It seems that I have failed to tie up the loose end of my vacation down south.  Let me remedy that now by ending the tale.

On Tuesday, we decided to set out for Saklıkent, which means hidden city in Turkish.  I have hardly known of any particular place that was so aptly named, by the way.  As we drove for miles and miles along a long winding road, we would periodically enter a very small town. Turkey is a country not known for its signage; a fact that makes me insane if I happen to be driving. All of a sudden, you end up in a place like this and there are no longer any signs for your destination. It’s a good thing that Turkey is also a country where there are people milling about on the streets at all times of the day and night because these people become your lifeline in such a situation. Amusingly, when asking someone in Turkey for directions somewhere, they will usually say, “It’s about 100 meters up the road.” But then when you get 100 meters up the road and still do not see what you are looking for, you have to ask again. What do you think that person will tell you? Yup. “It’s about 100 meters up the road.” This can go on for an entire hour.

After having driven through about eight little town type areas, the road finally opened up to sweeping park-like vistas. Suddenly, a fairly anemic creek appeared to the left of us and pine trees began to close us in on either side. We figured we must have, at last, entered our true descent into Saklıkent.
We knew we were in the right place when we saw restaurant billboards. There will always be plenty of places for you to depart with some of your cash before getting to see what it is you are actually there for. We decided we weren’t dying of hunger and figured we’d jump right into the sight-seeing and put lunch off a bit.

Now in the summertime, Saklıkent is apparently really hopping. The water becomes rapids and people go whitewater rafting there, even. But to go in there in January is a bit of a deflating experience in a way. Actually, had I not seen all of the signage of utterly soaked tourists in lifejackets, laughing their faces off for all the fun they were having as they braved the rapids, I never would have felt this way. I would have just enjoyed what was a beautiful gorge no matter what the season. So I guess sometimes signage can be unwelcome in my opinion. (I am full of paradox!)

Anyway, what was so lovely about this gorge was the color of the water. It was a pearly greyish-minty green kind of hue. Being a smarty pants and understanding that the color of water usually is the result of what lies on the bed, I went down to the shore to investigate. I was not surprised when my hand scooped up a nice bit of soft smooshy clay. Nice bit of detective work on my behalf.

After all of that sleuthing, I had worked up an appetite. The “restaurants” were really more like glorified picnic areas. Of the five, there were only two open and they happened to be across the road from each other. I felt a bit awkward as it seemed the two ablas (Turkish for older sister, my term for middle-aged women) stood in front of their respective establishments, it seemed, having a bit of a show down as we approached them. Let’s face facts: Aside from us, there weree only about three other random tourists wandering about and for all we knew, that could have been all the traffic they would get that day. These women wanted our business, but bad! But being women, they didn’t start shouting at us or even attempting to beckon us in any way. Men would have started yelling, in their booming bazaar voices, about what they had to offer and how the price was right. I happened to like the look of the place on the right, so we just sat down there while the lady across the road accepted defeat and wandered away, despondent.

The place was situated right on the canal and the dining areas were essentially individual dock slips. The seating was ottoman style, with mis-matched cushions and low tables. There were even hammocks, much to my delight. I am a sucker for a hammock and have slept in them the world over!

We enjoyed a perfectly respectable meal that included hand cut french fries than made me misty for my youth. The most entertaining event of that meal was our unexpected lunch dates. Two ducks cruised by and quite unabashedly begged for food. They were the lucky receipients of nearly a half loaf of bread. Not having been satisfied with that, they also gobbled up the greasier of the fries.
Soon after, a cat joined us on our cushions. “Hey, guys. Whatcha’ got for me?” But you know how prissy cats are. He wanted no part of the bread. It was meat he was after and meat he got.
When the scent of meat being tossed caught on the air, it wasn’t long before two scruffy dogs had joined our luncheon. They were satisfied with whatever we tossed their way, being dogs, and so they even enjoyed some belly rubbing before we were on our way.
One of the dogs even made like he was going to escort us back to our car or maybe even tag along with us, but the lady running the place called him back. Obviously he was a “house dog”.

Anyway, Saklıkent was plenty cool, but if you are an outdoor adventure type, I would recommend you go there in the summer. Then, you too can don a lifejacket, get utterly soaked and laugh your face off as you brave the rapids, like the happy people on the billboards.