Since our last post at the beginning of July it has been action packed 🙂 . Met up with Pete and Deb who had made their way from Corfu through the Corinth Canal and across the Aegean Sea to Bozburan Turkey. Great to see them again and we got busy hanging out and visiting quite a few anchorages and small towns along the southern Turkish coast. We did 817 nautical miles approx.

After getting together with Pete and Deb in Bozburan we made our way to Marmaris but had a stop at the stern-to tie up in Kumlubuk for a nice meal out. Decided to do the Daylan River cruise again, but this time in one of those big tourist boats that leave from Marmaris. Good fun except for ALL THE PEOPLE! Took us to the entrance to the Daylan river where we boarded the smaller river boats. Ended up at the mud baths where Deb indulged in a mud bath. Sorry no pics of the mud bath 🙁

Revisited St Nicholas tomb on Gemiler island. We stern tied to the rocks on the opposite side of the island as it was very busy, but as a couple of yachts left the MAD boat decided to move over the other side. All was going well until Pete decided he would row over to check out how it was all done and on the way over reached out to grab a hold of MAD and dumped himself in the inlet just as another yacht was coming though. He managed to maneuver out of the way and I wish I had a camera out for that one. We also moved over to Blue Lagoon the next day to see all the fuss was about.

Kas

Made our way to Kas (pronounced cash) by way of Kalkan. Kas turned out to be a pleasant surprise in it’s bohemian style. Very artsy. The town occupies the site of ancient Antiphellos, with still-visible ruins including a theater. The 4th-century-B.C. Lion Tomb, with 2 carved lion heads, is one of many Lycian rock tombs in the area. The town center has whitewashed houses and buildings covered in bougainvillea. Had lunch at Pells. A real must do if you ever get to Kas.

Kaleüçağız

Kas to Kaleüçağız into a very shallow protected anchorage. Spent a couple nights here and introduced ourselves to an Aussie boat “Epicurios”. Attempted to hike over to visit the ruins, because you just can’t get enough ruins. It was a little difficult to find so abandoned that venture to try another day. Had a fill up of water at Hassen Deniz restaurant. You get water if you eat at the restaurant.

From there we made our way to Finnike for the infamous pump-out. In Turkey yachts are required to pump-out their black water tank every 10 days and pay anywhere from 110TL to 210TL depending on where you go. Got the pump-out and then we headed back to Kaleüçağız while Galene anchored outside Finneke for the evening (calm anchorage wins for us every time).

In Kaleüçağız we decided that we were going to try to find the ruins that were supposed to be part of the Lycian Trail. Set out and scrambled through the brush until we hit a road. For the life of us we couldn’t figure out which side street led up to the ruins because there are no signs. I think that all of the ruins in the area are just taken for granted and there is no control over visitation or anything. Had to ask a local in broken sign language and bad english where the ruins were. After some discussion he understood and wanted us to hop on his little moped so that we could go down the road. Not happening. We walked and he led the way. He pointed to where we needed to go and it was some guys driveway with a goat herd. Got to the end and the farmer understood that we wanted the ruins and pointed the way. A lot of work for more ruins. Turns out that the path for the ruins was right where we put the dinghy when we started, because we found the markers on the way back. Good walk though, for more ruins. Interesting the history associated with this part of the Turkish coast and the habitation of the Lycians

We keep our organics on the boat so we can feed the goats, our good deed for the spare food source they have. We also tried to visit the bat cave for a snorkel but they had closed it for safety, so we went to Smugglers Den instead for a beer. Good sunsets and then back to Marmaris by way of Blue Grotto where we got swarmed by biting flies and a stop in Eckincik for the water and laundry.

Our last hurrah in Marmaris was a Turkish Bath sponsored by Pete and Deb. Arranged to get picked up with a few other tourists and taken to a “bathhouse”. Got showered and scrubbed till the tan came off. Massaged to no end. Great experience and highly recommended.

After all that we had to say goodbye to Pete and Deb as our time in Turkey was up and they still had work scheduled for their boat. So we checked out in Marmaris and went to hide out for a couple of days in the Greek islands so we could check into Greece for the 1st of August.