Datca Peninsula

Datca peninsula had been on our radar for a while. We’d heard lots of good things about it and seen some wonderful posts and photos from people who had been there.

If you have read our previous post about Hotel California then you will definitely understand why we were so happy to be back on the road and on our way to Datca Peninsula. Just in case you haven’t read the previous post we basically got stuck for a week as we needed a new clutch!

Our first park up at Datca Peninsula was right at the top of the peninsula. It was highly recomended by ‘The New Nomads’, Dave and Diane, the American couple we’d met when we were at Selçuk.

As we approached the park up we saw donkeys. The park up itself was very peaceful, it was a beautiful spot completely in nature.

There was a top area and a bottom area. We chose the top having been told it was the nicer spot. We arrived quite late, very close to sunset and of course I went straight in the sea for a sunset swim. It was just perfect and very much needed.

At the bottom part of the park up there was a Turkish couple. They had a pick up truck with a tent pitched on the back! We chatted to them and they offered us Turkish tea. We invited them to come and have breakfast with us in the morning.

In the morning I went for another swim before coming back and preparing breakfast.

We were so happy to be having breakfast outdoors with some people we had met instead of back at Hotel California! Most of our conversation was done using ‘Google translate’ as they didn’t speak much English. After breakfast they had to leave as they needed to get home.

After they left we had a lovely chat with the Turkish couple that were parked next to us. They were from Alanya and ran a camper van hire business. They told us to let them know if we were in Alanya and they would meet us for a coffee. They also allowed us to have a look in their van when we told them we would be looking to downsize when we went back to the UK. We have been blown away by Turkish hospitality. People are so helpful and genuinely keen talk to us.

We had been speaking to our friends The Harris’s and since getting their new clutch fitted they were in Marmaris which wasn’t too far away. They decided to come and join us. It was lovely to see them again.

Dave is a swimmer so having someone to swim with was definitely an added bonus. I find I always swim further if I have company and we did some really long swims together.

The Harris’s also like me have a love of yoga. For years I practiced hot yoga and wasn’t particularly keen on other types of yoga.

During the various lock downs I practiced hot yoga at home with an infra red heater. It wasn’t quite the same though! The Harris’s were also big fans of hot yoga but obviously getting to hot yoga studios isn’t really an option whilst on the road!

Dave had an app, called ‘Down Dog’. It has all types of yoga on it including the traditional hot yoga 26-2 sequence.

We all started practicing regularly in the morning, not 26-2 but on a setting for ‘gentle yoga’. I started to really enjoy it and it was making a difference to my back. I have managed to get the app and keep this up whilst travelling! So a huge thank you to The Harris’s for introducing me to this app and getting me going. 

Here we all are below when we first got started.

Here is the last photo from this park up, so beautiful, before we moved a little further down the peninsula

We moved further down to a beach park up that had some great reviews. It was a really lovely beach park up, right on the beach but very windy. You can see below just how close to the beach we were!

We did of course manage to get another 2nd swim that day when we arrived.

Another stunning spot. It did sadly get very windy though.

That evening we went for a meal with the Harris’s and a Turkish couple who were also in a van joined us. It was about a kilometre to walk to the restaurant. On the way we met some of the locals carrying things on their head’s and got our photo taken with them.

The restaurant owner was great he even went and got fish from somewhere for me. The food was really nice and he said we should come back the next day to fill up our water.

Van life is so easy in Turkey, there is never a shortage of places to park or to fill up your water.

The next day we did take the owner up on his very kind offer and came back to fill our water up. Here’s he is with Dee.

We moved on as it was just too windy, which was a shame as it was a lovely park up .

We headed to Datca which is the main town on Datca peninsula.

It was a lovely town, it had a really nice feel to it. It was still on the coast but with a lovely town centre and quirky shops. Here’s a few photos from our walk around.

We had a park up in a car park, there was a bar and nightclub. Sadly the night club started around 11pm and we did hear it! We decided not to stay there for another night. Although we did do our yoga and get a nice Turkish breakfast before moving on.

Our next stop was the hot springs and mud baths at Dalyan. Our next post will start there.

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