Once again the pumping out held us up leaving but not so much this time. But after the last minute printer buying we didn't get away till after 3.00 so decided to try Butterfly Bay just an hour and a half away. We had heard that it gets crazy busy with Gulets and pirate ships but when we pulled in we were the only boat there apart from a couple of little power boats. We snorkelled and saw lion fish and turtles in crystal clear water about 7 metres deep. The next day was a different story! How they fit so many tourist boats into one small bay, but they do. So plenty of noise and music and mucky water but quite bearable for a day or two. There is a beautiful little valley that winds up from the beach between precipitous cliffs. There is a little tent and shack city in the trees that looks mostly occupied by left over old hippies. We swam ashore wandered around it a bit and got shooed away but some old dude brushing his teeth in the middle of a track. it seems you have to pay to go to the waterfall and cannot just wander around the accommodations.

Next stop was Kas. A four hour trip south and east. What a lovely surprise. We anchored with 2 lines ashore in Bayinder Limani just across from the harbour entrance. The water is crispy cool and clear. Someone (council, a museum, government?) has buoyed off a section and put replica ruins in the water to dive on. What a great idea! There are columns, headless toga wearing statues, horse statues, scattered amphorae etc. It must be quite new as there is no mention of it in our apps or books. Just to the other side of us was a sunken DC3 and a couple of boats to dive on in about 18m. You can see the underwater museum just with a snorkel and mask but the other is a dive. Peter and Kiki dived on a DC3 plane wreck in 18m of clear water. there are also 2 boats down there in the same location.

Interestingly the more you move into the Med area the saltier the water becomes therefor more buoyant. I can hang vertically in the water with my whole head out without moving. OK, OK, I hear the comments about built in buoyancy tanks - but nevertheless…..just observing.

The town of Kas is very attractive. Lots of winding paved streets staggering around the waterfront and up the hill. The harbour front is typically ice creams, fast food stands and boat trip sellers, but back one street - everywhere were lovely hidden courtyards for meals and drinks or winding stairs leading to tiny balconies with views. We tried not to worry about the engineering of some of these. Lots of silverware shops and boutiques of good quality and intriguing antique/curio shops. Many, many dive boats and day tripper boats go out from the harbour each day but our spot remained fairly quiet and those that do turn up leave after an hour or so usually.

One day we took the ferry across to Kastillerizo, a Greek Island just 3 nm from Kas. There is a Greek warship that patrols that bit of water as you can imagine. Partly for illegal immigrant activity and partly to remind Turkiye whose island is whose. It is a lovely place that was devastated by an earthquake in 1926 and then further devastated by Italian and British bombing during the war. It was so awful that the entire population up and left for Australia. They have since returned and put their country back together and it is now unified as part of Greece, despite the British promising it to Turkiye at some point after the war. We learned all this in a museum in an old mosque. Tourism is their major thing now and they do it well. We heard many Australian accents around the cafes and restaurants. I heard about Katillarizo from my hairdresser in Brisbane whose mother came from here to Australia. Kiki is in a state of high excitement as he met a journalist/blogger on the Kastillerizo ferry who he listens to all the time and is very famous in Spain. All about history and human mysteries. They had dinner one night together. Next stop Kerkova.