Our next stop was Kekova just 2 hours around the corner. A very pristine area with a sunken city. we started off in an anchorage with two jetty restaurants. One, Ramazan, was supposedly famous for their kofte meat balls, chips and salad - it did not disappoint. I was surprised we could both still float when we went for an after lunch dip! The jetty was about the most rickety I've seen, including the Caribbean and that's saying something. We next went half an hour round to Kalakoy and anchored again. This was a cute little town with Hassan's restaurant highly recommended, deservedly so. The sunken city of Simena is just around from us and we went over it in the dinghy - you can't snorkel on it we found out just in time! It went under in an earthquake in 200 BC - old Lycian/Byzantine city of some considerable size on Kerkova Island. The ruins that are above water are quite visible.

Having looked at all available info we decided to go to Kalkan as they had pump out facilities and was on our way to the general Gocek area. It turned out to be a lovely surprise - a very pretty town of some quality, even the fake goods were of superior quality and the restaurants had more international food on their menus. Bit sick of the tourist fare of kebabs, chips and rice. As it turned out there was no pump out after all! Oh well…

We zoomed over to the Gocek Islands and stopped first at Marti (Seagull) Bay. Someone has gone to the trouble of making a large seagull on the shore out of white rocks that is pretty but onshore was feral. A bunker type "restaurant" operated by people who appear to live in some scruffy looking tents around the corner - sanitation came very prominently to mind. We didn't linger but moved to Cleopatra Cove and anchored right near to the ruins, partly submerged, of her baths. Right next to the ruin was a mistake as it turned out to be verboten!! A couple of very obscure signs on a couple of trees (a smallish white circle nailed to the trunk) meant swimming only - who knew? We moved a bit around the corner no problem before the coast guard could fine us - good tip off from some swimmers. We swam in and around the ruins, quite amazing really that you can just do this. We're not sure if "Cleopatra's Baths" is a bit like the "The Oldest Pub in England" thing. There can't possibly be as many as are advertised around Turkiye, but then again, maybe - who knows?

A fun feature of this area is that the two main supermarket chains, Carrefor and Migros, have large boats that move around for shopping from - also a pump out boat. Very convenient. Smaller boats come around with bread and fruit and veggies too.

We had an interesting meal in the bay near Ruin Bay. Super expensive, we were expecting that from the reviews but what got us intrigued was that the comments ranged from terrible to exquisite so we couldn't resist going. Peter ordered Tandoori goat which had absolutely no curry flavour of any description, Spanish style rice and baked potatoes - no naan or raita. It should have been described as pulled oven baked goat. My tempura prawns were actually covered in Panko crumbs. it was all nice enough but not super special and they really should have had a better idea of what they were actually serving for the money. Ordinary wine at an inflated price too. However, the service was good and the setting was lovely. The restrooms very over the top fancy. All aimed at Russian super yacht people judging by the other diners. "Ve ave a reservation vor Dovetsky".

The weather has cooled down a lot in the past week thank goodness. Now highs in high 20s and lows of 22ish. Very pleasant. We can choose to go for a swim rather than having to. We are preparing for Paul and Glenys to arrive in one week. Peter has to move out of his "man cave" aka the spare guest cabin. it'll be more a discipline than a hardship - keeping paperwork tidy, instead of spread all around.

Next up we had one night at Yassica Adalari Island just out of Gocek harbour so as to be close for an early pump out and into the D-Marin Marina to wait for Peter's brother Paul and his wife Glenys who arrive on the 2nd Sept. Eclipse, the super yacht being linked to Putin is not far from us. 160m long…makes an interesting google.