Brief encounters

It was time to move on from Kas so we fuelled up, emptied our holding tanks and left town!

As we motored past the beautiful little Bed and Breakfast where we had enjoyed a delicious spread the previous day, we were amazed to see the figure of Aysun, the very generous owner who had presented us with the wonderful breakfast. She had been waiting to wave to us and of course, we waved madly back and reflected once again on the wonderful generosity of the Turkish people.

Our first stop was Kalkan where we had visited on our road trip a few days earlier. We had promised to return to the Doy Doy restaurant for dinner after chatting to Farouk, the owner’s son and hearing how desperate they were for the English tourists to arrive.

We (Sue and John from S/V Catabella and the two of us) had a wonderful meal and great service and can highly recommend Doy Doy restaurant to anyone visiting Kalkan.

The only problem was that the village was about a 20 – 25 minute dinghy ride to and from the anchorage (We only have a 6 horse power motor on our dinghy!). This was fine on the way there but less so on the way back in the pitch dark.

We had an issue getting our motor to start (which is really most unusual) and all the way back we felt a little nervous that the engine might stall leaving us bobbing about like a cork in the middle of the bay.

Sue and John shone their powerful beamed torch to guide us in and we knew they would be there to rescue us if we needed it! That’s one of the many advantages of travelling with a buddy boat!

We set off again the following day for one of our favourite spots – Fethiye. We even managed to get a bit of a sail in !

As always, we loved wandering through the bazaar in Fethiye, going to the fish market, visiting the chandlery (and chatting to the parrot there) and wandering round and soaking up the atmosphere.

Sue and John had their second vaccinations while we were there and we went with them to the hospital to try and find out why Jonathan still hadn’t got the “green light” to have his first. Asli, the very helpful young woman at the hospital suggested we contacted the medical practice where we were registered to see if they could suggest a way to hurry things up.

It seems there was a bit of an admin. error at the doctors and Jonathan wasn’t properly registered. It was a relief to hear there was a fixable reason for the delay and with the help of Aylin (otherwise known as the Marina Angel to Finike Marina residents) he was duly registered.

On one of the days in Fethiye we went to say hello to Ryan, the friendly spruiker at the juice bar we had frequented when we were last in Fethiye.

We were able to leave our dinghies outside the juice bar where Ryan could keep an eye on them. We were also helped by Captain Murat of Smile Boat Tours. Such a lovely fellow who, while helping us up, decided he was going to put a piece of carpet on the quay to save our knees!

We had a very good traditional Turkish lunch at Mozaik Bahçe – again, it is very highly recommended to anyone visiting Fethiye.

We spent our last night in one of the marina restaurants – it was lovely to gaze over the yachts and watch the lights sparkle on the water as the sun went down.

The next day we motored to a gorgeous bay between Fethiye and Göcek called Ciglik Koyu. We had visited this peaceful and picturesque spot in 2020 when my sister Julia was staying with us, and it is now a favourite of ours.

We had a great few days swimming, walking, people watching and doing an Emu Parade (rubbish pick up).

It was a very relaxing time but as Sue and John were soon leaving to meet their son and partner in Greece, we needed to leave for our next destination- Gocek.

After a night in the noisy town anchorage in Gocek we moved to Seagull Bay in the Gocek National Park.

After going through the normal nightmare of “Med Mooring” (more of that in my next blog!) we went ashore to the newly renovated restaurant in the bay.

We met a delightful young man called Josef who was helping the new owner turn the property from what was – on our last visit – a ramshackle but interesting place, into a proper going concern.

Before embarking on a lovely walk up the hill and over to the ocean side of the isthmus, we promised Josef we would come back that evening for a meal.

During our walk we came across a small group of cottages and stopped to look at a little goat that had curled up in the hearth of a big outdoor oven (was he tempting fate or what?!) when we were greeted by a delightful man called Murat.

He invited us in to his house for çay made from sage, handpicked on the hillside nearby and sweetened by divine tasting honey.

We chatted about weaving carpets, his goats, the number of families who lived nearby (about 25 and maybe 30 in winter) and we asked if they had honey to sell (which they did).

Murat also carved some really lovely spoons out of olive wood, camphor, sandalwood and cedar. Of course we bought some of those too!

Chatting to people like Aysun, “Ryan”, Captain Murat, Josef, Seagull Bay Murat and his wife, is one of the main reasons we travel. These encounters may often be brief but it is always so interesting to get a window on someone else’s life and to try to understand a little bit about them as individuals as well as about Turkish life and culture.