Two bananas. One now, one for later. The heat doesn’t lend itself to too full a stomach, especially with today’s projected route in mind. And anyway, the remnants of last night’s Efes should provide most of the carbs I need. Blue Gatorade and bananas. And some more water.

It’s hot in the carpark of the closed restaurant out on the road to Ortaca. The thermometer in the car read 32C but the radiated heat from the concrete adds to the sense of being next to an open oven. The taxi driver wishes me safe travels. It was called Ley Ley – very popular in its time – we never went there. Someone said it means stork in Turkish but a popular internet search engine tells me that’s leylek. There are plaster storks still there on the forecourt, though. Or maybe they’re concrete. I wonder if the Ley Ley will rise again, and the Whirling Dervishes will whirl, and belly dancers will jiggle for the cultural fulfilment of enthusiastic British pensioners and their appropriately-costumed grandchildren?

My taxi disappears into the shimmering distance as though in a scene from a budget road movie and I adjust my sunglasses before crossing the road onto an obscure lane. A cow moans inside a shack, chickens peck in drying sweet-smelling dung, farm workers take a break in the shade of a huge pine tree, and a serious man restraining a boisterous dog bids me Merhaba. A moped buzzes past in a cloud of dust and huge droning hornets circle a water fountain. And then all of a sudden, opposite an olive grove, there’s a turning onto a track and the sights and sounds flip in an instant.

It’s now all skittering lizards’ feet, birdcalls and bees in the sage, and the sound of a hot breeze waving tall, tall trees. I’m in a stunning pine-perimetered, flat-bottomed valley surrounded by towering cliffs, and then I’m in a dry ravine climbing steeply up one side. In and out of the sun, scrambling through the encroaching undergrowth, I catch glimpses back to Okçular. An occasional sharpish (and long) drop on my left focus the mind. Fifteen-hundred feet of uphill toil in this fantastic landscape is an absolute joy. I’m perspiring like a beast. At the top of the rocky spiral staircase, the sound of a chainsaw shatters the peace. Logging. I emerge onto a forest road before ducking quickly back into the trees on easier ground, until a final bit of dirt-track-bashing gets me to the bwlch; the pass; the watershed; the gap.

Behind me is ‘inland’, ahead are views to the coast, to the bleached out horizon, where hazy mountain skylines hang above the turquoise shimmer of the Aegean. It’s stunning. More low-frequency hornets at a water trough prompt a brisk crossing of the track and then it’s downhill twists and turns all the way to Gökbel. Eat the second banana. Drink more blue drink.

As I enter the village, a senior citizen, sitting in contemplation of a stupendous view, leaning on his stick beneath a tree in the garden of his little house, welcomes me. I wave. A take-no-prisoners minibus beeps and flies by, it’s driver waving cheerily as I jump aside into the weeds. I wave. And then at the main road between Itzuzu Beach and Dalyan, where I plan to flag down the next dolmus, there is another beep and a car passes then pulls in a few yards ahead.

“Dalyan?” says the smiling driver.

“Yes. Thanks.”

He clears some papers from the front seat and we’re away. He’s working. I’m from Wales. Yes, that’s right. Yes we are in your Nations League group. I was at the game in Cardiff. Me, not him. Aside from that the ten minute trip is undertaken in a relaxed silence. His English is better than my Turkish, though. He drops me on the edge of town at around 5pm. I shake his hand and thank him for his kindness. He smiles again and is gone.

The bars are quiet and it’s still hot. Today, I spent four hours pretty much off the grid. It’s fantastically rewarding to step away from the ‘noise’ for a while. Passing one of our regular watering holes my phone tunes to the wifi and pings. This is a good a signal to drink beer and take the inevitable plunge back onto the matrix. I wonder what I’ve missed…