Wednesday, 27th June 2018 Wild Boar and Sea Urchins

We have been heading west along the Turkish coast, back to familiar territory. This is still the Lycian coast: wild & rugged with mountains and ravines, mixed with stretches of long sandy beaches that serve as turtle hatcheries. It was home to an Anatolian race about 2 millennium BC who were skilled craftsmen, architects, traders and sailors. They are noted for their rock tombs, elaborate and convivial homes for their dead (see last year's & 2014's entries for this area if interested in the detail).

But for this year, we have been bay hopping, first to Kekova Roads, an almost enclosed stretch of water sheltered by Kekova Island. We popped into Uçağiz briefly to buy bread. We returned with an antique, hand-dyed and woven kilim for the boat. We have had a cheap and tatty carpet runner on board for years - we now have the real deal that will outlast us and the boat. We'd been thinking about this for a while and finally allowed ourselves to be drawn into a shop run by an old man with zero English and his son, whose English was surprisingly good. They sat us down, hauled out carpet after carpet, explained the differences between the kilims and rugs, and gave us chai (Turkish tea). We had firm measurements, so were not too deflected, but they still beat us into submission with smiles - for our part (haggling is not our strong suit), we did get the price down and paid just over half their original quoted amount. It was still much more than we had on us, asked about ATM's (none) or paying part cash and part card. Part card was fine, we were taken to the little mini-market round the corner and they put it through their machine - don't ask me how that one works…. But we're happy (and have a certificate of origin) and they were happy - we had to have pictures taken with us, the shop owners, and our kilim, to add to their collection on their wall.

Onwards and upwards to Kaş and beyond. We left Kaş to be met with a sudden torrential rainstorm; the sort where it is like having a bucket of water upended on you continuously for ½ hour and zero visibility to match. Once clear of that we had a good sail past the Yediburunlar (7 capes with fearsome reputations, but our weather was now good and we kept a distance off).

For the past week or so, we have been in the Gulf of Fethiye and the Scopea Limani, sheltered waters to the south of Goçek. They are like Norwegian fjords (deep and dramatic) but with scorching heat, tourist gulets and market boats to serve you. The mooring method here is usually to drop an anchor and tie back to the shore. Richard does the anchor dropping, I reverse the boat as close as I dare, he comes back, I get in the water and swim ashore with a line he feeds out to me, I find a suitable rock or provided post, tie up, he tightens up on the anchor and hey presto, we're sorted. We have it down to a fine art. What can possibly go wrong? More often than not all is well, but one can muck it up spectacularly - a cross wind, dropping anchor too soon and running out of line (at which point I get dragged along as boat surges forward, not finding a suitable rock and so on. I have more scrapes and bruises from these antics than the boat normally throws at me. The other hazard is the sea urchins clinging to the rocks. Most of us are familiar with the little sea urchins around our shores. These ones are monsters - about 10" to a foot in diameter with spines of 6-8" - see pic. I have little plastic shoes that no normal person would be seen dead in - a fashion statement par excellence that protect my little feet from the craggiest rocks and spiniest of creatures.

Firstly to Fethiye, to its weekly Tuesday market. Did I say Finike was good, well this was something else: it covered acres and acres with the most fresh and colourful produce. Other notable activities in this area included filling up our water tank from a spring in so-called Laundry Bay (Ortisim Bűkű). A spring had been dammed some way up the mountain and a large pipe snaked down the hill to the cove. It poured continuously from the pipe; instinct was to turn a tap off to conserve it. The water is delicious though.

We had yet another birthday on board - mine this time, but thankfully not a special one. We went to "22 Fathom Cove" (Kuyűçak Koyu), so called due to it being exceedingly deep (too deep really for us to anchor comfortably). We aimed for Amigos Floating Boat Restaurant - we had read about it somewhere. They have a rickety jetty they help you moor up to. There are tables ashore, but the cooking is done on their boat. There are also multiple shanty-looking "buildings"/lean-to's and tents and bits of tarpaulin everywhere. Apparently a loo and shower are available part way up the hill. There were goats and chickens and dogs wandering about, a donkey braying in the distance, and toddlers in various states of dress / undress exploring and playing without restriction. The families (3 generations?) running the place also had little organic produce market boats, a water taxi and a textiles and ladies wear market boat.

The meal goes something like this: someone comes along to your boat at around 6.30pm and asks what you want to eat. The choices (set price the same for all) are: wild boar casserole if Grandpa has shot any, goat casserole, fish stew, meatballs, and barbecued fish. Dinner is at 8pm. You gather at 8 and they bring 3 or 4 tasty mezes and bread to the table - your first course. Then your chosen main course comes out in the pot or skillet it was cooked in and you are served directly from that (W had the wild boar and R the goat casserole). Any leftovers of any kind (fish, casseroles, etc) are then brought out and dished out if you are still hungry and want to, regardless of what you originally ordered! And all finished off with fresh fruit. It was extremely basic and rustic. It was also some of the tastiest food we have had in a long while, rich but with subtle use of lovely Turkish spices. It was an experience you must have once - it said that in the write-up, and we agree. A fun birthday experience. We tried to pay at the end of the evening - they waved us away - tomorrow will do.

We did see Grandpa and a grand-daughter haul away a dead goat wrapped in a bit of old carpet. They probably hoped we hadn't noticed…. In the morning we watched Grandpa taking out freshly baked loaves from his oven down the other end of the pontoon - so we had to buy one for the day and settled our bill with them at the same time. Farewells, handshakes and smiles all round as they waved us on our way like departing family.

We nipped up to Goçek for another little shop and more importantly to go to the municipal station to get our holding tank "pumped out" and the deed electronically recorded on our Blue Card (last done in Finike). Very important matters, marine loos - sorry! But the waters are crystal clear and they (and us who swim in them apart from the turtles) are keen to keep it that way.

Time to push on, en-route to the Marmaris area, we stopped behind a tiny island, Baba Adasi, with dive boats for company. On this island we have cockerels and rabbits, in addition to the obligatory goats. The rabbits are wild, but look like the domestic fluffy rabbits beloved of children. And very, very small fishlets. We left there this morning on the advice of the dive boats of a storm coming, passing Dalyan River with its Lycian rock tombs, its blue crabs and ancient Caunos (see last year) to a sheltered anchorage off Pupa Yachting in Marmaris Bay. We'll have a wander into Marmaris tomorrow and then make our way toward the Hisarnou Gulf, Datça and our point of exit from Turkey. And we had a dolphin for company today. So far the storm has missed us - we'll see what tonight brings.

Oh yes, and there was that small matter of the Turkish Elections a few days ago - we're keeping quiet on the subject...