The Mediterranean

This morning we continued south towards the coast along more twisting narrow mountain roads descending towards the Mediterraean. The morning was overcast so we got very indistinct views of the Mediterranean in the distance, infact one could argue that we needed a good deal of imagination to see the sea.

We eventually hit the coastal highway at the town/city of Manavgat and the tone of our days drive changed completely. Now we were definitely in "sea side resort" territory. From Manavgat we threaded our way through urban streets to the village of Side which has some famous Roman and Hellenic ruins.

At Side we naively followed the main road towards the ruins until we were confronted by the ancient main gate that pretty clearly was not big enough for our truck. So stuck on a narrow two lane road with an impassable gate infront of us we did a little reconnoitering before deciding that I should attemp a U-turn. Fortunately at the spot we chose there was a gate way on either side of the road that gave us a few extra feet in which to manouver. With that heart pounding event past we found a nearby bus parking lot and prepared our selves to tour the ruins.

The Lonely Planet guide had warned us that the ruins were interesting but that they were embedded amongst a large number of souvenir shops, cafes, and restuarants. The density of these "shops" was almost comic with row after row of shops manned by bored attendants some whom aggressively solicited business.

Our tour of the ruins was cut short by the arrival of heavy rain and we eventually beelined for the truck to prevent our "some what wet" state turning into "completely drenched".

From Side we found or way back onto the coastal highway and followed it west.