Embark on an ancient quest along the Mediterranean coast for a healing indulgence. The Dalyan River (Dalyan Bogazi, known as a strait) in Turkey has natural silt deposits abundant with therapeutic properties. Whether you arrive at the mouth of the river on a small cruise ship or reach a nearby town, such as Marmaris, via minibuses, travel down the twisting waterway on your journey into the pastime secrets for ridding your body of aches and pains, dissolving skin wounds and clearing your mind.
The Dalyan River opens at Istuzu Beach where sunbathing beside loggerhead turtles is a passion. Plan to socialize with the sensuous locals and enjoy watching the protected baby turtles. Those turtles cross the Atlantic every year. The beach gets crowded with eager souls seeking mates, fun-loving couples, and boisterous families.
Charming wooden boats with refreshments and music transport you up the strait to the Sultaniye hot springs and mud baths. Tall reeds provide secluded nooks and primitive wooden buildings on stilts used for fishing prove the customs never died. While the social scene is active, the still river transports you to an ancient mood where tall grasses and tantalizing cliffs smell of sweet silt. The atmosphere eases away anxieties.
Resort clubs line the waterway. Many are dating hotspots where the stars shine overhead and the river lazes alongside the social scene. Others are family resorts, suitable for relaxed sunny days.
Activities revolve around mingling and rejuvenating your mind, body and spirit. A few shops appear, clustered within each tiny community but the supplies are limited, aside from handmade rugs.
Rosy mountains loom over the fertile river. When you least expect to spot civilization, elaborate, Lycien tombs appear on mountainsides. Founded during the 9thcentury BC, a mysterious town named, Kaunos, is known for its citizens having yellow skin and eyes. Their unusual coloring is credited to the high mineral content of the Dalyan River and as a result of an outbreak of epidemic malaria. Experience the Mortal Combat mood of the extraordinary theatre, acropolis, basilica and city walls. Carved red stones shape the columns and architectural details, which became chic in 9thcentury Kaunos as a result of an invitation by the ruler of Caria named, Mausolus of Halicarnassus.
If you choose to visit the hot springs and mud baths multiple times in order to completely heal, you can stay as close as Dalyan, Turkey. Motels, restaurants, and disco clubs of this coastal tourist community spills into the Dalyan River. Shops offer contemporary merchandise. Rug retailers weave carpets to your specifications. There is a Club Med, mingle and mate feel.
The mud baths provide clean, paved and civilized community pools with changing rooms, showers and a snack bar, as opposed to being a stinky hole in the ground. First you enter a hot pool of water that holds mildly radioactive minerals. At your leisure, you enter a second pool filled with grainy mud, teeming with calcium, sulphur, iron, nitrates, potassium, and mineral salts. Mud bathers cover their bodies with the oozing soil and bask in the sun until it dries. Return to the mud bath to loosen the body mud pack from your skin and then use the fresh water at the showers for a good scrubbing. For an extra-double duty dose of ridding your body of stubborn minerals, join the line where a cabana boy sprays you from head to toe with a high powered water-hose.
Refreshing is the main word that comes to mind. Light-footed and peaceful are two others. The rejuvenating mud heals the body, eradicates painful joints, and removes toxins.
Entire families participate and everyone interacts with a communal manner. It is a bonding experience for all who attend, and all kinds of folks delve into the mysterious Dalyan River.
Don’t wear fine jewelry because the rising heat in the pools can damage stones. Leave valuables at your hotel. You can’t carry them into the pools and by midday the mud baths are crowded. Most importantly, heal.
