictures of places and views just keep getting better! That. Castle’s location is to die for with the spectacular views surrounding it! And those Greek islands look soooo close!

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    1. It was a really pretty spot, we enjoyed our day here, that is for sure. The colour of the water is fantastic, I brought my swimsuit along but I didn't go in, I think I should have. :-)

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