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Day 21, June 21st , Monday: partly clouded and very warm and humid
AFŞAR - MAHMATLAR
Douwe's birthday.
We wake up: the tents and the equipment are wet.
Sevgi has to show how fast she can pack her tent and the rest of her things. We start to walk at 07.00. We turn right near the school and walk on the path, we cross a stream over an Ottoman bridge. Soon we follow a water channel of the DSI, the Turkish Water Works institution that helps with the irrigation of the fields.
The channel runs through a flat area with on all sides cherry trees. Twice we have to eat more of this fruit. We can not refuse.
The weather is warm and humid; our clothes are sweaty and sticky.
A comfortable walk brings us to a water-pump station of the DSI, where we want to sit in the compound and under the trees. The guard and the rest of the personal are very friendly and soon they bring us a full teapot and glasses. A woman brings a tray full with cookies and other homemade dough products,. Sevgi's mother has also given a box with Brownies for us. These we share with the DSI people. It has to be told that these brownies were a point of discussion. The original plan of the mother was to bring us a bottle of whiskey, the most appropriate gift for people who are for 20 days on their way! Sevgi changed that to these, also nice, Brownies but it is not exactly the same....
We sit more then one hour there and we have to go on. On the way we get again more cherries to eat, before we reach the main road that runs along the EĞRİDİR ĞÖLÜ. At the turning with this road is a petrol station, where we get again tea and where the toilet is used by all of us. Such a chance you do not want to miss.
We walk along this road and reach around 12.00 the village of HACILAR . There is a little shop with some plastic chairs, tables and folded, large umbrellas. A bit early for a lunch-break, but since you have to take what you have in front of you: we decide to have lunch here.
The shop has more items than most other small places and we can eat soon fresh bread with boiled eggs and cheese, and drink ice cold Cappy and milk. It is unbelievable hot on the asphalt road and we stay under the umbrellas till about 15.00. We have eaten ice-creams with treasures in the bottom and we have put the plastic creatures together that came out of there. We dry our feet and socks and we notice ourselves that they need some serious washing, both socks and feet!
The boys make jokes about the passing line-busses that can bring them in a few hours to Antalya or Bodrum or even back home wherever that may be. Good these busses do not stop near our little shop.
We start to walk again and an unpleasant hour follows. The group is spread of a long line and the spirit is low. The road is not too exiting to walk on.
The next rest is near a well. Fresh and ice cold water comes out of the mountain. We drink and see in the basin where the water falls in a lot of river-crabs. These animals look like monsters from a Star Wars Episode but are nice. I had one for a long time in my aquarium in my Holland home. Its dried body is now part of my strange collection in workroom in Bilkent. Rado has stories about eating these friends and how an aunt in Slovakia prepares them for dinner. However no chance here, there are women looking at us from a nearby field and we can not carry them for hours.
We want to have camp near the water and start after more kilometers to look where we can make camp. We are shown a far a way restaurant, where a flat grass field should be.
Near the restaurant they show us a farmer where we can stay between the trees. The farmer points at a place near a harbor what is 'a wonderful place to camp'.
In the end that is the spot where we stop. It is a small harbor where fishermen have some small cabins and boats for fishing on the lake. They sell their fish on the street or highway was we call it. The location is on the map 321500 - 4205000. It is a concrete platform with a large old depot building. There are some green strips between the concrete but these are filled with pebbles. That is overgrown with grass like plants. We set up the tents but are unable to put any pin in the ground. Now we see the difference between the tent of Sevgi and the rest. We can set the tent without pins, but hers can not stand by itself. Douwe helps her and in the end he placed large stones at the ends of the strings that hold the tent. It is not a price-winner's tent but you can sleep in it.
Soon we all sit on the quay and wash clothes. Most jump in the water but I don't feel like that, since the side is very high for an un-sportive person like me. The others walk around the harbor and swim there.
I hang my clothes on all the branches of a young tree that is standing near the tents. It looks like a Christmas tree but then different!
We have to go back to the restaurant to buy drinks for the birthday party. We can not go all so only Douwe Sevgi and I go back. It is dark as we reach the place. They sell drinks like Vodka and beer. And have chips and other snacks. We sit and drink a beer. The rest can wait. We speak we the owners and they want to give us a bottle opener but we thank them that is even too heavy to carry! With large bottles Fanta and small bottles Vodka we come back in the camp.
It is totally dark, but there are a few lamps burning. Clouds of flying insects come over us. We sit near the water side and drink our mix. Every few seconds we have to hit ourselves to kill the little buggers. In the water hundreds of frogs are making their sounds and we throw stones to make them 'quiet'. It does not work of course.
When we shine the lamps in the water we see many fishes and a few large crabs on the stones of the quay. Douwe now older but not much wiser tries to catch one of them and the animal cuts with one of his 'scissor like' claws in his finger. It starts bleeding. These claws are clearly no decoration!
The boys try to enter a boat that is just off shore.
It is always amazing how easily we can empty bottles and soon we go to bed, where we can hear the frogs the whole night long.
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statistics
from starting-point = 345 km
to end-point = 124 km
walked today = 19.8
total km. = 399.4
group-members = 7
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Day 22, June 22nd, Tuesday: sunny and very warm
MAHMATLAR - BALKIRI
We woke up at 05.00 and started to walk at about 06.00. After a good start and a short toilet stop in a petrol station that was still closed we managed to reach the village of Mahmatlar where we had a rest. There was a stream with a bridge and on our side was a bakkal. Here we bought some items but not very good things. Opposite the bakkal on the other side of the stream was a more modern bakkal who also didn't sell very much. Here the shop was slightly nicer but the assortment was equally less.
After this rest we follow the road along the lake and this continues for hours and hours, while trucks and busses pass us very closely. The walk is also not comfortable because the surface of the road is not flat, but is made slanting so that cars don't fly out of the road turnings into the lake. This makes that we walk with one leg lower than the other.
Near the end of the lake is an enormous climb and we are now close to 12.00 and it is very warm again. The water is soon finished.
As we reach the top of the hill we find a well. But the water flows very slow and is very less and it has a bad smell so that we can't drink it. After this disappointment we go down again around the village of Göktaş.
On the right side of the road is a village and we go in there to have our midday rest. We lay under a large tree and soon a woman comes with a jar filled with ayran. A few moments later we are invited for a lunch in their garden. They prepare the lunch and we lay under the tree in the shadow till they call us.
We eat at a table and there is much choice, cheese, bread, olives and more thing that I forgot and of course a large pot of tea.
After the lunch it is still very warm and we roll out our mats and sleep under the tree till about 16.00. At that time it is again "Mannen omhange!" (this is a Dutch Army order, it means that the men have to take their gear and be ready for action. This word was used throughout the walk).
We go down till we reach the suburbs of Eğridir, this town seems to be much larger then shown on the map. Near the point where we turn south again are all kind of factories and dirty industries.
Our walkers need urgent a toilet stop and we do so at a large BP station at the corner of the road to the south.
The women's toilet is locked with a key and Sevgi has to take it from the office. While she is in the toilet three women come. They are worker in one of the factories and start to bang on the door. It takes them too long. After Sevgi comes out again they go one by one inside and that takes much longer. As we want to leave Sevgi has to return the key, since she was the person who took it. These stupid women couldn't find it anymore and after long searching it came out of one of theirs pocket. But no bad words about the working class!
As we leave the factories change shifts and thousands of the same type of women go in or out, transported by many busses.
We walk on the road on the west side of the stream that runs out of the lake. Here we pass the first traffic sign that mentions ANTALYA. We take here photos but the problem is that we never all can be depicted at the same picture since someone has to take it.
After a few kilometer there is a turning right to the village of BALKIRI. A man tells us that we can camp there near a large depot.
As we walk towards the village, three women speak to us and invite us to camp in their garden. So we do and we have our tents again between fruit trees, GPS 36 313069 - 4185262.
The woman who lives here is the wife of a retired teacher. He comes home after a while. We are drinking tea near their house. He tries to set up a sound cannon, used to keep the animals away from their field. In this case it is a boar problem. They had a few nights intruders. These boars eat everything and there is considerable damage.
The owner expects them this night again. The boys are not to enthusiastic about this.
We prepare food, makarne with Tuna fish, near our tents, but Burak and Gürkan use the hospitality of the couple and cook their mantı in the house. They come back with a large tray full of it. Different then my mantı this one has yogurt and the herbs that make it nice. They share a few spoons with us and we all are happy.
As we go to bed the boys have some chemical lights, like in Rambo in Afghanistan, that they throw on the path between the tents. Then the boars can see us better!
I sleep as a death man and even if there is a boar he will think that I am a colleague of him, with my snoring!
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Statistics
From starting-point = 364 km
To end-point = 105 km
Walked today = 25.4 km
Total km = 424 km
Group members = 7
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GPS Coordinates of places and archaeological sites in Turkey
