Fethiye

Our last day on the boat.

Our Capitan took ill during the night. Quite alarming, but he could barely get out of bed with the fever chills and flu. The cook and deckhand stepped in and got the boat to a cove when they realized the Captain could barely uncurl himself from a vomiting fetal position, never mind navigate a ship. A new Capitan was ordered up, and they took our sick one to hospital.

After lunch and one last swim in a secluded cove, the boat pulled into port at Fethiye. We said our goodbyes and all went our separate ways. That is, after the rep from the boat had made sure that we paid our tabs.

Fethiye had a booming port and market, but as soon as you climbed the hill in town, it because a desperately impoverished place. Home-made houses made with scraps of plywood and sheet metal and chickens everywhere.

THe rock tombs carved out of the cliffside were most impressive.

There was a fish market in Fethiye. You chose your fish, then you gave it to one of the cafes nearby to cook it up for you.

Çalış beach was a gorgeous place to take in the sunset.

This part of the coast seemed to cater to British tourist, as every other place on the boardwalked served fish and chips and bangers and mash. Because, you know. When you are on vacation someplace where the cooks actually know how to respectfully cook vegetables, you start to crave mushy peas. We avoided the anglos and sat on the beach with our kebaps and effes. Bliss.

I had no idea how beautiful Turkey would be.

St Nicholas Island

We anchored in a calm bay near St Nicholas Island. So did lots of other boats, and there was a good amount of ice cream being sold from small skiffs.

We climbed to the top of the island to catch the sunset. The island is covered with ruins of Byzantine churches.

The captain had told us, "Nothing is fucking free in this country". You get charged to see anything, but it's generally around a dollar or two. That is, unless the "official" selling tickets at the dock happens to not be there that day, or headed home early, or had to pee. It's dubious where the money is going to in most of these places, but I'm operating on the assumption that if we are wealthy enough to travel to the middle of nowhere in Turkey, a few more dollars can be thrown down to see an amazing old island.

And damn it, we hiked all the way up there and forgot the wine.

We hiked through the ruins of what used to be a huge tunnel that connected some of the churches. There were gigantic spiders all through it. I had to do a few dances to make sure I wasn't bringing them home with me.

It is called St Nick's because that is were the original tomb of the Saint was. It's long been a Christian pilgrimage site. When we were there, it was pretty quiet and we had it to ourselves to enjoy the sun sinking below the clouds.

Most of these islands and sites had herds of feral goats roaming around to keep the vegetation from choking out the trail.

Blue Lagoon

Our good Captain Umut, whom I just started referring to as "The Ham". A character straight out of a high-seas adventure, truly.

He was most entertaining and chatty, and talked openly about how hard it was to be a captain while trying to have a family. He's gone from May to October every year and rarely gets to see his kids in the summer months. Here was pointing out the point that if you swim past, the resort will charge you for using their beach. Why bother, when the rest of the ocean was free?

We docked at the Blue Lagoon in Ölüdeniz for an afternoon.

The harbor is overshadowed by enormous Mount Babadağ, and every few minutes, a whole herd of paragliders would drop off the top and into the sky, sail over the lagoon and then land on the beach.

Yup.

Paragliding.