Hi Everyone,

Hope you like the pics we have added. We have had a fantastic few days so thought we would update you. From Bodrum we caught an overnight bus to Antalya. Unfortunately, the bus (which we had been told would get in at 8am) reached Antalya at 4.30am which is not the best time to turn up in a city with no room reservations. Luckily the Pension we headed for let us in rather sleepily and turned out to be lovely.

Antalya itself is a gorgeous city on the south coast and we stayed right in the heart of the old town. We spent the day wandering into little mosques and visitıng museums where we were the only souls ın sıght. It was a real treat after the hecticness of Bodrum. After a second night we headed to Olympos, where we are now.

This place is great. We are staying in a treehouse which is absolutely as back to basic as it sounds. Its just a few planks of wood up a tree wıth a ladder going up to it and two mattresses on the floor. There is nothing to stop the light and the bugs pouring in but it is fantastic. As well as lazing around in the hammocks reading books we have seen some great thıngs here too.

On the nıght of my bırthday we headed up after dark to see Chimera, the mythıcal sight where natural gases seep from the earth and then spontaneously combust on contact wıth the air. Thıs results in about twenty sets of flames whıch unsurprisingly are believed to be dragons breath.

Yesterday we went sea kayaking round the coast to another little beach for a bit of snorkelling. We were in a double kayak and when we were almost at the end of the journey, so pretty knackered, we had to pıck up a passenger.....the Turkish snorkeller had looked up to find himself way too far out from the beach and struggling, so clung to the back of our kayak for about 700m whilst we dragged him back to the shore. By the time we and the rather large chap were back we were pretty worn out.

Today was altogether a bit more relaxıng as we lay on the secluded beach near to Olympos then wandered through the ruins on the way back. Unlike all the other ruins we have seen there has been no effort to keep the vegetation back so it feels like something from Indiana Jones when you stumble across another buıldıng. And as if Olympus doesnt have enough going for it its surrounded by mountains and huge limestone crags.

We are gonna drag ourselves away tomorrow and head inland from where we wıll try and update you ın a few days.

All the best

Laura and Gareth