DAYLAN TURTLE BEACH, KINGS TOMBS & MUD BATHS

Turtle Beach was beautiful. It is a small island located around 2 hours boat trip from Marmaris bay and known as one of the last breeding grounds for Sea Turtles. The Turtles swim from as far as South America to lay their eggs amongst the sand. Eventually the eggs hatch and the baby Turtles are free to swim away and begin a life of their own. Unfortunately, it has been said that only 20% of the baby Turtles make it into adult life due to the predators that await them in the sea.

This was the freshwater side, the salty sea was on the opposite side!

Once Turtle Beach was in sight the group were made to change from our large cruise like boat (maybe not that large- sorry I'm no expert with boats haha!) to a smaller river boat which would take us through the shallow waters, up to the island with ease!

Turtle beach was quaint well worth the stop. We did attempt to explore the tiny island but it is so small that you could walk around it in 15 minutes... maybe even less. We also did not see any cute little turtles, probably due to it being early in the season (you know, those turtles are so in tune with British holidaymakers haha). After around 45 minutes of sun and sea, it was back in the boats and time to meander along the Daylan River. We were heading to the Mud Baths! Not without stopping at the Kings Tombs though!

These tombs hold a lot of history behind them, understandably as they were built in 4 BC as family tombs. Here is one of the more popular stories surrounding the tombs however it doesn't explain much about why they are there...; The city Kaunos was founded by Caunus, the son of Miletos and Kyane. Caunus had a twin sister, Byblis whom he fell madly in love with. When their father found out about their relationship he sent Caunus away from the city, leaving his sister Byblis to cry herself to death, forming the Daylan Delta.

Now this story doesn't exactly tell us what the tombs were doing there or make a lot of sense though my guess is as the family died, they were placed in these very tombs. To be honest, the guide wasn't very clear and neither is the internet! Haha! So yes, this is merely an interpretation of what may or may not have happened.
Rather than focusing on the confusing mythological stories, we admired the architecture that had gone into making these fascinating family tombs in the rocks.

Finally we arrived at the Mud Baths. It was much anticipated and meant to have healing properties within the mud. We were told to begin by covering ourselves in mud, and then drying up in the sun for around 10 minutes. We then would continue into the shower to cleanse and prep for the thermal pool, heated at 37 degrees Celsius.

As wonderful as this experience sounds, I can tell you first hand it was gross. Absolutely disgusting! This is certainly not to put you off this excursion as overall it was a lot of fun and to be honest with you, we would have kicked ourselves if we had missed out on the experience. However I felt like a big joke! The mud was man-made, not a beautiful natural hide out in the sea (like one I had visited a couple years back in Santorini), with what I imagine to be loads of bacteria from the DEAD frog floating about. Next, the showers were ICE COLD and you really had to scrub that mud off you, then waiting before the sulphur pool was a man with a hose. Yes, a hose pipe... his job was to spray off any last bits of mud he saw on your already cold body, with a solid gush of that same icy water that the showers used. Brilliant. Finally, the thermal pool and boy did it STINK. This in all fairness was due to the Sulphur rocks that actually heated the pool, but it didn't account for the floating algae and dirt that accompanied you. I had originally wondered why guests were so quick to leave the thermal pool-surely it would be the best part of the visit but as soon as I got in myself, I understood!

Well an experience it was and as I had said before, we would have kicked ourselves if we didn't give it a go, plus it makes a good one for the photo album. 

As the day went on the weather got a little cooler, and made the journey back slightly chilly. 2 hours later we were glad to be back in Marmaris.

Peace&Love,
Willow