First 2 days
Well the journey started with a trip across the mountains at the back of Akbük to Milas where we turned off to the Labranda hills and the Greek/Roman remains. We passed the Water factory on the way. This turns out to be owned by the Milas Council and the water is free to locals by virtue of a tap on the outside of the bottling factory. The road up to the Labranda remains, high in the mountain, was OK to start with, as it was on good tarmac roads, that soon changed into white sand! This turns out to be the remnants of the local Feldspar mine that litters the road and makes the journey a hard one. However it was worth the trouble as the Greek Roman remains of Labranda must be seen they are huge and well preserved. Photo later
From here we moved through the mountains East and North to Nazili and then of towards the Hot Water Spa of Sandıklı. It was dark by the time we found them and we were not made very welcome. It would appear this is a place for Muslims only and we were even refused the local hotel. No problem really as the hot water spas looked more like 'Blackpool by the Spa' and not really a nice place to at all. We did however stay in a good and comfy and very cheap hotel in Sandıklı (35 YTL each for the night including breakfast) before we moved on to Afyon, Cay and Konya.
Afyon was a busy town but was mostly closed as it was a Sunday, but we may return there, on the way back if only to get the Turkish Delight that we did not manage to find.
Çay was a small dusty place wıth no remnants of the earthquake to be see. We did however stop at a very small but nice çay shop for a glass of çay before moving on to Konya. We intend to stay here for 2 days and have booked into a more plush hotel in the centre of the town. There is lots to see here and we have even seen the casket holding the Beard of Mohamed.
The pictures are of the museum where the beard is kept and us having a break in the centre of the town.
Keep well all and send us an address if you want that post card that may turn out to be a valuable antique one day!
Steve and Pete.
Akbuk Turkey .com
The Independent website about Akbuk in Turkey
