Travels with Naz
14.5.25
Last night we studied the map to find parking in Seferhisar our next destination. There doesn’t seem to be any.
Further reading revealed that the name Seferhisar covers the whole area and we have seen the main attraction, beautiful Sığacık.
John suggested we drive down to Bafa Lake.
I’m always up for a visit to Bafa. I raved about it to my sister a few years back. They went in mid summer and it was green and smelly. We should be fine in May.
We took the coastal route, some stunning views.
We spotted a long stretch of sandy beach at Ahmetbayli by a Jandarma stop.
We checked it was ok to go down there and all was well.
Unfortunately strewn with litter, we did our bit and collected some and put it in one of the numerous bins. I was just about to pick up some part buried newspaper up on a small sandbank, then stopped myself in time after spotting some ‘unwrapped’ number 2s nearby. Ewwwww..
I’ll never understand this about Türkiye.
There was a family of 6 in a truck surrounded by cans and bottles. I hoped they might want to join in my treasure collection, but no.
It was a weird set up, at first I thought they may be refugees but all were speaking Turkish. Mum, Dad, 4 children piled in under open at the back green netting. On the truck was a tall wooden thing, that reminded me of when we had pigeon holes at work. Various bits and bobs were stored in them, and hopefully they won’t forget to collect up various socks and shoes dotted around on the sand.
As soon as we arrived a little cream dog came hobbling towards us as if it had been waiting fo us its whole life. Closer inspection showed a large bite on its haunches. John sprayed it with some bright green wound spray and that was the last we saw of the little dog.
We had tuna sandwiches and enjoyed the breezy sunshine with another dog. Very affectionate and one that snuggles against your side. I said to John ‘it’s a leaner’ so for the rest of our stay she was Selena.
Gradually the family in the truck came out to play, by the time we left a couple of hours later it went silent and the green netting was pulled closed. Nap time I guess. I really hoped they weren’t living like this and hopefully it was just a family day out to the beach.
Selena definitely would have come home with us if invited. It was hard to drive away but she’s well fed and somewhere has a green tinted playmate. She’ll forget us and latch on to the next visitors.
Onwards to Bafa.
Somewhere along the line we ended up in the centre of Söke, a large town, with narrow roads, chaotic parking and people strolling in front of our van.
Every so often I think it can’t be that hard to drive Naz and I almost pluck up the courage to give it a go.
I’d have had kittens if I’d found myself in this lot.
At one point John turned right and had to reverse and then squeeze between parked cars on both corners. No way!
We then discovered it was market day, always creates chaos in every town. I’m still never driving there, I don’t care what day it is.
We came into Bafa from a totally different angle to previous trips, a tiny bit of village, unlike the other side of the lake which has enough to have a wander and restaurants too.
We had ‘tabiat park’ on the map, people on Park 4 Night reported staying there, with no hassle to leave. One couple said the Police kindly alerted them to potential dangers of wild animals, but they assured them they weren’t scared.
After a few bends and twists Google told us we had arrived.
I’d envisaged a parking area, but there are a few lay-bys. We picked one by some by very beautiful cows.
Funny creatures. They literally stood like statues for an hour or more.
John walked Maisy down towards the water and there were loads more. Maybe they were waiting for a herder to tell them to go down, or for their mates to come up?
They laid down some time later, a baby one had some milk from the one that looked the least likely to be it’s mum and eventually they all strolled down the hill and munched on bushes.
It occurred to me that my cow watching was becoming a bit obsessive, addictive even, but also how wonderful to just have time to sit and watch with nothing else but birds cheeping and a stunning view.
It was odd that the cows only moved while we weren’t looking. Or maybe I’ve just watched too much ‘Red light, Green light’ and am being paranoid.
When they’d gone and John had my full attention, he suggested we try a game he recently purchased from our friends Carol and Mark who have now gone back to the UK.
Exploding Kittens.
By about the 3rd round we sussed it out. Quite enjoyable actually. John’s convinced we played it in Australia with Lauren and Adrian. I’ve no recollection of it and think he’s confusing it with Taco, Cheese, Cat, Pizza.
I checked with Lauren, we did indeed play Exploding kittens in Oz. Truck family and cow obsession. Extreme forgetfulness. Hmmm. Worrying.
Dinner was schnitzels, pasta with sweetcorn and sweet chilli sauce stirred in. Deliciously simple and quick.
We watched episode 4 of Squid Game while eating, then continued until the end of the series.
I’ve no idea what happened. I messed up the ribbing on side 2 of my mohair jumper. 5 cm down to 2cm now undone. Anybody who’s ever had to undo mohair will feel my pain. Getting those hairy stitches back on their tiny needles was super tricky.
Recent studies have revealed that knitting is good for your mental health. It’s a lie.
Goodnight from beautiful Bafa.
