And so this is how you waste a day on vacation.
Originally we had big plans to get up, and take the little one-car ferry across the river to go see the ruins of Kaunos.
Then we were going to drive thirty minutes up a windy road to Sultaniye to sit in the hot mud baths and hot springs.
We figured we’d come back for lunch, then take a one hour loop through Dalman to the beach at Iztuzu for the afternoon.
Well, I got up just before sunrise. As the cool breeze blew, the birds hooted and a rooster crowed, I sat on the deck over the river and watched the sun come up. The tombs on the cliff opposite lit up, then as the light shifted the river grasses colored up last.
It is so relaxing here, I am thinking, I could spend a week.
But we don’t have a week.
We have a day.
So I decided right then to just let Gail sleep.
When she got up at 9:30 we had a coffee and breakfast at a table looking over the river and made a decision: let’s camp out here for the day.
Why drive an hour or more for a mud bath?
Why pack
We have sun beds, our room towels, and the trees provide a mix of sun and shade here on the deck. We can swim in the cool Dalyan river. We don’t have to carry a bottle of water, we can walk twenty feet to the bar for a cold beer or margarita.
And if we drink a little too much... we aren’t driving anywhere.
No need to look for a WC at the beach, we can drop up to our room. Feeling too salty after swimming? We have a shower.
Hungry? They are cooking fresh sea bream on the fire tonight, and in the meantime we can order out pizza or walk three blocks into town.
So we didn’t even bother to shower until late afternoon, when we decided to move off the deck and onto the couches by the bar.
We read. We napped. We swam and talked and watched the boats go by. The sun arced over us, right to left. The cicadas buzzed.
And the fish dinner?
Excellent.
And so that is what we did today.
And it was great, just wasting a day.
€50 a night for a little slice of paradise.
How can you go wrong?