Yapinti to Palantepe – 10th October
Distance: 13.4 km – Elevation +190 m -150 m
Weather: Sunny. Temperature: High 32 degrees
I slept well and woke as dawn was breaking. Looking out from my bedroom window, the landscape and the distant Mağras Dağı were bathed in a glorious and peaceful golden glow. I couldn’t have wished for a better start to my day. There was no breakfast available at the hotel but Mut was a relatively short distance away and I knew I would find a place there to eat
I left the hotel at 8.00 am having planned a very short walk today of 12 kilometres to a hotel in the village of Palentepe on the Silifke side of Mut. It is, as far as I can establish, the last hotel before Silifke which will leave me with a distance of 68 kilometres to reach Silifike.
The landscape continues to impress me. A mixture of scrub and orchards. The scrub, covered with conifer, juniper, and small shrubs. The morning sun bringing out the richness of the colours of golds, yellows and greens as the land stretched out to the gorges and canyons of the Goksu river. There were orchards too, mainly apricot. It was a short walk to Mut but it was inspiringly beautiful on a day like today.
It had been a warm night and today temperatures have risen to 34 degrees, the further south I travel the warmer it becomes. I am very close to the Mediterranean and it’s interesting to see palm trees have replaced the rowan in the central reservation.
I had my usual encounters with the local people. As I reached the outskirts of Mut and started the climb to reach the town centre, I passed by a fruit and vegetable shop with its elderly owner seated outside drinking a glass of tea, he beckoned me to join him. He brought me a glass of tea from the shop and we chatted using Google translate. He then went back into the shop and returned with bagels and olives, followed by a plate of grapes. Having enjoyed his offerings I readied myself to leave and thanked him for his generosity, at which moment, this wily and astute man reached into his pocket and pulled out a wrap of banknotes and showed me a 5 Turkish lira note! I smiled and gave him payment for his first sale of the day.
Mut was full of early morning life as I entered the town centre. I stopped at a cafe in the main street of the town where the friendly staff served a really enjoyable breakfast. Later as I continued my stroll through the town, a kebab shop owner came out and greeted me like family. He gave me a glass of ice-cold Ayran, a Turkish yogurt drink, and then came the photoshoot, and finally as I left he gave me an ice-cold bottle of Ayran to take with me, a genuine kindness.
I continued along the main Karaman to Silifke road that ran through the centre of Mut and passed the Atatürk monument, and as I was attempting to translate the inscription, a passing elderly man stopped and spoke to me in Turkish, words which I did not understand, but clearly, from his tone, he was not happy for some reason with the memorial.
The remaining few kilometres that would take me to Palantepe and the Konak Otel were through the uninspiring outlying suburbs of Mut and then on through a more pleasant open countryside with pomegranate orchards and views to the distant mountains. I arrived at the hotel at 1.00 pm and spent the afternoon relaxing and catching up with long overdue replies to a long list of unanswered emails. There was a shop next to the hotel where I was able to stock up with food and fruit for the remainder of my journey to Silifke and in the evening I enjoyed a meal of kofta with a yogurt dressing in a nearby kebab restaurant watching the sunset beneath the distant mountains. It had been a very restful and enjoyable day.
