The sun sets on a very special Christmas!

Our Christmas decorations aboard S/V Sunday were complete except for one nostalgic item – the sweet fragrance of a genuine Christmas tree.

On our travels around the Didim area we had seen plenty of the hardy little pines so beloved of Europeans at Christmas and decided to try and find somewhere to stop and find a suitable tree from which we could “trim” a couple of small boughs.

Eventually we found a place where we could stop with suitable “victims”. Using our very superior Dille and Kamille bread knife from our camper van Jonathan managed to lop off two branches from a healthy looking pine (the tree needed pruning anyway he said afterwards.)

So finally, on Christmas Eve, our decorating was complete and S/V Sunday smelled like Christmas!

Christmas Day dawned magnificently – despite the forecast of rain, dawn was a shimmering rosy pink, full of promise for a glorious day.

We had a lovely breakfast with Hannah and Pieter who were staying at the Yacht Club Hotel – taking advantage of a fantastic offer which included a three night stay with breakfasts, Christmas lunch and party, a Boxing Day brunch and a massage each in the hotel spa.

Then it was back to S/V Sunday to open our stockings before returning to the restaurant at the Yacht Club Hotel to meet up with our fellow yachties for a fabulous Christmas lunch.

After a very protracted and delicious lunch we partied the night away to the sounds of a really good band.

As well as all the traditional fare (Turkey, ham, beef and all the trimmings) there were countless delicious desserts. In the interests of research, Pieter tried so many that he lost count!

On Boxing Day we had a lovely day aboard S/V Sunday with our friends Jack and Jan from Anthem. We played our traditional Christmas present game in which a dice is thrown and depending on the number, you either open a present, pass your “winnings” to the left or right, or “steal” a gift from someone else. As always, it was great fun.

After the obligatory Boxing Day walk on the beach and more food we rolled into bed ready for more adventures the following day.

We were keen to show Pieter and Hannah some of our favourite places in the Didim area while they were with us, so the day after Boxing Day we drove the van to the lovely village of Kıyıkışlacık.

Once again the weather was fantastic and we were able to enjoy a wonderful meal on the quayside in this sweet little fishing village before going to explore the ancient remains of Iasos.

Jonathan and I have paid several visits to this atmospheric site and every time we go we learn more about its history and the lives of its inhabitants since it’s inception.

The visible ruins date from around 400 BC but archeologists have found evidence that the site was first occupied in Minoan times – around 2,000 BC.

When we’d finished having a look round we walked along the water’s edge to look at the fortifications in the water that date to mid-Byzantine times. Pieter and Hannah started to walk over the remains of the wall that poke up from the water like stepping stones but they turned out to be very slippery!

It was early evening when we departed for home and on the drive back along the narrow road that runs from Kıyıkışlacık to the main road, we saw a sarnıç – a water storage cistern dating from Byzantine times.

There are 250 of these curious domed water storage structures just in the province of Muğla.

We stopped to show Hannah and Pieter what it looked like inside one. Hannah discovered that it had great acoustics and broke into song.

Before long, the lady we had noticed working in farmland on the other side of the road came over and started to video her.

Later the lady proudly showed us footage of a famous Turkish clarinetist playing for a television programme in the same cistern.

As luck would have it, the sun was just about to set and the place where we’d stopped was the perfect location to watch it dip into the sea below. A wonderful end to a very special Christmas!