indoor, outdoors

Pam still has Kedi, her Bursa cat, whom we last saw in Baku. (Kedi is Turkish for cat.)   Kedi is an Indoor Cat, because of where Pam and Joe had been living, and is thoroughly house-trained.  We can hear him do his sand dance in the litter tray under the stairs twice a day.  He's looking rather obese these days - undoubtedly overeating and underexercising - a warning to us all.  If you look at him from any angle he appears to be have a body in the shape of a pyramid - a strange effect which makes him look almost like a cartoon cat.  He looks happiest sitting in his cardboard box, which is gradually being shredded, bit by bit.  Pam used to carry Kedi on internal flights but he's now over the weight for carry on luggage.   We admire his thick black coat and the sheen of it when Pam gives him a brush.  It'd make a great pair of slippers, I joke.  Pam's thinking of a muff.  Kedi remains unimpressed by such talk.

Gayle with Pango

Outside is Pango, the Outdoors Cat.  Pam has adopted one of the many village strays, (Turkey is awash with stray cats), and puts food out for Pango.  He also has a black coat, with a couple of white tufts on his underside.  When the weather gets really nasty or cold we let him in downstairs.  He does cat things like sitting looking at the door that leads to the cat food.  Or sleeping on the sofa.  When he wants to go out he stands by one of the french windows.  I usually oblige.  I feel like his personal doorman.   Meanwhile Gayle displays an affinity for cats that I never knew existed.  Pango develops several new name variations, such as Mr. Pango, Pangs, and even Pangalicious.  This latter term of endearment is pronounced when said cat lies on his back and offers his tummy for a rub.  He also purrs loudly, like an idling Bentley.  Its disturbing - I might be getting jealous of a cat.

beehives are found everywhere in the woods

The winter weather is considered some of the worst in recent memory.  Everyone expects storms and rain showers to pass through.  But they also expect sunny days in between.  But the storms seem to be prolonged and the showers linger.  The temperature drops with winds from the north, bringing us one frosty night and several cold ones.  The most dramatic aspect of the storms, apart from the big winds and the high waves which we can see from the house, is the accompanying thunder and lightning.  It seems it cannot rain without these additional effects.  We are glad we are not cycling.  Sometimes the power goes off, or the internet signal drops. When the weather clears the mountains in the distance have fresh snow.

When it's not raining we venture out for walks in the surrounding hills.  Pam shows us a path up behind her house that leads to a yayla - a summer pasture - a wide clearing in the pine trees.  From here lead several tracks and we explore several of them on different days.  One leads back down through the forest and into groves of olives, still high above the village.  Most of the trees are still being tended - people have pruned them after harvesting the fruit.  There are dry stone walls amongst the trees, presumably demarcating land.  Down below in the village you can't see that much of the hillside is olives as the pines outgrow them easily and hide them.

on the Mo-Jo Trail leading to...

this view west along the coast

If the sun appears and it's not windy we head to the beach.  On one side is the 'hotel' beach.  In season you have to pay to use it, although if you arrive early enough you can avoid the fee.  This beach is generally well looked after - driftwood is collected up and cleared away, there's a little shady park with a cafe and picnic tables.  Pam remarks that there's too much stuff left at the beach over the winter - all the umbrella poles remain, along with unused metal frames and old stands abandoned at the back of the beach.  It's hard for us to imagine what it's like here in high season when there might be hundreds of tourists staying at the clutch of beach-side hotels.  At this time of year it's very quiet.  A few locals come to walk and picnic.  After a winter of rain the first sunny weekend produces a surge of people come to picnic.  Gayle manages a swim on these warmer days.

auld lang syne

Pam has just got back from a trip to Mexico.  We've caught the bus over from Antalya and cycled the final15 km along the wide open valley towards Sarigerme.  Pam has told us to ring when we get there and she'll come and meet us.  We think, therefore, that a) her house is hard to find and b) she lives up a hill.  As we approach the village we can see a steep hillside dotted with houses.  The village is a single road dotted with small hotels, cafes and shops.  There's a medium-sized mosque and a primary school.   We stop outside the estate agent's.  This is run by Muhammed, Pam's friend, but the office is closed.  When we call Pam she turns out to be yards away at one of the few shops that is actually open.  

After loading the panniers into her car she drives off to lead us to her home.  A left turn at the mosque and a gentle sloping road.  But Pam has already pointed out her house to us, so the near vertical 25% road that begins at the first twist in the road comes as no surprise.  It is a very slow ride uphill in our granniest of granny gears.  In fact at one point it feels like I am simply levitating by turning the pedals - I don't think I'm actually moving forwards.  And we think Hebden Bridge is difficult on a bike.  Inevitably we get off and push.  Clearly we're just not fit enough yet, after our rain-interrupted journey along the coast.

first sunset at from Pam's terrace

We are very happy to arrive and to see Pam, who we last saw in Baku almost five years ago where she was living and working with her husband Joe.  Sadly, last March Joe died while being treated for leukemia.  They had bought the house soon after we stayed with them with the intention of living here if work allowed.  As it was, they used the house for holidays when Joe got time off from teaching at a university in Kayseri.  It is in a great location up above the village with views out to sea and along the big wide bay near to Dalaman airport.  The house is built as three self-contained appartments - one on each floor.  There's a roof terrace, a patio out back and a garden.  Pam describes all the work they did to get the house up to scratch - including new roofing, guttering, windows and doors.  It's been a lot of work but well worth it when we compare it to the houses on either side.

Sarigerme is a low-key place in the winter.  The valley is full of farmland and the village itself has only a few hundred inhabitants.  Out by the beach are a series of all-inclusive hotels.  Most of them have been built discreetly into the landscape of small rocky limestone outcrops covered in pine trees that run along the coast.  One hideous orange monstrosity stands out as a beacon of bad building control.  But it is the exception.  

In the boggy valley, they used to grow cotton.  Now irrigation channels help to both drain and supply the flat land all around for the main crops of oranges, lemons and pomegranates.  The pomegranates are long gone, the small trees now bare in the fields, but the citrus trees are in full green leaf and laden with fruits.  Over the weeks we see them gradually diminishing as they are harvested by the lorry load.

sharing another great meal with Pam

We plan to spend Christmas and New Year together.  When Joe died he was buried in the little cemetery here the next day, as Islamic custom dicates.  Pam organised a memorial for everyone who knew him over the summer which we missed.  Now we are finally here and together we see in the New Year and toast absent friends and family.