September 9, 2011

Time to hit the road and continue my Turkey motorcycle tour.

The journey out of Antalya was enjoyable. Good roads mostly following the coast and scenic. A smog like haze hung around for longer than I would have liked. Antalya and much of the Mediterranean coast is protected by mountain ranges making it difficult for the dirty air of the previous day to escape. It helps boost the humidity too. I experienced another “February in Brisbane” like day.

The southerly direction heading out of Antalya gradually changed to west and then north west. The humidity gave way to a dry heat. Another 38 degree day. But give me dry heat over humidity any day.

After stopping for fuel I pointed the Family Truckster towards Patara. It has two claims to fame. Turkey’s longest uninterrupted beach and an old broken down city that was the birthplace of St Nicholas.

I gave the beach a miss (I didn’t pack the budgie smugglers) and went instead for a walk amongst the ruins (seemed fitting). More as preparation and to set a benchmark for what I might encounter later in my journey.

Some kind ladies selling fruit next to the Museum shop looked after my bike but I didn’t really fancy any of their grapes. An ice cream seemed a better option.

There was plenty of old stuff here spread over a large area. Someone with a longer attention span would have lingered and explored in more depth, looking at all of the ruins in the area. I focused on the theatre. This was kind of cool so I walked almost to the top.

I hope you enjoy my images of Patara’s ruins.