June 1&2 Feliz Beach and Iasos Harbour, June 3rd Ilgin

We moved to our next beach (Feliz)- which was sadly not as nice as the previous one but we had parking under a tree, and it was a change of scenery. We had heard that there was potentially locals using the beach with loud music, and we did find this to be the case with several cars turning up at various points and parking next to us playing their music at top volume.

We did some exploring around the little cove and around the corner, having heard that the next beach on our list was inaccessible for larger vehicles like ours, but was 10 min walking distance. In the end, we walked over the rocks (in my best £1 gold Primark flip flops- ideal footwear for any occasion!) and it took significantly longer (as well as getting sunburn as we hadn’t anticipated being out for so long!). However, rock hopping is fun and on the way we found a ruined building literally right on the water. In the end, we decided it was just as well that we didn’t try to drive and relocate to the new beach as it didn’t have the right vibe and wasn’t quite what we wanted.

On the way back, we stopped for some cold beers from a local shop, and gözleme (say guhz lemmuh) from a local woman, which was excellent. To make our gözleme, she rolled the (bread like) dough very very thin before adding the filling of chard (like spinach), cheese, salt and chilli flakes onto half of the dough circle, folding in half to make a pocket, then placing on a domed hot plate where she can cook 2 at a time (since they are semi circles once filled). It was excellent and the best gözleme I’ve had in all my Turkish holidays and time so far!

We spent (after the partygoers left the beach) a fairly peaceful night, and got up for a swim in the morning, only to see a local Council vehicle arrive and start speaking to people, who started packing things up. At first we thought it was because it appeared that a van may have been preparing for a bonfire (frowned upon/forbidden) but they were also visiting tents ⛺️ and so Selo went and asked them the issue and it appears, although there was no signage, that camping and motorhome parking was forbidden at that beach. When we pointed out the lack of signage, it didn’t matter- we still needed to go, fairly quickly so we packed up and moved on.

We visited Iasos next (old Greek name- new Turkish name is Kiyikişla) which had a lovely harbour although no beach. We found a large motorhome at the entrance to the harbour and Selo asked if parking was ok, and they thought it was, as they’d been there since the day before, and another motorhome had previously spent the night on the side of the harbour with no issue. The people we spoke to had been motorhoming for 6 years and appeared to be doing it professionally too, as the caravan had an Instagram logo as did the polo shirt the man was wearing, and the woman walked around (without asking us first!) and filmed our motorhome and also us taking to the guy. So who knows, we may appear in an upcoming episode of their professional adventures! 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

So we found a semi shady place on the quiet side and parked up, exploring some old buildings nearby before eating the leftover gözleme for dinner (with wine of course!). After dinner, the motorhome was still too warm (it reaches temps of 38C so far, so a breeze is necessary!) so I went outside and sat on the harbour crab and hermit crab spotting for an hour or so in the breeze.

We spent a peaceful night and had a lie in before hearing a knock at our door at 9:30 when we were just debating getting up… it was the Council again! No parking there either, despite there being (again) a lack of signs or information on that, which Selo again pointed out, but again we had to pack up quickly and leave. So annoying - we can’t follow invisible rules we don’t know about! They should just put signs up! (Cars were allowed, but no caravans or motorhomes)

We moved on to check out the beach at Günlük, which was very urban and didn’t have a proper beach atmosphere at all, so we swam but then moved on to Ilgin, rejected the first two beaches as rocky and wavy with no atmosphere, but have settled at the 3rd beach (all within a mile) where there’s a larger car park and 2 other camper vans and a lady in a tent. The people we meet are all so lovely, but especially the caravan/camping people- all have the same issue with lack of facilities, lack of signage, etc! We are going to spend 2 nights in Ilgin before moving on, to chill a bit because constantly moving on and being in a lot of new places (some of which turn out not to be suitable) is quite draining. The beach here is not as nice (more rocky, deport, but cooler) but the place and people are nice, which is why we are staying for another night tonight. Today we have gone for walks and swims, reorganised several areas of the motorhome (cupboards and storage) and I have filed a tax form I needed to. Later we need to tot up our May expenses to see how we’re doing against budget (I’m ever the accountant!) and I’m looking forward to some quiet reading time too 😁 📖