Family Trip: Turkey (Sun and Fun)

This excursion has its impetus, like the original trip to Turkey, with Elise.  On the Sunday morning after we arrived, the hotel rep for First Choice gave a presentation about different activities available during the week.  Her description of Sun and Fun was that "you drive around the hills in morning and get all dusty, then spend the afternoon on a boat where you jump off the top deck to wash the dust off."  Kristine poked me and pointed to Elise, who had a huge smile of eager anticipation on her face.  I was a little on the fence about doing this excursion or not.  Elise's smile tipped the scales.

We had three Land Rovers with guests from hotels around Ozdere.  We were in the English-speaking one.  There was another one for the Germans, and a third for the French.  The main driver, who was in our vehicle, did an impressive job of being a tour guide in three languages.  Here we are part way up the first mountain on the way out of Ozdere.

The Land Rovers were evidently built for the Turkish military.  Once they've been used for at least ten years, the military sells them to travel agencies for excursions like this one.  Having spent so much of my adult life driving in vehicles that are increasingly digital, this view of the Land Rover was refreshing.

Although I don't enjoy them as much as my father does, the dirt roads were a treat.  This is a view out the back of our Land Rover looking at the one behind us.  The girls and I decided that while my dad would enjoy these roads, he would think they were not in bad enough shape to truly be fun.  Either that or they needed to be considerably muddier than they were.

One of our stops was at a gypsy camp.  It was an interesting mix of old and new technology.  The dwellings were a combination of stone and canvas, but they had a pickup truck and tractor.  It's evidently a standard stop on this excursion during the times of the year when they are around (neither our guide nor the First Choice rep told us exactly what their migration patterns are).  Elise got to practice her developing photo skills.

I got a kick out of the unique shapes of the horns on the goats.  These two fellows were having at it when we drove up.  Unfortunately they refused to cooperate with my desire for a fight on camera.

I was also interested in the hounds, which were decently sized.  It turns out they are a breed called Kangal, which is unique to Turkey (more on that here).  They guard the flocks from predators like wolves, but they don't actively herd them.  Hence these two guys lying down in the middle of the goats who are paying no attention to them.  Very not border collie-ish.

Our other stop on the mountain was at this little waterfall.

Obligatory family photo in beautiful location.

That eager smile of Elise's that I mentioned?  Here it is, turned into a yell of exhilaration as the driver took us at moderate speeds over bumpy bits in the road and through some standing puddles.

Our last stop of the morning was at a little village cafe.  The girls were starting to feel a bit weary by now.  Elise grabbed some alone time on the front / bonnet / hood of our Land Rover.

They cheered up a bit when our driver brought out a baby tortoise to handle (although note the not-so-satisifed little one in the background).

Kristine and I each sampled the Turkish coffee.  We got the proper tourist price of 4 euros per cup.

Mid-day weariness was reflected in trying to rest for the last bit of the drive off the mountain.

And then again when we got onto the boat.

The boat had a charcoal grill on the bow.  One of the crew members got the charcoal going as we left the harbor.  Part way into the cruise he put fish on the grill to make our lunch.  That's our hotel in the background.

The girls picked up energy through the afternoon once they had some food in their systems.  It helped that for parts of the trip we had other boats to watch.

I was a little ambivalent about swimming in the ocean since it was a mild day.  Thanks to Elise's persistence though, we decided to give it a go.  I discovered after jumping in off the ladder from the boat that the water was truly brisk.

A benefit of being in brisk ocean water off a boat instead of on the beach is that you get completely submerged.  This gives your body a much better chance of adjusting to the water.  Upon adjustment, being able to swim off the back of the boat turns out to be pretty fun.

Which means your expression can turn from agony (photo above) to a smile when your daughter jumps in after you.

Charis watched Elise and I, and decided she wanted in on the action as well.  She got to jump in when the boat made its final stop for the day before heading back to the harbor.