Weekending At Full Moon Camp, Kabak – Life’s Good

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We’ve stayed at various camps in Faralya and Kabak over the years, and, this time, it was the turn of Full Moon Camp…

Life’s little traditions. For my birthday, we always go to Antalya.

It’s round about the same time as Runtalya so that tradition has happened by default. For Barry’s birthday, it’s an escape to Kabak.

Only a dolmuş ride away but an amazing journey along the mountain road and a true feeling of ‘being away from it all’ once you arrive.

Full Moon Camp, Kabak

Why Full Moon Camp?

Well, as we said in our July Fethiye update, we book whatever pops up the cheapest at the time.

Full Moon Camp is one of the older, more established camps. We’ve walked through it many times on the footpath to the beach and it’s always looked the part, so we assumed all would be well.

At the Kabak Last Stop, we got off the dolmuş and hit the footpath down to Full Moon Camp.

This is also the footpath to the beach. Others on our dolmuş got onto the shuttle bus that takes you down to sea level but Full Moon Camp sits on the hillside, just a few hundred metres away from the Last Stop.

Much easier to walk.

And besides, isn’t that what getting away from it all is all about? An amble on the mountain paths.

We love this footpath!

Kabak Nature

After just a few minutes, you feel like you’re in the mountain wilderness and Full Moon Camp can be seen, clinging to the hillside, in the distance.

The footpath is steep and rocky in places and you need to watch your footing.

But to be amongst all this lush greenery, the screeching of the cicadas, crickets hopping across the pathway ahead of you, the sound of the distant waves crashing below.

Okay, yeah, and the occasional hornet. Well, nature and all that.

Arrival At Full Moon Camp, Kabak

The footpath cuts straight through Full Moon Camp so we knew we’d find it easily enough.

And after 10 minutes or so, feet covered in dust from the path, we were at the leafy shaded entrance to our home for the next two nights.

Welcome to Full Moon Camp.

We were greeted by a young kid at reception who immediately buzzed someone while gesturing for us to wait.

And then, a few minutes later, a ‘man in charge’ arrived, wet through, in swimming gear. He’d been chilling out in the pool and who could blame him in this weather, eh?

You’re told to relax at Full Moon Camp. Kabak is all about relaxing. Nice to see at least one of the staff members practicing what they preach.

While we were checked in, a quick glance around showed a bar area – and a bonus of reasonably priced drinks. Shaded cushioned seating areas and sofas were on the terrace, beyond the bar.

Ahh, at least we knew we could have a place to chill out tonight after our evening meal.

Our Full Moon Camp Bungalow

We were shown to our bungalow; back down the hill from reception and across the main footpath that leads to the beach.

Through the leafy grounds, we could just spot the swimming pool below us.

A quick mooch around our little cabin and we’d be straight in that water for a cool down!

“This is one of the best bungalows,” said our host. “You’ve got great views down to the beach and out across the bay.”

Wonderful!

We could see the stilts of our bungalow wedged into the almost vertical hillside and we knew we were still high up; perhaps slightly lower down than Olive Garden but deeper into the curve of the hill.

Yeah, these views should be just about spot on.

Everything You Need

Time to take a look, then.

We opened the door and went inside…

A triple bungalow with double and single bed. For us, those single beds come in ever so useful as a messy dumping ground.

A place to release the backpacks of all their cramped, rolled up clothes and other ‘accessories.’

Wardrobe, dressing table with hair dryer, shower room, comfy bed with mosquito net, fan and – importantly – mosquito nets on the windows.

In these days of serious glamping in Kabak, a lot of the new camps – and some of the older ones – are installing air conditioning.

We’re not gonna pretend for one minute that we didn’t make use of it when we stayed at Tree Houses in Kabak, but to have this fan, honestly, for us, it’s more than enough.

Kabak enjoys cool air. Get those windows wide open.

Enjoy the sounds of nature rather than the brum of the air conditioning machine.

And The Balcony View

So, we had everything we needed inside our bungalow.

Now, what about the outside, on the balcony? Errm, well, no complaints from us!

We’re at one of the cheapest camps in Kabak, here, and we can sit on our balcony with a book and a camera, taking in this stupendous view.

Not all bungalows in Kabak have sea views, and not all of the bungalows at Full Moon Camp have, either. The birthday gods were smiling down upon us with this one!

A stunner!

To The Pool

We’d already had a fantastic lunch at the Olive Garden and then made our way to Full Moon Camp from there. Time was ticking on a little and we’d had our little bit of exercise for the day.

The beach could wait for tomorrow. A chill by the pool would do the trick for now.

The pool at Full Moon Camp has a terrace leading off it with those same sea views and a few cushions for lazing around on.

One other guy was there when we went down – he was engrossed in his Turkish translation of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.

We showered and cooled off in the water before taking a cushion and becoming engrossed in our own reading of choice.

You’re not gonna be using this pool for doing your swimming lengths or anything like that. No.

It’s a large plunge pool. Somewhere to submerge and pop back up feeling refreshed from the heat of the sun.

It certainly proved a welcome sight the following day when we hiked back up to Full Moon Camp from the beach below!

Full Moon Camp – Time To Eat, Drink & Chill

All good camps need a place where you can completely relax in a common area at any time of day.

Sultan Camp has this off to a tee, for us, and Full Moon Camp is pretty good at that, too.

Your payment for the absolute joy of staying at these camps in Kabak includes your evening meal and breakfast, the following morning.

At Full Moon Camp, this can be eaten inside the dining area or you can bring your food out to this area in the outdoors.

Food Choice

Breakfast is a Turkish breakfast buffet. Jams, honey, various cheeses, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, fresh fruit, cereal. Our first morning’s breakfast featured boiled eggs, whilst the second morning was a tasty menemen.

Evening meal was again a self service buffet with a meat choice and various accompaniments. The barbecue was fired up on our first night and chicken was served.

On our second night, it was a classic Turkish musakka.

Accompaniments included usual suspects such as rice pilaf, bulgur wheat pilaf, Turkish green beans, biber dolma and other vegetable dishes.

All good stuff to keep you going.

Dining And Drinking With Views

All the while, the views from the bar and communal area at Full Moon Camp are just stunning.

After a late dinner (eat after sunset in any Kabak camp then you don’t need to share your meal with a fleet of wasps), we settled down to a couple of glasses of wine, before going back to our bungalow and crashing out.

Always such a lovely sleep in Kabak.

Showers and breakfast the following morning before heading off on our little jaunt down to sea level to spend Barry’s birthday amongst the crashing waves.

Of course, we enjoyed a few beers down there, too.

And the morning after when we were leaving?

Barry looked up to the road above us. He could see the dolmuş was in.

Wow, was I impressed with myself, hot footing up that hill with backpack, just in time to catch the dolmuş! Must be all that running paying off.

This was definitely one occasion where we were grateful for air conditioning on the dolmuş!

Full Moon Camp, Kabak – Useful Info

• Full Moon Camp is reached by footpath from the Kabak Last Stop dolmuş turnaround (see map below).
• You can reach it by car by continuing along the road and following the signposts.
• Full Moon Camp is an ideal place if you are looking for a comfortable chillout but you are on a budget.
• You can stay in a bungalow at Full Moon Camp and it is also possible to pitch your own tent. There are communal toilets and showers if you take the tent option.
• The dining area has large sliding windows – great if it rains or if the weather is chilly – the camp is open year round.
• Full Moon Camp also has a snack menu if you are just dropping in en route to the beach for the day or if you get hungry between meals.
• The walk down to the beach takes 20-30 minutes, depending which footpath you take. Sturdy shoes recommended.
• If you don’t want to walk back up the hill, you can take the shuttle dolmuş back to the top (the price gets cheaper as more people board) and then head back down to the camp.
• Book a stay at Full Moon Camp or other places in Kabak.

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