May 29/30th- Incakum (beach days)

We left Altınkum late morning on the 29th to drive around the bay to the other side to a beach.

On the way, we stopped at Türkiye’s answer to McDonalds: Köfteci Yusuf, which Selo really likes. We both had the köfte- small meat patties with herbs in, served either free salad and bread and a mildly spicy red dip called Antep Ezme. On each table (for your free use) is a bottle of garlic olive oil, an oregano herb mix, and chilli flakes 🌶️. Great stuff! The food was delicious and fresh and I definitely think it tops McDonalds!

There were about 8 floating staff for what is effectively a fast food outlet, but they did table orders and also had a lady who brought around free çay (tea) to everyone who wanted it. The plethora of staff is something that we’ve noticed before and has to do with a low minimum wage, leading businesses to overemploy, while the workers are usually substantially underutilised (less efficient) than you see in other counties.

This place also had their own fresh meat counter so you can buy your own meat to cook and take home!

We stopped at a small rocky beach on the way around the bay, and took some pics.

We arrived at Incakum (say Injacoom) early afternoon and there was a very nice friendly atmosphere, with some of the local (camping) “residents” welcoming us and telling us when we could expect a better spot because others would be leaving.

Each day we swim twice for about 45 minutes each time, and walk (today’s walk was 5 miles). My phone is telling me that I’ve started a “new healthy trend” in the last 5 weeks with higher steps and distance travelled 😉🙌

There are almost no fish here, plus there are free showers, so bonus on both counts! All washing caught up using 2 buckets of water from the showers and some great sun/wind to dry it. Days are 30C but there is a breeze, the motorhome is always hotter (36C in the day) but thankfully the nights are much better due to the nice breeze.

Selo found a £2.50 1 litre bottle of Turkish red wine which was, whilst not winning any medals, very drinkable (on the light side for red), especially in hot weather. And great value! I had no idea you could get cheap wine in Türkiye - that was not what we found last year when we were here, with no bottle under £8 in the areas we were! Clearly it pays to frequent areas that people camp 😉 🍷

This morning we discovered we had no gas left, so we’re not sure how we used all that in a week (we need to try to figure that out, and get a new bottle) but thankfully Selo brought a back up portable butane camping stove, so we’re didn’t miss our morning drinks, or eggs and veggies for dinner…