Day IV- a long walk

Lunch was enough to set us off, and since we could not see any mini-buses or anything else to take us back, we started walking toward the highway, deciding to take in the remnants of some ruins that fell outside the site area, and then see the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers before heading back to town. As it turned out, the remnants struggled to be even that, and were at a distance from the road, and barricaded. We marched on, insistently making our way around the hill toward the Grotto, though we hardly even knew what it was. After walking for more than a while, and past several bends in the road that we resolved would be our last, we finally stopped. There was the odd taxi going past us, so surely there must have been something to see somewhere up ahead, but we’d be damned if we were going to keep walking indefinitely, with no end in sight nor idea of what it was we were going towards.
So it was like this. We had walked right by the hill, and were parallel to the highway that went back to Selcuk, except the prospect of walking back all the way to the turn in the road and then going toward the highway was not a particularly enticing one. So in some sense of misguided- and frankly, minimal- adventure, we decided to walk across the field that separated our road and the Highway. Since there was an inviting path (above) just where we had stopped, it seemed to make complete sense. We walked on it, past orange trees and bushes, with grey clouds and silence accompanying us. After a few minutes, we passed a little outhouse. Tied to poles there were a handful of dogs. Angry, wild-looking inhospitable dogs that bared their fangs and barked and pulled at their chains to get a go at us. We quickened our step-though at first D was quite enamoured by them. “One gets free, D” I said, “and we’ve had it”. To date, she insists I over reacted. I insist I had vivid images of dogs canines sinking into vulnerable parts of my body, and merely reacted accordingly.
After that, we cut through bushes and bramble and reached the main road, and walked on the nicely laid-out avenue named for Dr Sabri Yayla (who thought laying out the tress lining it many years ago), stopping along the way to see the pathetic and depressing remains of one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World- The Artemis Temple, that has but a pillar to show for its original 128, and finally reaching dull ol' Selcuk town where- horror of horrors!-a decision awaited us.