Monday 29th September

We caught a lorry to Söke in the morning.  Here lorries carry passengers and goods quite cheaply, and come more frequently than the buses.  At Söke we booked a bus to Didima (Yenihisar) for 2p.m.  We walked out of the town and eat our picnic lunch under an olive tree – extremely pleasant and cool!

The journey to Didima was most dusty and tiring, but well worthwhile as the Temple of Apollo there is magnificent!

Temple of Apollo

Everywhere we went our shorts caused endless amusement with the Turks – who could not understand why men should wear them!

Unfortunately there was no transport out of Didima, or hotels, so we proceeded to walk to Akköy – almost 11km.  We arrived very tired about 8p.m., and went into a chai house, where after a drink we enquired after accommodation.  Soon a farmer, who had learnt English whilst a prisoner of the Chinese in Korea, arrived; and after further drinks took us to his brother’s house where we were to sleep. 

The young farmer, Adil Oval, was a charming fellow, who was most anxious to learn to write English.  He intended to go to Izmir for a few months in the winter, to study at a school, leaving his cotton fields to be tended by a neighbor.  All the people in Akköy are Turks from Bulgaria, who left their homes 20 years previously to settle in this place, and receive grants of land from the government.  The land grants were quite small so the villagers were comparatively poor.

Adil amused us, by telling us that his brother was now a bachelor, as his wife had recently “escaped” – this was most annoying as the father-in-law was going to give a portion of cotton field to Adil’s brother – as a form of dowry!