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This is to be a three week 'all in one' in Turkey - post.
Where to begin ?
Istanbul, where we flew into (with our bikes from Belgrade) on the 7th August, after an amazing cycle trip of 4023km across Europe and 10 countries.
Istanbul is a lightyear from Europe, and particularly Eastern Europe !
18 million people (Istanbul) cant be wrong, it is really an 18 million people wholesale store - everything is for sale, everywhere. If they dont have it, their mothers brothers Aunt has one and they will fetch it, if you would like to hold on, sit (stool placed behind you) & have a glass of Turkish black tea (that has also already been fetched), they will go & get it - just 2 minutes.
Polite positive & persistent without being rudely pushy, everyone is a born salesperson.
We spent 5 days in Istanbul to settle in and acquaint ourselves with a plethora of delights like, comedian icecream sellers, Simit (think bagel) with nutella for breakfast, Balek Ekmek (freshly caught & cooked fish between a bun), delicious Ayran (creamy yogurt drink), Turkish tea, baklava, spices, Turkish delight & roasting chestnuts on the street all
kept our nostrils & palettes tempted.
While ornate mosques, the busy Bosphurus waterway, the call to prayer every few hours, centuries ofOttoman, Turk & Roman history, Dervish dancers, old shoe shine merchants & fabulous fabrics rich in colour to overload our visual senses until after 5 days we left to make our way South via Cappadocia/Goreme, Pamakkale & Selcuk to meet up with friends Reg & Wilna in Bodrum and sail LURLINE (Oceanis 40) to Marmaris and her winter storage.
We flew to Cappadocia/Goreme & holed up in a cave house, dug into the hillside, eerily cool in the blistering heat of the day, yet comfortable enough at night with just a sheet !
Some mornings we would wake early at 4am, ready ourselves & by 5am as first light started breaking we had hiked out into the rock column formations to watch 100 hotair balloons and their passengers effortlessly lift over us just metres away, and drift perilously close to some precarious phallic looking formations, convinced they would knock them over.
Once the sun was well up, we would hike up the surrounding valleys and explore 100's of carved out, centuries old rock dwellings, or delve into an
8 floor deep underground city at Derinkuyu Yeralti Sehri !
Most evenings after replenishing our famished bodies with some local delight in the village, we would stagger back to our cave house sit on the verandah overlooking the 1000's of twinkling night lights of the town, with a bottle of Red and ponder our day.
Next we made our way by coach to Pamukkale (a mesmerising mountain of terraced, stepped, white calcified pools) crystal clear cascading slowly down the hillside. We stayed in a pension (this one with a pool). Turns out, every house in the village has a pool ! The crystal clear mountain water gushes down nearly every street. A metal plate seperates it from flowing into a purpise made trench into each property. A pump each evening empties the pool, next morning the plate lifted & pool refilled. No chemicals, no circulation & no power - just love the simplicity of it.
The following day we climb aboard the trailer being pulled by a tractor to get delivered to the ruins at Aphrodisias with the largest stadium (200m long) where athletes & chariots would compete. As ruin sites go this has to be one
of the best, least publicised, nicest ones we have ever seen.
We lunched in the village at a friendly terrace cafe where two african Ethopian students tended to our needs as a way to pay their college fees whilst studying in Turkey.
Much later that afternoon we made our way back to the top of the mountain and cascading pools and cooled off (rather than fight the midday crowds) & watched the transuculent pools melt into the evening glow, until we could stay no longer for fear of being locked in for the night.
The ride in the local dolmus bus of which there are 100's to Selcuk (said Selchuk) was fairly mundane which was contrary to the ruins at Ephesus just out of the town. They are massive in magnitude & must have been a magnificent spectacle in their day.
The culture shock we got arriving in Bodrum was quite tangible. A port town, with well heeled tourists a plenty & all the fashion brands strutting their stuff up & down the jetties. In our scruffy, sweaty attire we washed downa beer each to cool off on the quayside & spent the afternoon exploring the town. We
dined at a romantic cafe, with a waterside table that evening just off the market square.
The following day 19th we had a precarious dolmus ride & then a 1km walk to a small bay to meet with Reg & Wilna on the boat. It was great to see our friends again, and to be at sea and on the ocean again.
Sailing Turkey waters is spectacular & we overnight in gorgeous (non-tourist) quant small marinas, with intriguing names like Palamutbuku.
On the way down the coast about midday, we had first hand account with refugees and was the second yacht to see them drifting helplessly in an inflatable just off our bow, in waters between Turkey and Greece. After some discusdion aboard we decided that the first yacht had everything in hand (and no lives were at risk) so left it to them as we heard them radio both Turkish & Greek authorities.
One of the remote bays we tied up alongside a rikety timber jetty and went ashore to the only building on the island & pay our mooring fees etc to the harbour master, restuaranteer, ferryman, publican and chef, with of course his resident
donkey.
Our mooring fees included a three course exquisite evening meal.
If you would like the seafood main, a tray of freshly caught fish is brought to you to make your selection.
We make our entry into Marmaris a few days early as the forecadt is showing an uncomfortable 40knts to come. We get the black tank (no 2's) vacuumed out, and refill the fuel tanks and get lifted out to the hard, and clean and wash down the boat.
Then the 4 of us sit down in our elevated cockpit, high & dry, no gentle rocking of the ocean, open some drinks and toast a great trip.
The next day we make our way to our tour launch with the other 300 pundits, to hitch an interesting ride to Dalyan.
On route we snorkel turquoise waters, stop to view an oceancave, and then are commuted to umteen timber launches & ferried for 30min through reed beds to a turtle beach and research station. We saw recuperating propeller injured turtles & babies 1 day old to be released that evening. We amble down to the beach for a swim, thenback aboard to get a mudbath in the thermal
pools - all I can say is it was hilarious, and muddy (and supposedly therapeutic). Then back aboard, and padt the Kings Tombs carved out of the rock, before we jump ship in Dalyan, where we are to stsy for a few days.
A great way to get there, all in a day.
Besides soaking up all that Dalyan had to quenchus with, we did hike out to the ruins of Kaunos where Aphrodite was said to bestow 'good voyage & abundant profit' on the sailors leaving the once thriving & now silted up port.
The next morning we dolmused to Koycegiz, cycled 25km around the lake to reach the therapeutic mud baths, to cake, bake & wash for the day (now we were hooked).
The following (mud free) day in Gocek was aquantum shift as it drips in mega wealth and the sign atthe marina reads 'Mega Yachts only' but we had a lovely inexpensive pension & pool to cool our heels.
We would then make our way further South to Fethiye, and the imminent arrival of Sarah & Brenen with the exciting news of their recent engagement.
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