Day 9 - Antalya - Kas - 14 October, 2015

Weather - Sunny and warm 

We are now driving in a westerly direction along the beautiful Mediterranean coastline in the Lycian area. For most of the day the glistening sea was on our left and the high Taurus Mountains were on our right. The mountains come down to the sea and the new road hugs and winds around the bottom of the mountains with the sea directly below us. 

The plan today was a guided walk of Phaselis and a picnic lunch.   We picked up our picnic supplies at a small supermarket on the way and Carol, Brian, Henk and I chose Turkish food of dolmades, eggplant dip, olive biscuits and fruit. 

Phaselis is a very popular natural reserve and was a major Greek and Roman trading centre originally established by the Rhodesians in 700BC. 

There are substantial ruins dating back to 200AD including shops, baths, a small amphitheatre and a wide ancient street leading up from one of the harbours. 

It is a picturesque and cool area and many locals visit it in the summer months to keep cool under the trees and swim in one of the three harbours. We had a perfect day for a picnic and a swim.

Funda guided us around the Phaselis area and then we had about an hour and half to relax. Carol and I were the adventurous ones and tried the water at one of the quieter harbours. Others of our group, John, Sue and Lindsay also came in. The beach is stony which made it difficult to walk on to get to the water. The water was a good temperature and quite salty. We soon learned that if we stood still for too long we would be nipped quite hard by little fish. 

After lunch we continued our journey westward to the small seaside town of Kas.  We saw hundreds of acres of large green houses growing fruit and vegetables.

Kas is pronounced kosh which means "eyebrow" as the coastline forms the eyebrow and a Greek island not far from the shore forms the eye. The town feels very Greek and we are staying in a fabulous hotel overlooking the water for two nights. 

We walked to the main square of Kas for dinner. There were many restaurants and many tourists. We had a very pleasant evening sitting in the open air at a seafood restaurant.