A brief stay in a marina gives me the chance to update the blog a little. We joined Steve and June on Piper in Marmaris on Sunday 16th September, and two days later sailed south towards Fethiye, stopping on the way to anchor in little bays, with a line from the stern to the shore, in company with a motley collection of vessels, but mostly huge 'gulets', crewed motor/sailing vessels of local design, usually full of holidaymakers who jump into the water the moment they are secured to the shore. Some fly the Thomson flag, so they must be part of package holidays here. Other liveaboard yachts are also in evidence, a whole lot of British ones, I have to say, with Dutch and German and French boats too. There are lots of boats with American flags, all registered in Delaware USA, but all belonging to Turks who find it cheaper to do that then register their boats here! Most confusing! We spotted one familiar boat, Cape Horn, a ketch we remember from Ardfern and Lagos, under new ownership and flying a white ensign!

We stopped on a restaurant pontoon for a couple of nights in a place called Seagull Bay, and ate in the 'restaurant' = (a couple of tables in the open air) -on the second night. A musician joined the table at the end of the evening and we enjoyed some impromptu dancing in the dark. One morning three of us walked up to the top of the nearby hill and investigated an ancient tomb right on the skyline. Interestingly enough the inscription on the back of the tomb (possibly much younger than the tomb itself) was in Greek!

On the top of the hill were some fairly ramshackle goatherds' huts, with nobody about, only a few goats with bells tied round their throats, tinkling gently in the still air as they moved about on the steep hillside.

The waters are pretty busy at the moment, there are boats wherever you go, and because they are full of holidaymakers, they can be quite noisy at might. But there are loads of anchorages on this Lycian Coast, and it is really beautiful. At the end of a day sailing or motoring we are usually happy to slip into the water and cool down with a swim. I forgot to bring my snorkel kit so I bought myself a new one in Marmaris and I have enjoyed snorkelling round the boat and along the shorelines. There seem to be hardly any big fish around, lots of little tiny ones, and some flying fish, that we sometimes see while motoring in flat calm waters. I have seen no crabs, mussels, or any other shellfish anywhere. Rocks are clean! That doesn't stop barnacles forming on the boat's underwater sections, apparently.

We're currently in Fethiye, a bigger town than Marmaris, and with much closer access to the town than in Marmaris, where we had to get a dolmus, or minibus, to get to the town at all. Fethiye has dolmus also, and this system is very simple and everybody uses them. You hail them from any part of their route, not just fixed stops, and pay 2 lire per person, however far you are going. The driver takes the money with one hand while driving
with the other. These guys can multitask!

Temperatures are higher in town here on the pontoon than out there in the bays, it ranges at the moment from about 20 degrees in the morning to 29 or 30 in the heat of the day, when all we can do is hunt for shade.

Yesterday was a quintessentially Turkish day for us. Steve and June took us on a long dolmus journey to the north of the town, and into the hills, where we had a traditional Turkish breakfast at a huge ranch-like restaurant run by one family on their farm, consisting of about 25 different things. There were fried eggs, as many as you could want, bread, jam, honey, salad, cheeses, a yoghurt and mint mixture, black olives, plates of three kinds of melon, tomato paste, and that's just all I can remember! All this was washed down with a fruit juice mix, again as much as you could drink, and then tea or coffee was offered, and apples and oranges too. What a meal!

When we caught the dolmus back into town we wandered about for a while, then June and I decided to do our second Turkish item, and go to a Turkish bath. We did, and it was great. The building dated from 1651, and the hot room was all white marble, with a big slab where we lay down until everything got too hot, then we cooled off with a cold shower. Then we took turns having the defoliating scrub, the soap massage and final rinse, then we were ushered out and enveloped in warm fresh towels to relax and recover before hitting the streets again. I bought the T shirt! The third Turkish experience of the day was dinner in a Turkish restaurant, which was great apart from the meat in a lamb casserole turning out ot be tough! Ah well, so today we are preparing to leave the marina, and continue on our voyage of discovery southwards and eastwards, into waters which Piper has not travelled before. towards Kas and then Finike, where we plan to be by the 14th October.

As before, photos will be added when practicable. Check back from time to time to see if I have managed to put them on. On the meantime, who can identify the quote in the title of this post?