Home Again

Having, along with The Special, returned safely to our Turkish home, I can now resume my occasional posts as anenglishmanabroad.net. Whilst in the UK for three weeks I would properly have been anenglishmanusuallybutnotatthismomentabroad.net and I am a stickler for accuracy.

But here I am again, very happy to be back. And although we both had some trepidation about returning after 10 days in Lviv and a lovely month with family, all is well. Trepidation because of the, to our eyes, unsightly rental villas built around us. Trepidation too about the impact of the horrendous forest fires in the region.

Strangely the latter horror has diminished the former horror, as there are very few guests in the mountains. Anxiety about forest fires has triggered a torrent of cancellations, which has added to the economic woes of locals but meant that Islamlar is strangely peaceful. It is an ill wind and all that but I do regret the economic impact to our neighbours. Our mountain villages really need tourism. I am however of the view that it must be a more sustainable tourism that respects and nurtures the traditional hill farming environment that used to be the mainstay of life here.

On the same subject, I was also slightly anxious about cornering the Kaş Mayor to raise my concerns about illegal building. I had undertaken on my return from England to go and see him and follow up face to face my concerns about the rash of unlicensed development.

I did not have an appointment. However, after a three hour wait whilst he was cloistered with the management of the local water company (ASAT) he very graciously, I thought, gave me his undivided attention for a full twenty minutes. I cannot think of many countries where you would get that kind of open access to an important and busy man. What passed between us, and my commentary, I will keep for my other blog savekaskalkan.net, which I hope to update soon.

It is proving an eventful and frankly very difficult summer here for the Turkish people. Who can fail to have been moved by the tragic situation so many people, often country people living tough lives, have been reduced to by the forest fires that have blazed across the region? Many have lost everything. The response by locals, volunteers and volunteer organisations has been excellent. The government, however, does not appear to have distinguished itself.

Less widely publicised here have been the flash foods in the Black Sea area. These have led to more than 60 deaths and enormous devastation and loss.

Another blow locally has been the absence of tourist pounds and the free spending Brits who are normally keen to part with them. This continues to cause huge anxiety. The only salvation has been in the shape of the yerli (local) turist. The Turks have descended from all corners of the nation in their expensive foreign cars to bring much needed business to stores and restaurants and bring new and outlandish ways of parking to this fusty old area.

There have been a fair few tourists from across the globe too, including no small number of expatriate Turks living in Europe. These return to display their Euro wealth and double park outside Migros, ensuring that we notice how much better their cars are than ours.

Actually I am delighted to say that a new record has been set in the daily competition to see how far the main thoroughfare can be reduced in width by complicated and daring parking manoeuvres. Today 18th August I can report that the main road outside the Taş Fırın (bakery) was throttled down to such an extent that only two wheeled vehicles could pass. This was a masterful display of devil may care vehicle positioning. I take my hat off to these urbanites who are so indifferent to the needs of others not to mention the risk to the gleaming coachwork of their German built steeds. I really salute them!

It is interesting to speculate where the current change in the visitor demographic will settle. There is no doubt that Kalkan is now a Destination to a far wider group than it previously was. Turks, in particular younger Turks, and international tourists from a wide range of destinations have had Kalkan to themselves this year. This is certainly a good thing for the health and diversity of the local tourist economy. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out with the return in numbers of British tourists next season.

Anyway it is great to be back in this vibrant, challenging, complex, polarised, beautiful country. And it is THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN.

Yes! The Mouse Island Swim is rearing its head. No! Don’t go!

This will be the 11th Swim I have organised and I really mean it to be my last. Next year I will step back and let AKUT organise the international competitive swim, modelled on the Kaş Meis one, which is their heart’s desire. I will participate. Indeed I hope to compete in the Over 70’s section (I know! Unbelievable isn’t it?).

But this year we will be a small number of swimmers supporting two linked causes. We will give half to the local branch of the national search and rescue organisation AKUT, who have been very active in the fire centres across Muğla and Antalya. We will also be distributing 50% to help victims of the fire rebuild their lives. I have a small group of locals, Ilkay Utaş, Altan Türel and Linda Bestwick who will help me make decisions about the best way to distribute the money we raise within for fire disaster victims. Your suggestions will be welcome.

There is a link to our Fundrazr page at the bottom of this post, where you can learn more detail about the appeal.

This year we are a small number of swimmers and so I have broadened the swim to recruit Associate Swimmers. We are asking these to pledge to raise or pay from their own pockets a sum of 1200 TL or 100GBP. For this they can follow in a dayboat and swim the last bit in with the main swimmers. We will all come in together for a grand finish on the beach. Details of this will be on Facebook and on the campaign page below.

With your generous donations along with money raised by the Swimmers and Associate Swimmers we intend to raise 10,000 GBP. A small enough amount in the face of such need but it is our most ambitious target yet. It comes at a time when local businesses and individuals have little cash to spare so I am depending on the generosity of those Friends of Kalkan who live and earn abroad and those local, mostly retired foreign residents whose incomes have not been hurt by the pandemic and other events.

I will be recruiting a number of local youngsters who would like to swim the last kilometre with us for whom I am finding sponsorship. I will be profiling details of all our swimmers on Facebook and on our campaign page.

Here is the link to the site where you can learn more and also make a contribution. We have been blessed by a few very big contributions so it would be really nice to see a few regular 10 and 20 pound donations as these always form the mainstay of our campaign.

Thanking everybody for their generosity and continued support as always

I am, a fortunate and grateful for everything,

EnglishmanAbroad