Türkiye - Pirates Ahoy
More later about our various encounters with Pirate boats!
Below is a map showing our overnight stops mentioned in this blog (yellow anchorage signs plus red dot for our visit by car). The red arrow shows where we currently are (we will cross to Cyprus tomorrow morning)
Yogun Bay/near Oeluedeniz was our next anchorage after Fethiye.
We watched the many Paragliders, Sven clearly missing the sport.
A fake Lidl shop (second picture) surrounded by bars/restaurants and tourist shops.
Butterfly bay
Butterfly Valley is a nature reserve near Oludeniz and home to over 100 species of butterflies. Butterfly Valley cove is surrounded by 350m high cliffs, with a waterfall that pours down the back canyon wall.
Arrived early morning and enjoyed the peace and nice nature around us.......
.....until the surprises kept coming ..... one after the other!
First Hannibal, then Black Peal, then Dragon arrived !!! All with loud music playing.
... shorthly after we got the highlight of all arrivals :
The Viking!!! (turn the sound up to share our experience!)
We could only laugh, when it pulled up right next to us, with a bubble foam bath and people dancing.
Our Teddy, however, was horrified of the snake dragon head and covered his eyes and ears!!!
our temporary noisy neighbours...
The boats only stayed for 1 hour, then pressed ahead.
Once they left, peace settled back in and we went to explore this lovely place.
There is a small camping place with tents (already set up) that can be booked. A small outdoor restaurant/bar is also part of it.
The chicken run around in front of the reception. Below is one of the luxury tents with Turkish rugs and pillows in front of it.
Beautiful colours at sunrise and sunset.
Enjoyed fresh squeezed juice and "Turkish coffee on the sand" in the morning.
Goodbye Butterfly Bay.
Once around the corner of Butterfly bay.... we set our sails like a butterfly too!
Firnaz Koyu was just a stopover place, nothing special to visit.
Kas
Moved anchorage in Limangazi Plaji as the yacht next to us (both boats with line to shore) had a a noisy generator... It was a shame as we had a nice spot with view onto the ancient tombs in the cliff
However, it was a quick anchor move (water is still warm to get the lines) and just motored into the next bay (see below).
Walked from our anchorage up to the tombs, then into the city for lunch and managed to get back just before it got dark.
Needed a new Sim card. The people are so friendly and helpful everywhere.
Kas old town.
Kekova Island (Tersane bay) / Kalekoy (Simena)
We anchored in Kekova Island in Tersane bay (picture below) to see a small part of the underwater city, then paddled to the next bay to see the main underwater city/sunken ruins of Kekova (you are not allowed to swim/snorkel in there). From the paddle board we could see a couple of remaining walls under water but not much more.
After lunch we motored to Kalekoy (which is known for its history and was adopted by the UNESCO as a World Friendship and Peace Village!)
We stayed in Kalekoy for 3 nights to let a storm pass. This anchorage is one of these rare 360 degree protected bays.
On our way to the castle, we past more Lycians cliff caves . This time we also came across many ancient Sarcophagi Lycian Tombs.
Simena Castle (also known as Kaleköy which is Turkish for "Village Castle"). You can only get here by foot or boat. It overlooks the sunken city of Kekova.
The village has a good feel to it. Some Tourist shops, restaurants and small accommodation places
We saw some more ancient Lycian tombs in the small village. Some of these had less peaceful places eg are now part of a car park and one is half submerges in the med sea.
Heavy rain started (the first good rain for a very long time). We stopped to have a drink until the it stopped.
Saw some nice fossils in rocks.
Goodbye Kekova/Kaleköy - we are on the move again.
Finike
A 3 day stop in Finike Marina to get our Yanmar Engine service done (plus some sightseeing).
Felt strange to be in a Marina again. Many sailors have already arrived in their winter location. This is so different to our winter location in Sardignia/Cagliari. The live aboard community is very social here, does workouts together and meets for regular social events. There are lots of Australian and British sailors here. It is easy for them to get a Turkish residency. Due to visa issues they are not able to stay for that long in EU countries. There are also many Russians here. We are starting to wonder, what awaits us in our Rhodos winter location. We hope it to be a little less busy!
Sven decided to do a steep 900 m up and 20 km walk which led past an ancient city you can only reach by foot. Sven met only one shepherd during the entire hike. He loved this forgotten ancient city.
We tried a fish restaurant (recommendation from an inspirational couple who anchored next to us in Kekova - Gerda and Joachim). This German couple turns 80 soon and look amazing and are so fit. They gave as some health and other useful fishing, cooking and sailing tips.
Loved the restaurant Nesele Balik and went there every day during our 3 days stay there.
Another barber visit for Sven at a cost of Euro 2.- :-). Sven is more "maintenance" than Caroline!
Berber is the Turkish word for barber (at least this one is easy)
1 Turkish Lira to feed cats and dogs. Interesting machine. You pay and food drops into a dog/cat bowl. One of these was located outside the Marina.
3 cats tried to mark our boat as their territory. They fought on the boat and put cat poops and wee everywhere. It was not pleasant to try to get it out of the rippled boat floor. and the smell out of the outdoor pillows.
Last dinner and chatting to this lovely Lady who lives 6 months a year in Germany and 6 months here (her husband works in Germany).
We had an unscheduled delay on the way to our next destination. We heard loud underwater explosions coming from further away. We zoomed into our boating app and
also paid special attention to the radio. We heard Turkish on the Emergency Channel which is obviously not unusual. But it sounded like "Kwilena" in between the Turkish words but pronounced in a pretty unrecognisable way. We replied to check if they were looking for us, but the Coast Guard on the radio spoke a few broken words of English only and we don't speak Turkish. Anyway to cut a long story short we understood pretty quickly that we had to get out of this shooting training area. This detour cost us 3 hours and got us into our next bay later than planned (but at least safely).
Incir Yalisi Koyu (near Terikova)
We arrived in our new anchorage just as the sun disappeared behind the mountains.
Nice nightly light show due to the rotating light house lights behind the hills
Our boat facing a white and on the other side a black Sand beach!
One of our walks. Big mountains everywhere and nice forest walk.
We saw some rain clouds and hurried back to our floating home.
It just started raining as we paddled back to our boat.
Glorious Morning view
Our anchorage was just in front of Phaselis Antik Kenti .
A town established by the Rhodians in 700 BC. It became the most important harbour city of eastern Lycia and an important centre of commerce between Greece, Asia, Egypt and Phoenicia.
It had an Amphitheatre, yes another one..... however this one is in the middle of a pine forest with beautiful mountain views.
Antalya
Decided not to go into Antalya by boat (a big city and difficult to find an anchorage) and hired a car instead.
Finally bought a beautiful handmade wood backgammon game. We apologised to the owner for our direct "we are on a mission" approach. Here business is done differently, talk, drink tea, negotiate, drink tea etc.
Paddling back with our shopping bags (backgammon game and other items) must have looked interesting as people started filming when we loaded our items onto the stand up Paddle board.
A surprise back at the boat. Fresh mandarins, Lemons, Pomegranate, Basil, Peppermint were left on our boat. A local fisherman also dropped some off the day before. The people or so nice everywhere!
We will miss this morning view.
Side
Side includes a modern resort town with many fancy, luxury hotels. Nearby are ruins of the ancient city of Side.. It lies 78 km from Antalya. Surprisingly it was still busy and we did not expect to have the bay to ourselves (second picture below).
But...... what we did not expect was loud club music playing until 2.30 am... Maybe that is why no other sailors decided to anchor there... it was impossible to sleep during these live performances.
Check out the knitting around the tree and branches.
We chatted to the local fishermen and watched them prepare the bait for their evening catch. Check out all their bait on the hocks on the red bucket.
The colours have not been altered on pictures ! This is how lovely it looked with the people enjoying the sunset.
Alanya
Antalya is a Turkish resort city with an Old Harbor.
We only planned to fuel up here but ended up staying for 2 nights to also get our country check out organised.
There are so many people from Russia and Ukraine here.
Marina below:
Visit to Alanya Castle. Most of the castle was built in the 13th century.
The Pirate ships in Türkiye are impressive and Alanya did not disappoint. It was entertaining to view the boats next to each other.
A lot of alcohol (bars) on these boats - they truly are party boats.
The bus station was in front of the Marina and a city bus arrived every 20-30 minutes.
Picture 1: shows a man selling nothing but shoestrings. The two other pictures were taken in city streets, all packed with fake but good quality brand items.
Some other tourist shops - similar to other cities we have visited. Last picture is the marina we stayed at.
One of the Alanya city restaurant: So many pandas....
Another Alanya city Restaurant/Hotel: This time decorated with so many teddies, in the cars outside, on the rooftop, balconies, palm trees.... they stay all year around!
Night view from our boat (Alanya Marina) onto castle
