Sally Mair - Loving life

By Sallymair

Wildlife and more

There was a bit of a weather change today, much cloudier and cooler where we were so we spent the morning wandering in Olu Deniz, by the sea where it was less windy. This afternoon we went to Fethiye, our hotel lies neatly between the two and is on the bus route, so travel was easy with lunch at the hotel in between!
We wandered around Fethiye again, not intending to go further than the promenade and the harbour with a visit to the wee museum.
The museum was great, only small but with some remarkably well preserved finds... intact jars, pots and glass which were over 2000 years old, quite miraculous really. There were gold earrings which I would have been happy to wear dating from the same period. It looked like they must have found somebody's jewellery box as they were all in matched pairs, just astounding. The statuary they had too, beat many of those I've seen in Rome and Greece for both condition and detail, hands down.
The extras are about the next blurb, After the museum we remembered there was an amphitheatre by the harbour. It's being reconstructed, so wasn't open to explore but we followed a flight of steps up behind it then continued onto a high road around the top of the city which eventually led us round to the remains of a castle at the very top of the hill, which is where the flag is. We were even higher than, and above, where we visited the tombs the other day, fantastic views over the city and the bay. The Lycian sarcophagus is just by the side of the road, there was another nearby with a keep left sign on it acting as a roundabout... What a way to treat a 2500 year old relic.
I liked the conjunction of the lady in her house which was piled with communication and solar equipment, and the ancient rock tombs behind her.
The main blip is of some more wildlife, the beetle was in the marble folds of the fabric of a statue in the courtyard of the museum, it's almost an inch long. The snail had come to the end of its climb up a tall plant and to the end of the blade, I'm not sure where it was going to go next, I was amazed it had managed to hang on where it was. It again measured about an inch in diameter and the blade it's clinging on to was very fine. The goats took me by surprise when I looked up as we were walking along the road, there had been lots more rock tombs alongside us as we walked, and then suddenly, there were three 5 goats looking down on us as we went past. They liked surprised to see us. The tortoise is just because he was there, and it's lovely seeing them in the wild, he was about 12 inches long. They make quite a noise as they rustle through the undergrowth and move remarkably quickly.
We headed back down the hill into Fethiye and found our bus stop. We could have walked the 5km along the road over the hills at the start of the ancient Lycian Way to Kayaköy but I decided I didn't really have the ideal footwear on.
I've been quite surprised how well we've got to grips with the area and are finding our way around. A good day and much warmer down the hill away from where our hotel is.

Atomiser forgot, 20,016 steps. 2/2

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