Well, here we are, back home after teo weeks away… We had dreadful trouble getting out to Turkey, with a cancelled flight. But overall, a lovely, peaceful time at the familiar Yavuz Bungalows in Cirali, all reassuringly unchanged, with the company of our old friend Shaun for the first ten days. Weather was great for the first week, but then had a couple of very windy days, and then it got hotter… and hotter… and hotter. By the end, it was clocking 40 degrees – too hot for us, and we were quite glad to return to windy, rainy England!
We met Shaun at Gatwick and got on our 14.50 Easyjet plane full of optimism and good humour – all sitting together in the front row. But then, no ground crew came to fill up the plane’s water. One hour later they came… but noticed a little oil leak from one of the engines. Two hours later we were still sitting on the tarmac. Finally, they tell us that the fault can’t be fixed and the flight is cancelled… cue for mass chaos. No Easyjet staff member visible… we were just handed a piece of paper and told to use the app. With great presence of mind Shaun got us the last couple of seats on the first flight the next day… but then of course we have to stay the night at Gatwick, so Shaun books us into the Hilton. Overall benefit – we got on another flight quickly, while others who had used the app had to wait, in some cases, for days. Negative – Shaun had done all the bookings in his name, directly, so not so easy for us to claim compensation/refunds etc from Easyjet. By the time we finally got to the Hilton it was about 8pm and we were absolutely stressed out and exhausted…. ordered some food and after a few mouthfuls just sat staring at it, too tired to speak or eat.
Anyway, we soon repressed our bad experience in the pleasure of arriving in Cirali and the Yavuz Bungalows – all reassuringly unchanged. We were in a new house this year, much nicer inside, at the very end of the row, with a large expanse of open orchard, so I thought it would be quieter… but it turned out many of the orchard chickens hung out nearby, and this year two roosters were vying for dominance. They started competitive crowing at around 4.30am, and set off all the others in the village. We eventually got used to it – just like we got used to the seagulls in Hastings – but had a few disrupted nights!
The staff tried to convince me that the chickens slept ‘in the trees’ around our house and that we should go out and shout and wave our arms last thing at night to scare them away, and then said that they were going to slit one of the rooster’s throats… One morning I couldn’t see the stupid bird around anywhere and thought they had really done it….
Of course, there are many other sorts of wildlife around – peacocks, hedgehogs, terrapins, croaking frogs…Pappi the cat, and Tarcin the dog…
Anyway, we did all the usual things – beach, swimming, snoozing in hammock, lots to eat, evening walks and Scrabble games last thing.
We had one very anxious moment. The neighbours who were watering our plants at home had left the tap on all night, and water flooded everywhere.But all our neighbours rallied round – we are very lucky to have them. We were briefly worried that water had flooded our basement garage, including the fuse box and Philosopher’s book room, but not so…
This year, for the first time, a young woman, Azura, was employed ‘front of house’, at the Yavuz. In Turkey, this is still rare. Azura, a 21 year old university student, was very anxious to learn more English. She was particularly interested in our Scrabble. Her brother, 16 year-old Barbaros, was also working as a waiter, and wanted to join in the Scrabble as well. Azura obviously got a bit fed up with her kid brother, but he still joined in… Eventually, after Shaun (who is red-hot at Scrabble) left, and as the place was very quiet, we ended up with virtually all the staff gathered round our table. Hussein, who is in charge of the restaurant, and who has been there for years, came as well. We discovered that his wife is having a baby any day… We even had visits from the cook, out of the kitchen. One night Derya unexpectedly appeared, and I slightly suspect he might not have been best pleased to find this jolly gathering. I don’t know if they all had a telling-off but they didn’t come back the next night….
Cirali is getting busier – but with well-to-do Turkish day-trippers from Antalya, not people staying. Presumably people are put off by the dreadful rate of inflation. More cars cramming into the village, but the accommodation is obviously suffering, including our place. Even with all the visitors, Cirali is still a protected turtle beach. Derya told us that 10,000 turtle babies hatch, but only 1 in a 1,000 survives. It sounded an unfeasibly large number of hatchlings to us, but according to this website there were 9000 in 2021.. They suffer from birds, water predators, and going the wrong way due to light pollution. The beach is closed to visitors from 9pm until 5.30am, and patrols of volunteers watch the nests and help shepherd the babies down the beach.
One night we saw lights on the beach very near us – some must have been hatching, but of course we couldn’t go and see.
I think the local area mostly supports the opposition, not the Erdogan government. On the Saturday we left it was a public holiday, the so-called ‘Democracy and National Unity Day’, to remember the so-called ‘martyrs’ who had prevented the failed coup against the government in 2016. All the public buildings were displaying enormous Turkish flags, but we didn’t see the slightest sign of anyone else celebrating…
For a couple of days it was incredibly windy, and the sea was rougher than I have ever seen it. One day I didn’t dare swim. I don’t mind the waves once I am in the water, and I float like a cork, but it was really hard to get in and out, struggling across a belt of rickety-rockety pebbles, with a strong undertow as well as big waves. Philosopher swam, and tried to persuade me, and the next day it was just as rough and I did manage, but holding firmly to his hand. Philospher has always been a much stronger swimmer than me, but overall, Battleaxe is proud of her swimming attainments. I didn’t learn at all until I was nearly 40… One thing, the roughness turned the sea an incredible blue colour – it was beautiful just to look at it.
The wind soon went away, Shaun went home, and normal service was resumed – until the temperature started rocketing… By the end of the holiday we had to give up sitting in the beach, and retired to divans in the restaurant area. (For non-Turkophiles, divans are those raised, square, cushioned areas with a low table in the centre. You recline on the cushions.) Even crossing the beach to get to the sea was a sizzling ordeal. Fortunately our little houses are air-conditioned, and we spent a couple of afternoons indoors in the cool. Philosopher and I have always enjoyed the heat, but it was getting too much for us, and of course we are a bit older now.
Our last day, Saturday, was the hottest day so far, and we had to make the journey to Antalya in a taxi with not totally brilliant air-con – and the traffic was terrible. The journey took over 2 hours, and by the time we got to the airport I was on the verge of feeling ill. Fortunately we were then in the cool. Just as well, as the queues and security checks were punitive. Then, of course, the plane is 1.5 hours late…
The worst thing about Easyjet is the lack of communication. There is, of course, no living person to consult, and they tell you to keep looking at the app, but it is not updated, and what information it does show is inaccurate and totally uninformative… When we get to Gatwick, quelle surprise, there are no ground staff to attach the airbridge!
Reading this, you’d think that travel horror overshadowed all the rest, but it didn’t. Current air travel is absolute hell, but it is a bit like childbirth – you somehow forget the horror and then do it all over again. Yes, of course we’ll go again next year. Look, if there was any reasonable alternative to Easyjet I’d book it. British Airways does fly to Antalya, but it is really expensive, the planes go at odd times, and part of the on-going problem is lack of capacity at Gatwick – nothing to do with the airlines. I suppose I should be grateful that the plane going out was delayed long enough for them to notice the oil leak – the pilot said that otherwise we could have been limping along with just one engine and made an emergency landing on a remote airstrip… or I guess it could have been worse still …. ah well.
