Sailing Turkey

September 2016 

After only four days at work since getting back to London from Italy, it was time for our next boat-based holiday - Turkey!

This trip was for our friend Joelyne's 30th, and a group of 16 of us were filling a boat and cruising along the south west coast of Turkey.

We flew out of Stansted Airport after a little bit of drama with cancelled trains and mixed messages, and arrived at Dalaman airport around 10pm on Saturday night. We were driven the hour long journey to Fethiye by our guesthouse receptionist, and headed out for a late dinner of an iskender each in the town centre area before heading to bed.

Sunday 

We started the day with breakfast at the hostel - the Turkish breakfast was quite similar to most continental breakfasts of cold cuts, fruit, cheese.



Then we headed out to explore the town and walked up to see the Tombs of Amyntas. These were 2500 year old tombs built by the ancient Greeks and carved into the hillside.

Tombs of Amyntas

By this time (11:30am) it was already pretty swelteringly hot. We went for a walk to Paspatur, the old town in the middle of Fethiye full of bars, cafes and souvenir shops, and headed out to the waterfront where I tried a Turkish coffee for the first time. I really liked it: it came in a tiny cup not much bigger than a shotglass, and was very strong but not too bitter. With a little sugar it was even better. And the coffee is unfiltered, so about a third of the cup is full of the sludgey grounds.

Next up we went to the Old Turkish Bath to - you guessed it - try a Turkish bath (or hammam). It was a really cool experience. First we sat in a warm bath-type room for about 15 - 20 minutes to relax. Then we lay down on the warm marble stone for the scrape and clean. I was just wrapped in a towel, and Rach just in her bikini bottoms. First a guy with a coarse mitten on his hand scoured the dirt and old skin, then another guy soaped and rinsed it all off. By the end of it we felt really relaxed and lazy, and they gave us lemon tea while we chilled out a little. It's definitely something I would recommend and would do again. 




We followed up with a tasty lunch at a highly recommended (via TripAdvisor) restaurant called Pasa Kebab. We had a pide (a long, pizza-like dough with meat and onion topping) and a pasa kebab which was a cheese covered pasta-like dish, washed down with some Efes beer - this is the local cheap beer but with a lot more flavour than most lagers. We hadn't planned for the free salads and bread starters, so it ended up being quite a big meal. 

Lunch at Pasa Kebab

This part of Turkey has a fair few Turtles, and we were lucky enough to see a couple of them in the harbour as we walked along. 






We then took a water taxi to Calis beach, a little to the north of Fethiye. 

This holiday was a far slower-pace than most, so we just decided to sit on the beach reading our books with a bottle of Efes, and watch the sunset.

Calis beach

We then took a water taxi back to Fethiye and had a dinner of kebabs which were nowhere near as good as Pasa Kebab.

Monday

Fethiye wasn't a particularly big place and we felt we'd seen most of what it had to offer so we decided to do a day trip to Rhodes - our first visit to Greece. Armed with our passports we took a 9:00am ferry to Rhodes and arrived around 10:30am.


After getting through passport control we wandered through the old town. Rhodes had a strange feel to it that I can't quite describe. Most of the town within the walls still looks and feels old, and it had a lot of very nice streets to wander along, but unfortunately a lot of the old city was also full of tacky souvenir shops.  It was also very picturesque,but oddly pictures don't really give you an impression of it or do it justice.

Rhodes

We also did a walk of the walls which was interesting - most of the fortifications are still in place from the mid-1500s.

Lunch was at a place in the newer part of town - chicken gyro, pork souvlaki and a Greek Salad to share.

"Deer on a stick!" - Rach

We also decided to chill at the beach for a couple of hours, reading, swimming and enjoying the sun.

"Its all Greek to me!" -
Rach, every time she saw a sign in Greek.

We took the 5pm ferry back to Fethiye and by the time we got back to the hostel, we saw our cruise companions had started to arrive.

We were pretty hungry by this point so headed out for dinner by ourselves to Mozaik Bahce, a restaurant in the middle of town. I had a stuffed chicken and Rach an Arabic kebab. Both were top quality, especially the chicken and it edged out Pasa Kebab.

We headed back to the hostel and the group asked us for a dinner recommendation - so the 14 of us headed back to Mozaik Bahce, and I wouldn't be surprised if they ran out of stuffed chicken that night.

Mozaik Bahce

We had a dessert to share and I had a Turkish coffee then it was off to sleep.

Tuesday 

A couple more people had arrived late the night before, and the full party of 16 of us got on board our boat by 10:30am and set off.

We headed south around the coast from Fethiye, and the weather was a little hazy and cloudy, so the paragliding excursion was cancelled. It was also a little rough on the water, making Rach feel a little green around the gills. We stopped at Butterfly Valley (where the captain told us there were no butterflies) and swam while most of the group went for a walk.

Swimming near Butterfly Valley

Unfortunately we couldn't see the Blue Lagoon (Oludeniz) due to the bad weather and the Turkish warships' manoeuvres resulting in all nearby ships having to change course. So we motored around the coast for four hours straight, and luckily the weather improved as we went along. We stopped at a nice spot for the evening for another swim, where "Cappy" towed us along behind the dinghy on a rope.



Because it was so hot in the tiny little cabins below decks, virtually everyone slept on the topdeck under the stars. It was nice to see the stars, even if not having my contact lenses in at night reduced my visibility. 

Wednesday 

Sleeping up on deck, the sunrise was pretty amazing to see. We also had a very early start, with a 6am departure from the little cove towards the town of Kas. 

We managed to find, write (over another Turkish coffee) and post some postcards while many of the others went paragliding. 

We also swam at a "beach". Not quite what you'd expect given the name, the beaches were really swimming areas off the rocks, with beach loungers and bars on the nearby shore. I enjoyed the swimming, but there was strange phenomenon of the water alternating between really warm and really cold.

Watching a few of our paraglider companions land, in Kas.

  

We sailed for an hour or two after Kas then stopped our at spot for the night. It was a very calm spot, with very little wind and really warm water for swimming - perfect for beer/cider to be floated out to us in the water.

We had a beautiful sunset, and slept again under the stars.

Thursday

Thursday morning swim

We had another early swim the next morning - Jo's birthday - where Rach snuck off the boat and was first in the water by 6:30am.

Afterwards we headed past the ruins of the "Sunken City", a city which sank into the sea 2000 years ago due to earthquake.

Part of the Sunken City 

Then it was across the bay to Kalekoy, a small village which was overlooked by the ruins of the medieval Simena  castle.

Boating to Kalekoy

View from Simena castle

After heading up to the top of the castle, we chilled out having ice cream at a cafe which looked over this little bay with an ancient Lycian tomb in the middle. This was quite different from the normal ice cream we're used to - very tasty, but with a thick, almost elastic consistency so it didn't melt quickly.

Just a Lycian tomb

We motored on for a short distance to a beach which was known for having a lot of turtles nearby - and sure enough we saw a few turtles from the boat, but once we got in the water they got very shy and kept their distance from us. Because there was a river nearby, the water was very strange to swim in. The freezing cold freshwater flowing along the surface of the water made my head and shoulders cold, but the warm seawater made everything shoulders down really warm. And the freshwater had really bad visibility, like looking through rippling ice.

Then another short motor onwards to our last stop for the night (and the whole trip) where we'd be going to the Smugglers Inn bar.

Swim at our last stop

The crew celebrated Jo's birthday by bringing out a birthday cake and a watermelon carved by the ship's cook.

Birthday watermelon

Everyone got a bit more dressed up than usual and Smugglers Cove had only 16 customers that night - we had the bar to ourselves.

A botched attempt at what was supposed to be a deadpan photo.

We ended the night by skinny dipping and jumping off the boat, before getting dressed again and sleeping on deck.

Friday

We slept at the very front of the boat so were up again to enjoy the early morning sun. After breakfast we said our goodbyes to the captain and crew, and left the boat at 10:30am near Demre. And from there we began our almost full day of travelling to get back to London:

• two hours on a minibus to Olympos where we said goodbye to everyone else who was staying the night there in the treehouses.  
• two hours on a bus to Antalya for our flight: our minibus driver (who spoke no English) drove us to the bus stop, bought us a lemonade and stayed with us until the bus picked us up. We found that the people in Turkey were all very friendly and helpful, and they really put the people of Croatia and Italy to shame in this department.
• waiting in the Otogare (bus station) for a few hours: we arrived earlier than expected in Antalya, but with no guidebook and no internet available to do research or find maps, we decided to just relax and have a (very good) meal in a (very cheap) bus station cafe. 
• hour bus to the airport
• waiting in the airport for about 4 hours for our 10:45pm flight
• 4 four flight to Gatwick 
• two hours spent on a train and two buses, and we were home.

But it was all worth it - to get back in time to see Mr William Martin Joel at Wembley Stadium!

So thanks Turkey, it's been a blast. And thanks Jo and everyone we travelled with for making it such a memorable trip.