Bafa Lake

Thru the years I've probably passes from the road near the Bafa Lake countless times, but never stopped. However last week we planned to spend a day there. Our small group consisted of 4 Fins and 3 Turks.

2000 years ago Bafa was a bay of the Aegean Sea. Due to deposits of a nearby river, it was slowly seperated from the sea. Depends on how you look at it, this area could be considered lucky or unlucky. As it is very close to famous beach resorts of the country like Bodrum, Marmaris and Kusadası, it was totally ignored by the gods of tourism. If you ask me that's where its beauty comes from..


When we arrived the small village Kapikiri, near the lake, morning routine of the villagers had already started. I took many photos but my favorite one was the lady on the horse. She was herding her cows.



After finding a place to leave our stuff, we hired two small boats to start our excursion on the lake. Everybody was very happy. Husbands at our boat were very happy because they had plenty of cold beer and our boatman was very happy because they were sharing the beers with him. On the other boat, the two local boys were very happy because they were carrying the three Nordic beauties.

The village of Kapikiri is built on the ruins of the ancient city of Heracleia. There are countless ruins on the shore as well as in the lake. The landscape was just amazing.











After spending some time on the lake, we decided to swim and the boats took us to a lovely small beach. The water of the lake was warm and slightly salty, reminder of the days which it was a sea. Then the local boys proposed to show us some rock paintings. As it requires some climbing, only me , my husband and Juha decided to go along. My willingness and courage to climb rocks with a mini skirt and flip flops was probably coming from the wine I drank on the boat but that was a totally different issue.


With lots of pushing and pulling, I finally climbed the rocks and we entered a small cave. There, I saw the most amazing art on the wall that was painted in the prehistoric times. As I have never seen one before, it was really a breathtaking moment. I felt like I was looking right into the eyes of a caveman. An unforgetable moment. It definitely worth all the bruises and scratches on my arms and legs. Later I learned that archaelogist Annelise Peschlow discovered more than 100 prehistoric paintings in the area.