Side back to Antalya

For the last few days we had been at a wild beach park up about 40 minutes outside of Antalya with some friends we’d met on the road, Chris and Seb and Steve and Elisa.

We had to be back in Antalya for June 1st as our friend Louise was coming over to visit us and was flying into Antalya.

Chris and Seb had left as they needed to get to Istanbul. Elisa and Steve were going to Side about an hour away. We decided to go with them but no further as we still had a few days before we needed to get back to Antalya.

Side

Side is a resort town on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast, between Antalya and Alanya. It’s an ancient port city and is known for it’s long beaches and Greco-Roman ruins.

In the centre are the remains of the 2nd-century Antique Theater, which seated up to 15,000. The white marble columns of the Hellenistic Temple of Athena stand near the harbour. There are also other sites sprinkled throughout the city. It dates back to 7th Century BC. Some of the finds are at the Side Museum, a restored Roman bath complex.

We headed for a beach park up that was on park4night and next to a bar called the Full Moon Cafe. The park up was ok but quite crowded. We met some people that we’d previously met in Albania, it was nice to see them again.

We went for a walk and discovered that it was possible to drive a little bit further along at the back of the beach bar and there was more parking and it was quiet, so much nicer.

On the first day once we were parked we did of course have a swim and some lunch before heading into town

We walked along the beach to get to the town. It as quite touristy but not really in a package holiday kind of way.

There was a site with ancient ruins which seemed to be having some excavations done. Amazingly we were able to walk in and walk around.

These are just some of the ancient ruins mentioned earlier in the post. When you walk through the town there are many more.

The following day we caught the little tourist train that took passed the ancient ruins to another part of town.

We had lunch out and a few beers too. The following day we were going to go our separate ways. Steve and Elisa were heading further down the coast heading east and we were going to spend another day at Side before heading slowly back towards Antalya.

The following day we said our goodbyes. We thought there was a good possibility that we would see each other again in Cappadocia.

We were on our own again and decided to have a very chilled day at the beach and no alcohol after all our drinks the day before. This was working really well until mid afternoon when we had a message from someone else we follow on instagram asking where we were as they had just arrived in Side!

They were Simon and Allyson, or “Crewser 2” on instagram. They were parked at the Full Moon Bar and were having a drink there. I said I would go and find them. It was lovely to meet them.

They later moved along to where we were parked. We exchanged info on quite a few park ups as they were actually heading in the opposite direction to us. One of the recommendations we gave them was to the wild beach park up at Denizkent Manivgat that we had just left to come to Side. They said they planned to go there.

Here we are the following day just before we left, we were heading slowly back to Antalya with a couple of places to stop off at on the way.

It is always a pleasure when we get to meet fellow travellers on the road.

Our first stop was actually back in Antalya! We called it a service stop. We got 2 new tyres and did some shopping and laundry.

The following day we headed to Guver Canyon, also on the outskirts of Antalya. We were absolutely amazed at the sheer size of this place. We drove for miles and it was completely wild with nothing and no one around. We finally reached the park up. It was very wild and in the woods. There were signs everywhere saying it was forbidden to go walking in the woods. There was 1 other van there that looked like he’d been there a while. We got out and took some photographs but decided not to stay.

The next place we had marked to go was a nature reserve called Etler Selalesi, also close to Antalya. Our German friends that we met in Albania had been there and sent the exact location where they parked. It looked amazing, there were rock pools and waterfalls that you could hike to.

Once again we drove into really wild territory with dicey roads and nothing and no one around. The drive seemed to go on forever, I was getting more and more concerned, we really were completely away from civilisation!

Finally we found the park up, sadly it was down a very steep slope and we weren’t able to get down there. Definitely a place we have marked for another time when we have a smaller van.

Back to Denizkent Manivgat

We decided that the best thing to do would be to head back to the nice wild beach park up, Denizkent Manivgat. We messaged Simon and Allyson who we’d met at Side and they confirmed they were there. We headed back for 2 days whilst waiting for our friend Louise to arrive at Antalya airport.

It was great going back, the German people and the puppies were still there an so was the Russian family we met before. The whole family had mono wheels and as you can see he allowed us to have a go and gave us a lesson. It definitely isn’t easy! Like anything the kids picked it up really fast and this man’s teenage daughter was able to do all sorts of tricks and stand on one leg! Neither of us dared to let go of the man’s arm!

Simon and Allyson had a kayak which they very kindly let us have a go on. Here’s some photos below. It was great fun

On our 2nd day we left around 8pm as Louise’s flight was getting in at about 10pm. Once again we said goodbye to Simon and Allyson . It had been great spending some time with them.

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