Kizkalesi, southern Turkey

We say good bye to Antalya and follow Mike out of city, old and new, to continue following the rugged Mediterranean coastline to the west. Our destination was Kizkelasi, near Silifke, a coastal town with an ancient castle occupying a small island about 200 meters from the shore. After lunch at Anamur, we needed to take a windy road to traverse a range of hills, but this was no big deal – I had mastered the art of motorcycling around hairpin corners and dealing with the other traffic around me. At one tight turn I encountered a large herd of mountain goats on the road direct in front of me, an old woman was trying to get them from one side of the road to the other. My emergency braking training came into good use, although the old woman was not happy that my bike had startled and scattered her goats in all directions. Not long after this, was my accident.
I really don’t remember anything of what happened. I just remember waking up in the back of the ambulance. I’m told that I was taking a tight left-hander, quite slowly, and I crashed head-on with a truck coming the other way, that was completely on my side of the road to take his right-hander as wide as possible. So, the consequence was a few cuts and bruises, and a dislocated left ankle. No broken bones. My protective gear did its job. I was fitted with plaster on the back of my left leg, from behind the knee to under my feet to the toes, and for the rest of the tour I will be joining Anne on the bus. No more Turkey motorbike riding for me.
The really annoying thing is that the accident was not my fault, and I was feeling so good and confident on the bike. Let’s face it – if I could negotiate such heavy city traffic as there was in Istanbul, Izmir and Antalya, then I could have certainly finished the tour. That was my intention, and the challenge I set myself was to ride into Istanbul on the last day. That ain’t gonna happen now.
But the tour goes on. We didn’t see much of Kizkalesi due to the overnight hospital stay (almost overnight – I was discharged at 4am, had a few hours sleep at hotel, then left at 8.30). Our next stop is Cappadocia, where we had a two day/three night stay scheduled, and this prolonged stay would help my recuperation.