Onward and Eastward

Sal has joined the Islamic movement.. It's a protection thing as we sail closer to Syria!

Actually, it is getting a bit cooler in the evenings now...


I spent a day relaxing in Fethiye which was an extra day for Sal to get over her jet lag. We provisioned the boat but were asked if we could move it to make way for a large flotilla coming in. We complied, they directed us into a nice, but very shallow spot. On leaving the following day, a breeze threatened to push us into shallower water so they had their dingy on hand to ensure this didn't happen. The dingy man failed and we hit a rock with the port rudder. Not serious, but I was not happy! They will pick up the tab when the boat comes out in the winter.


Our next stop would be Kalkan, but on the way, we just had to take Sal back to Karacaoren Bay. I have covered it in a previous blog so feel free to go back a couple of posts, this place is heaven on a stick. Even in November the water is warm enough to stay in for ages. A nice swim in for a hang over curing breakfast and then off to Kalkan with paragliders still popping off Mount Babadag as we left.

As you see, it is a 30 mile sail which is longer than we have done in a while so we got going fairly early on the 30th October. We left in dead calm but as soon as we reached open water a NW started to blow. Up went the sails and little did we know it we were in for the best sail ever.

Kalkan Harbour 

The wind reached 25knots, it was blowing in the exact direction we were headed which meant we did have to jibe a few times. We averaged 8-9 knots and turned just before the entrance to Kalkan harbour in order to drop the mainsail.
30 miles, no fuel. I like it!

This is where we said goodbye to Lily. Bye Lily! Thanks for being so good with the kids and in the kitchen and taking care of them while we were away and for being such good company...

Lily headed off for a few days in Istanbul, then Italy. After that she begins her new life in London. Gutsy lady and we wish her all the best.

So what did Kalkan have to offer? (and the stuff you missed Lily!) The Google Meister got to it, we hired a car and had three destinations in mind.

Xanthos was our first stop. The capital city of the Lycian Federation built in the 8th century BC but is believed to have existed during the first centuries of the iron age. The most obvious site was this amphitheater. The best we've seen. Sitting at opposite ends we could converse without raising our voices. There are large areas behind the stage for performers to do what they do and an entrance arch big enough to drive a chariot through... Ignites the imagination.





A trip advisor post had said that this place would only take about half a hour. That was until we were joined by a man in a smart uniform. He became our official tour guide without asking for payment and the half hour became two.

This road was uncovered for the first time only five years ago. It ran down to the port and up to the Citidal. Amazing! Then onto the tombs of Kings and Queens, in fact the entire royal family.

The City walls consisted of bits build by the Lycians who use Pentagonal shaped blocks which are apparently better in earth quakes. The Romans who used square blocks and Byzantines who used cement. These blocks are so big it is impossible to imagine how they cut them, let alone moved them?


Carved out of the rock that was there, except that huge block on top. Please tell me how that got that up there?? The tombs are the biggest we've entered. One accommodating six people on double bunks (calved rock shelves). Once again, all the artifacts from these tombs were pillaged by the discoverer, Charles Fellows and are now somewhere in the British Museum.

We would have seen none of this, nor known what it was about if it weren't for Omer, our uniformed tour guide.

Next stop, the Saklikent Canyon. Three hundred meters deep and 18km long, one of the deepest in the world. It is only open in the summer months after the snow melt from the Taurus mountains.

We were mercifully only allowed to go one kilometer into the canyon because of the possibility of flash flooding at this time of the year. I say 'mercifully' due to the plastic shoes we hired. Combine these with mud, small pebbles and freezing water and our feet were put through the ringer.

It was so worth the effort in the end though.









There were plenty of these warning signs posted about....

we're still trying to figure out what they meant??







By the time we had eaten fresh trout caught by the kids, cut and cooked right there, it was too late to go to the third venue which was to be Patara. The place where St Nicholas (Santa Claus) was born. Ah well....