Datca: Almost the Land's End

The first time I visited Datca was all the way back in the summer of 2003, during my very first visit to Turkey. As that first visit to Datca lasted just one afternoon, I had a hazy but pleasant memory of a peaceful little fishing village at the very end of the Datca Peninsula, surrounded by olive groves and almond trees.

 

At that time, Datca was a small place with just a handful of houses, a small fishing port, and some lovely bays with crystal clear waters. It was that few leisurely hours in the afternoon spent sitting on an old wooden pier that extended into the shallow crystal clear waters of the Aegean around Datca that give this unremarkable fishing village an out-of-the-world feel.

Almost ten years on, Datca has become a mid-size town and I could barely recognise the place. The once green and lush countryside has now been taken over by rows of newly built holiday homes and apartment houses. It seems the all powerful Turkish property developers have already set their foot on this far far away corner of Turkey's equivalent of Land' End.

It was a very cold and windy day when I visited Datca again after almost a decade. Strong winds swept in from the sea and the air temperature was close to freezing. Perhaps it is because either my sense of the aesthetics has changed over the last few years, or that I have seen far too many beautiful coastal towns in both Turkey and Greece since my previous visit to Datca, but this time round, Datca does not appear in the least interesting or attractive at all. The town has lost its down-to-earth appeal, and is just like any other ordinary town which can be seen all over Turkey. There is nothing remarkable or special about it that warrants a return visit.

I am not sure if it is because I visited the place in the wrong time of the year - before the beginning of the tourist season and when the weather was still very cold - in fact the air temperature was so cold that at one point, snow flakes were seen drifting down the sky. But someone who is familiar with the region has actually already warned me in advance that the town of Datca has changed a lot since I last saw the place, and is now fast becoming urbanised and lacking in character. Hence what I saw 10 years on in Datca does not come as a surprise, after all.

Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng.