Sunday, 15th June Bodrum & Big Boats, Çӧkermle & Gӧgova Kӧrvezi (Gulf)

They even had the football on here in Çӧkermle, being 2 hours ahead of UK time, glad we did not bother to stay up and watch! We have now been in Turkey just over a week. We were a little concerned at first after leaving Kusadasi. Everywhere was built up - soulless tourist development without a break, with the attendant ghetto blasting musak. All the boats are huge - not just big yachts, but enormous commercial Gulets, mega power boats and big sleek charter & private yachts not just twice our size but up to 5 times.

But we have now started finding some nice stuff (with great names - Gümüşlük (pr gyoomyooshlyuk), Pabuç, Bitek (near Bodrum) and here, Çӧkermle. Tucked away coves, bays, smaller harbours in more mountainous terrain, still very crowded by Greek standards, but attractive. From Bitek we took a dolmus (bus) to Bodrum, an impressive place guarded by a magnificent castle that now also houses an underwater archaeological museum. Both were well worth a visit with the remains of wrecks ancient (14,000 years old) to more modern (a mere 500 or so). Bodrum is a yachting mecca, a sort of Cowes in this part of the world, hosting the Bodrum Cup in the autumn when all the gulets put up full sail and go hell for leather. It is filled to bursting with mega-yachts of all descriptions, some of them absolutely beautiful. Had we ventured in by boat, we might have been able to sneak in unnoticed, we are so miniscule in comparison! Mind, the marina prices match the grandeur, just as well we don't go to those marinas or our cruising life would quickly become short-lived.

Here in Çӧkermle, if you are at anchor, the restaurants send out boats with menus and offers to ferry you ashore and back. If you use their jetty instead, you get free mooring, water, electricity, showers & wifi providing you eat in their restaurant - seems eminently fair and we did take advantage yesterday evening. And very nice it was too.

The one slight difficulty so far is food. Whereas even the tiniest Greek hamlet seems to have a butcher, fruit & veg stall and a bakery, the "tourist" places here only have a few tins, nibbles, water and drinks. So today we got the restaurant to sell us a few of their stores (şiş kebabs & kӧftes) so we have at least a few meals in hand. We are heading further into the Gӧgova Kӧrvezi (Gulf) - and there is nothing but scenery there. And gulets.