Woke up at dawn after a hellish night on the bus. I was stiff and desparate to get off the bus, but at least with dawn I could watch the country go by. I expected to get to Fethiye at about 10, but in reality it was almost noon by the time we got there (almost 18 consecutive hours on the bus). At Fethiye I left my pack at the bus station and walked the 3km to the harbor. I had lunch near the water, then hiked up to the immense tombs carved into the side of the cliffs outside of town.
Caught a Dolmus to Ölüdeniz. I expected it to be a bit slow this time a year, but it was dead. No one on the beach, nothing open. As I was about to give up and head back to Fethiye three women walked past and athen one turned around and asked if I'd been staying at the Backpacker in Budapest. I talked to them a bit (they were staying in Fethiye) and then started back to catch a dolmus back to Fethiye when a woman aproached and asked if I was looking for someplace to stay. She was a South African who was staying with her boyfriend whop ran the one campground that was open. 30 minutes later I had a small cabin in what looked like an Vietnam era refugee camp. Since noplace was open for food, I got invited to diner. I spent the afternoon at the beach (not quite warm enough, but still very, very nice). Diner was Mel (the South African woman), Solomon (her boyfriend the campground manager), and number of locals (including an army officer who didn't seem to like Americans). Diner was excelent (who needs plates or utinsils anyway?) and afterwards there was much talking, laughing, and I learned the Turkish card game "Pisht".
