The Idiot has been walking around the Mediterranean Sea for over 16 years but he’s still as excited as a teenager on a first date each time he returns to the path. The emotional, mental, physical and spiritual exhilaration of again taking the first steps into familiar but unknown territory is hard to beat.

That’s because the Mediterranean never fails to deliver.

During the first few days of his current MedTrek outing across southern Turkey to Syria, The Idiot was exposed to the ruins of a city taken over by Alexander the Great in 333 BC, witnessed the contemporary restoration of a magical castle, and explored the mysteries of an ice-age cave discovered in 1999 and opened to the public in 2013.

Alexander the Great annexed the hillside city of Anamurium.

Turkey’s Ministry of Culture is restoring Mamure Castle, which was first constructed in the 4th century.

The dripstones in the Gilindire Cave took The Idiot back to the ice age.

Then there’s the constantly changing sea, the never-ending variations of light and color, and the rugged Turkish coast that can vary from mild and meditative to savage and thunderous.

Sunrise on the balcony of The Idiot’s $22.50 room at the Hotel Dudum in Aydincik, Turkey.

The mild and meditative sea that The Idiot heard each night and saw each morning during his first week out.

(You can see and hear it yourself @ http://youtu.be/RFBycy0uy24.)

The Idiot gets into fisherman mode when he SPOTs his location with a GPS at the end of each day.

The mountainous coast in southern Turkey can be a challenge for MedTrekkers.

A rare patch of sand.

A storm threatens the Mediterranean town of Tekeli.

Not that The Idiot indulges in everything that southern Turkey offers. He didn’t, for example, follow the sign to the Akkuyu nuclear power plant.

The Idiot left the power plant in the hands of its Russian managers.

But he did go to a party where Turkish men displayed how happy they were to have him back on the MedTrek @ http://youtu.be/BgNBjjeI_x8.

And he’ll kick off his second week on the path @ http://fms.ws/JNgeG/36.31684N/33.87113E

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About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."