Oh I've only got 2 days left of my time here in Turkey. Five weeks have just flown by. There were so many things we wanted to do, go on a boat trip, go to Pammukale (salt lakes), visit Kos - instead we were faced with very unusually hot days with very high humidity. This meant that we were too exhausted to do much. Mornings were spent indoors, then in the afternoons we ventured out to the pool to cool down. It was such an effort to even walk down their driveway to collect the car, that I had to use my inhaler every day, whereas at home in the UK, I probably only used it once a month!!! I must say that when you have COPD, temperatures like these here don't do you any favours!! The average daily temperature was around 36C with around 75% humidity!! So you see it was pretty hot.

This is the view from out of my bedroom window - so beautiful...

Anyway, Mandi drove me around the northern part of this peninsular and I must say - it's gorgeous. I'm in heaven - mountains, forests, the sea and the sun and I'm so happy.

While I waited for Mandi to collect the car, I just sat down and looked down the street which is adjacent to her home...



How pretty the houses are around here.

We started off driving to Yalikavak - about 6 miles away from Mandi's. This is a growing seaside town, very popular because of its amazing marina. They host many yacht races there.




Going along the top road, showed me how mountainous this area is - I'm sure it is very volcanic which could explain the myriad of islands and the many earthquakes they have.




There are so many forests here, and a few years ago they had many fires which virtually destroyed them, but nature is wonderful and has replenished them.

Along the roads there are so many garden centres - I couldn't believe how many there were and how beautiful they are.




What I did love in a few of these garden centres, are the many types of sculptures to decorate your gardens.


We soon came across the seaside village of Torba - now this is a beautiful little village, but is fast being built up. As the village is at the end of a beautiful bay, surrounded by mountains, the houses are being built up the mountainsides.





We then carried on towards Bodrum - we did the round robin trip. We decided to have a quick McDonalds for lunch and decided to eat it at the top of the hill between Bodrum and the holiday resort of Gumbet.




Gumbet is the place for youngsters to let their hair down and have fun....


We were exhausted by this time out - very hot, even with the windows open.


Bodrum has relaid their original roads and the effect is fantastic. Never think that Turkey isn't modern - it can teach many other countries a thing or two - including the UK!!!


There are many little mosques around which are really beautiful.




Soon we were almost home. This is the view that I love - Yashi. Mandi lives just behind those trees on the right. You see what I mean about it being quite volcanic in this area.

In no time at all, we were at home, fans going full blast and showers!!! When I live here, I'm installing air-conditioning, and hopefully get my own swimming pool so that I can just jump into the water whenever I want without having to go on car journeys to have a swim!!!

I don't know if I'll have time to write another blog before I go home, so I'm afraid you'll have to put up with some silence for a while - I know - I can hear you all saying "Bliss - thank heaven".