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Friday, 7 October, 2005 - Breakfast Overlooking the 'Sleeping Man" Mountain, Going to the Saklikent Gorge and the Hidden Valley, Walking in mud up to our Waist, Dreamig about Benny the Flying "Superman"


Breakfast at the terrace of Ani Motel. The people of Kas are very proud of the mountain above their city; they call it the sleeping man. At some angel and with the right light, you can see a man sleeping on his back. The owner, Omer, is a very friendly man, and he introduces his mother to us. She came for a visit. He is offering her a cup of tea... Oh Oh, it is Ramazan and she does not eat between sunrise and sunset. "She is a good Muslim, I am a bad Muslim, I eat...", Omer jokes.

A small setback in our plan: our plan for today was to go to Kekova and see the sunken city. The city sunk into the sea as a result of powerful earthquakes in the second century AD. The earthquake caused part of the city to separate into the island of Kekova and through a glass button boat you can see the city partly submerged six meter below the sea.

However, we realize that the only way to get there is with a guided cruise on a boat, that takes you to many other places, lunch, take you swimming, not what we want to do, not in our budget, so we move on, and will try to turn the lemon into lemonade and have another fabulous day.

We are on our way to the Saklikent Gorge and the Hidden Valley. We asked the driver to drop us on the way where we could catch a dolmush into the Gorge area. On the way we had a short stop at another beautiful city, Kalkan. Continue driving, and the driver stopped in the middle of the road and gestured us to get off. Where are we, why here? And than, we noticed on the other side of the road a dolmush waiting for us. Our driver spotted a dolmush going to where we need to go and somehow signaled him to stop. Backpack moving from one dolmush to the other. The new dolmush is very crowded. Benny is standing. Somebody offers Benny a seat (it must be the white hair) Benny politely declines.

Along the road we pass a cotton field, a group of women were staffing cotton into large sacks. We pass many small villages, no pensions here. We drove down, down and further down until we came to the end of the road, right in front of a big river across from Saklikent Gorge Camp, where we will spend the night.

In Olympus, we stayed at a tree house camp, but had very nice accommodation with bathroom in the room. Here we are at a tree house camp with ten tree houses. The only choice is which one we like the most. They are all real tree houses, with real tree in the middle, hanging up in the air, a narrow stairway that cover three trees. It is a very rustic, basic accommodation. Bathrooms are in a separate building. AHMMMMM What if we need to go during the night?

Oh well, let us at list take a warm shower. I was glad to see that there is plenty of hot water, so here I am getting into the shower... to find out that the cold-water faucet is broken. The hot water was boiling. Solar heating in Turkey. So shall I shower in boiling water or... Oh well.....

The camp is located at the entrance to the Saklikent Gorge. This gorge is cut into the Akdagar Mountains. It is 18 KM long and very steep and narrow that the dun does not penetrate. The water is icy cold. You must rent special rubber shoes to walk through. We walked through water and mud, climbing rocks, going up against the current, trying to keep balance, stopping to admire the view and the rocks on both sides. Along the way there are natural mud pools and people cover their bodies with the mud. At one narrow path, I walked under the rocks, mud up to my waist. Benny decided to climb over the rock and jumped down from a two-meter rock to the astonishment's of all the people below. I was not happy, are you going to risk breaking a bone? You cannot argue with someone whose childhood nickname was Kofifo (little monkey).

On our way back, we sat by the river, listening to the water rushing by, watching people passing by on tires.

Our campground included dinner and breakfast. I had fish and Benny had lamb. We were the only guests tonight, end of season. The camp owner sat with us and we had a pleasant chat. He speaks five languages, he taught himself. He can even say some words in Hebrew.

The owner, Hassan, let us use his computer. We went to sleep early, the camp is dark. The light in our tree house was not sufficient for reading.

I woke up in the middle of the night, I had a dream, and Benny is jumping, flying from high cliffs and everyone shout "superman".

It was cold in the tree house, need another blanket, the river is very loud. I lie on the mattress, waiting for the rooster to announce the new day.

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