Day IV- on the road

The roads are wide, clean and level. There are vast fields with thin trees leaning by the side of the road; hills and valleys seemingly made only of an odd combination of rock and vegetation; towns that seem smaller than they are, with neat one or two-storey houses and a generally quiet feel.


We are travelling through the day today, about 300km. From Selcuk to a short stop at Aydin to change buses, then out of the Aegean region via Mugla and so to Fethiye- a yacht-port and on the beaten path tourist town on the Mediterranean. The nearly 6-hour bus journey through the day seems like a bit of a waste at first, as precious daytime will whiz by. But the ride itself is pleasant- relaxing, even; the ‘on the road’ feel making us happily aware, again, that we are travelling.

The 10minute stop at Mugla is not enough to order lunch, but just about enough to pick up a sandwich and a half each, and start to chomp standing on the vast expanse that is the Otogar. It feels like you are at a very high place, where rolling mists and peaks in the distance would not be amiss. There are none of these, of course, but it is cold, breezy and interesting, in a very mundane sort of way, to stand there a while.

-a deserted ferris wheel we spotted behind the otogar-

And so we go on, with short naps, photos, conversations and sachet-coffee, to our last destination- one we know the least about, know the least of what to expect from. Except, given we are reaching the coast, we can only wish for a bright southern sun.