Surely not a bad day in Kalkan

Almost unbelievably, the day got off to a rather bad start.  Yes, even in Kalkan things can go wrong, feathers can be ruffled and sweaty brows become ruffled with displeasure. ( In order to save embarassment and huge legal bills I will create some nom de plumes for the participants in this blog - unless they have nothing to lose from being named!)

Anyway, as I was saying, it was a bad start to the day.  Mama had decided that a trip to Kekova, the sunken city, was in order and had got up early, had a swim, lay down on the sunbed, got too hot, had another swim, lay down on the sunbed etc etc, until deciding that it was about time everyone got up so they could set off on this amazing sounding adventure.  So mama sang and whistled as she made breakfast, cheerily calling out to Dave, Izzi and Sophie to come and partake of  the spread of water melon, toast, cheese, olives, yoghurt, chocolate (what?), yes chocolate and all the other goodies that she could find.  Let's just say that the loggerhead turtles on Patara Beach would have completed several trips around the bay before these family members managed to drag themselves from their beds.  Ok, so perhaps if mama had mentioned the plan to go to Kekova there may have been more of a turn of speed - but she was ever so slightly sulking at this point and didn't see why she should share.
It was, therefore, somewhat later than the 9am start envisaged by mama when the family set off in their somewhat battered hire car, muttering the usual prayers that the car would manage the ridiculously steep hill that they had to climb, and sometimes slide back down - just a little - towards the deep blue waters of Kalamar bay. 
As usual, Dave set about organising his Sat Nav to guide them on their way.  He bristled a little at the giggles, but being a man, was able to rise above any hasty retorts.  A sat nav is clearly a very useful toy, sorry tool, in a man's collection of stuff, but not in Kalkan.  Kalkan is off the sat nav radar, (well this one anyway).  This sat nav had suggested many twists and turns on the journey from Dalaman airport to Kalkan, and had found no roads at all in Kalkan itself.  As a result the journey from the airport had taken about 5 hours instead of the 90 minutes suggested in guide books.  The guide book was pretty useless too, mainly because it was still sitting back in Sussex on the table with a map, mama's mobile phone and digital camera.
However, you can't go far wrong when you're looking for a sunken village. Who needs a map!!!  Mama had read it all up on the computer earlier that day and with her photographic memory nothing could go wrong. All they needed to do was to stick to the coast road until they came to a little village beginning with C, or G, or possibly Q.  Then they could hop on a boat and enjoy themselves.  Indeed the drive along the turquoise coast with it's hairpin bends and awesomely beautiful views unfurrowed mama's brow and restored family harmony. 
Ah, well, it all started to go wrong  when they got to Kas.  The main road stopped going along the coast and instead rose, higher and higher, taking it's users deep into the Turkish interior.  So map less and with the most useless piece of plastic ever to call itself a sat nav spouting rubbish in an Ozzy Ozbourne voice (it had become stuck on this near Gatwick airport), they decided to turn round and head into Kas and catch a boat from there.
This would normally have been no hardship.  But it was getting towards midday now and mama was not best pleased.  Even less so when the only boat told them it would take 5 hours to get to Kekova and they should have got there early in the morning!  So that was that.  No boat trip, no sunken island, just lots of midday sun in the middle of town.  Hmm.  Well, Dave decided to make the best of it and have a stroll around Kas, whilst mama walked 10 paces in front and Izzi and Sophie squabbled over hair accessories.  There were some nice enough shops around, lots of touristy places, clothes, hardware and then a spice shop.  Unable to resist the offer of free food or drink mama was sucked into this amazing emporium where huge quantities of spices were displayed in large open crates.  And mama and Dave bought.  Yep, saffron, turmeric, cumin and many others. Mixing them together as they went the very nice salesmen offered up most of the contents of their shop?  'Nougat maybe?'  'Yes please.'  'Apple tea?'   'Why not!'  'Try the lemon salt?'  'Mmm interesting'.   'Turkish delight?'  'Oh go on then.'  And guess what?  They threw in an extra box of apple tea FREE in case the 5 kilo bag they had bought should run out quickly.   All this for just 100 turkish lira.  No bartering, no hesitation, just out with the wallet and then off in the midday sun with about 20 kilos of barbecue spices that would cost them an extra 36 pounds in excess baggage on the journey home.