Yesterday we decided to stay here instead of moving to Dalyan. The only problem with staying here being that to visit the mud pools, thermal pools and cliff temples we would have to take a Dolmuş (minibus) to Ortaca and then another to Dalyan. The only alternative being to cycle the 22km to Dalyan, which rather defeats the point of a rest day.
Finding the right Dolmuş was easy and one change later we arrived in Dalyan. Bearing in mind that we had already been here on our previous trip, we can honestly say that we didn't recognise anything. There certainly appears to be several new buildings and the town had the feel of a tourist destination that is closed for winter. Looking at the restaurant prices it looks like we have made a good choice to stay in the much cheaper and more relaxed Köyceğiz.
Grabbing a couple of cold drinks, we went to investigate the cost of getting to the Sultaniye thermal springs. Here the problem of being out of season reared its head. In the summer there is always people to share the cost of hiring one of the many private boats. Being the only ones here we had no choice but to hire one between us, which is considerably dearer. Nevertheless it's Christmas and no minor inconvenience was going to stop us from soaking our muscles in some healing water.
The boat trip took about 40 minutes travelling along the Dalyan river and into the main body of Lake Köyceğiz. Along the way we saw lots of cormorants, grebes, storks, coots and ducks. The scenery and beautiful reflections weren't bad either.
The Sultaniye hot springs have a small mud pool which you are supposed to cover yourself in (we tried, but it was pretty grim and very gritty) and two hot pools, one outside and the other inside. After washing off the mud in a freezing cold shower, we quickly climbed into the hot (39°C) sulphurous water and spent the next two hours moving between the pools. The hot water certainly did wonders for our limbs and my still aching neck and shoulder.
The return boat trip was slightly shorter and upon arriving back in town we went to have a look at the rock temples and then decided to head straight back to Köyceğiz.
We were soon on the dolmuş bound for Ortaca in time to avoid rush hour. Arriving at Ortaca bus station we were directed to the correct dolmuş bound for Muğla via Köyceğiz.
Arriving in Köyceğiz we turned into the main bus station where some people got off and so should have we! In our defence there are two bus stations in town and we expected the bus to continue to the next one which was closer to our hotel. When we realised that we were going to be heading back towards Muğla, we hastily shouted stop and got off the bus to the bemused looks of the other passengers. I am sure Muğla is lovely but having cycled through there 2 days ago we felt no need to go back!
By the time we got back to our hotel we felt like we had walked miles and the hot springs had made us very drowsy. Not wanting to go out again we decided to eat in our guest-house restaurant. The selection wasn't that great but I had a lovely piece of sea bass and Debs had some nice chicken. We washed it all down with a few bottles of Efes and a couple of games of backgammon. Christmas tomorrow so off to bed for an early night!
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