Well I wasn't sure what to expect from Olympos. I had this vision of hippies everywhere and a few small ruins near a beach. But I must say it was one of my favourite spots in Turkey.
We arrived into Olympos in the afternoon by bus from Kas. The trip itself took about 4 hours but this time we managed to score a bus with the air conditioning working. Our accommodation for the next two nights was a little place called Bayrams Tree House. Everything in Olympos can only be made out of wood as they are trying no to spoil the beauty of the area with an huge high rises. This is the reason that most of the accommodation in Olympos are tree houses. When we arrived to Bayrams we were greeted with one of the most relaxing looking spots we had seen on our whole trip. There was a small wooden bar that looked out over wooden decks filled with cushions, shaded by trees. There was some nice, relaxing music playing as well which to our surprise was mostly Australian like Crowded House and Powderfinger. After being shown around we finally made it to our own private bungalow. That afternoon we made the mandatory 3 Lira to walk through the ruins to access the beach. WOW! It was paradise (except for the rocks on the beach in place of sand). The water was so blue, the beach relative empty, and the whole sight was overlooked by mountains that were spattered with ruins.
The next day we decided we would walk to the other famous attraction that Olympos has to offer, the Chimaera flames. These have been around since ancient times and are part of old Legends. They are some natural flames that leap up from the rocky surface. Even if you put them out, as soon as they hit the oxygen again they spark back up. We decided to walk as there was some conflicting information from the various guidebooks that we had that made us think it was just down the road. After a 7 kilometers walk up hill in 45*C heat with no water I can tell you for a fact that they are too far to walk to! Worth the visit though and I'm glad we suffered through it but next time I would pay the $15 and be driven there.
The rest of our time was spent checking out the ruins, swimming, drinking beer and eating the all inclusive meals which were fantastic.
