The journey to Antalya

August 3, 2023

Because we had an early flight out of Gqerberha we decided to spend the last night at the Road Lodge at the airport. This made for an easy and stress free start to the journey. Our bicycles had been pre-booked and we were able to check all our luggage through to our final destination in Antalya meaning there was no mad rush to catch our next flight from Cape Town to Doha.

Leigh usually takes a photo of the boxed bicycles while we check in but this time she forgot. So the next best option was to take a picture of the aeroplane onto which they would be loaded. Here I am all wrapped up against the winter weather (it was a chilly five degrees) with an aeroplane in the background.

But it wasn't our 'plane, just one from the same local airline that would take us to Cape Town where we would board a Qatar flight.

We had an eight hour layover at Hamad Airport in Doha, arriving at around eleven at night and leaving just before eight the next morning. Sleeping in the airport wasn't really possible, though I did try.

The new Orchid area at Hamad, complete with fake bird calls.

The Orchid has three pods where passengers can sleep. All full the whole time we were there.

I tried taking a nap on the fake grass but was moved on by a security official.

I was really hoping to get a good sleep on the flight from Qatar to Antalya but cabin crew undergoing training and lots of over-excited kids made it difficult. In the end I managed to squeeze in an hour or so but was still exhausted when we landed in Antalya. The cold South African winter was forgotten as soon as we stepped out of the airport terminal at around midday. The humidity and thirty odd degree temperature quickly dispelled any thoughts of assembling the bicycles to cycle to our digs and we took a taxi instead.

We have a room for two nights at a small hostel near the historic center of the town. After a shower and a cold beer we set the alarm for five thirty and hit the sack. It was still around thirty degerees when we woke up but we felt we needed to take a stroll to help get the flight out of our system.

Hadrian's Gate. Named in honour of the famous wall-building Roman emperor who visited Antalya in the second century CE.

This building near the gate caught my attention.

After a stroll through the area near the gate we headed away from the expensive tourist restaurants and found a local place where we enjoyed an enormous donner kebab with too many pickled gerkhins and chillies for us to finish.

Repleat, we headed back to the hostel to catch up on some much needed sleep. The assembly of the bicycles can wait until tomorrow.

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