Elmali Market Day.
photo cheese in goat skin sacks thanks to Alison of Saraoni.

The town of Elmali, is about 70 kms inland from Finike. The town is not much bigger than Finike( pop of Finike 12000 and Elmali 15000 approx) and like Finike supports a horticulture area. Finike is the citrus centre and Elmali is the apple centre of this region. So a good day for a trip inland is Monday, market day in Elmali. Last week we squeezed into the nearly full dolmus ( a 20 seater van) with Geoff and Alison from Saraoni for the 90 minute trip.

"the two madams in the back please"

The Otogar controller wanted to make sure the two western gentlemen did not sit next to the local ladies in the back seat. But when one of those ladies got out it was ok for a Turkish man to sit next to the "two madams", and we didn't mind either.

The trip took us through the small town of Turuncova and then up into the hills. The dolmus wound its way up behind the snow covered hills we can see from the marina, up past the trout farms from where our Saturday night trout dinner comes from, past Arykunda then more snow covered mountains came into view. The weather was beautiful, the sun reached down into the deep stony valleys and glistened on the snowy peaks. Except for the snow, the climb up from Turuncova to the 1100metre summit reminded me a little of our road trip to Asmara in Eritrea. Rocky, steep inhospitable land. Once past the summit the road took us over a plateau, past fields of bare apple trees and grape vines pared back to their winter stumps. We drove through the middle of a shallow lake, no bridge just a built up road across perfectly still mountain reflections.

Elmali is a surprisingly modern looking town, not much bigger than Finike but with a lot more shops, a bustling little town but then it was market day. The market is very similar to our Saturday market in Finike. The differences being the people of Finike are used to the yachties but in Elmali we turned some heads and also received many welcome if not bemused smiles. As with Finike market at this time of year the stalls were full of bright oranges and winter broccoli, cauliflower carrots and turnips. At Elmali there was a lot more cheeses on display, most stored in goat skins. Hairy skins full of goat cheese, imagine the body of a goat full of cheese, that's a lot of cheese and by looking at the state of some cheese it takes a long time to sell. One cheese we spotted was down to the last few centimeters in its hide container. A nice ripe cheese spotted with blue, looking older than the man selling it.

We wandered up the main street, amongst the jewelry and clothes shops there were shops selling hunting guns, pistols, knives, fishing rods and nets an indication of the outdoor activities on the lakes and mountains around Elmali. After a chicken doner lunch the crisp mountain air was beginning to drop to crisper levels so it was time to get the dolmus back to Finike.

My camera has stopped working after 3 and a bit years of constant use, so the photo is thanks to Alison.