Saturday 20 August 2011

Kekova Road, Kalkan, Fethiye, Turkey


21 Jul 2011
Time to say Goodbye to the lovely ladies, and after three weeks we will miss their company.  Blake is still with us and mid-morning we set sail for our next destination – Kekova Roads.  Once again the wind was not with us, so we motored all the way heading east, and it took us half a day to arrive at Kekova. What a beautiful location - another secluded and amazing piece of the Turkish coast line.  The bay was hidden behind Kekova Adasi and formed a narrow stretch of water a few miles long.
We decided to anchor at Polemos Buku which is located at the western side of the bay.  Guess what? After coincidently bumping (not literally) into Belle Helene in Kas,  we spotted Endeavour – Carol and Brian, who were moored at the exact spot Skipper John had decided.

While sorting out the yacht after our trip along the coast, Derek spotted a signboard ashore promoting Aperlai Ruins! None of us could find any reference to these ruins in the pilot book (the yachties bible) nor multimedia resources, thus in the true spirit of Indiana Jones we decided to go exploring!
There were two restaurants at the end of the bay, and in anticipation of a few icy beers after our trek to find the ruins, we decided to give the business to the young entrepreneur who walked all the way on their fragile wooden dock to welcome us ashore.  After advising our intention to return for beer later, he gave us directions to the ruins. It took us a good half hour walk to get there, and the journey was similar to walking in the middle of desert as bushes were few and far in-between.  It is hard to believe a café / backpackers – Purple House was located in the middle of nowhere and run by a young couple with several outdoor settings of couches and cushions under shade cloth.  So simply built yet very unique and with a strong Mediterranean /Arabic feel. 


No far from Purple House, we came across the first sarcophagus that was half submerged in the sea.


More were spotted along the coast, and as we followed the path we stumbled onto the ruins of a Catholic Church.  From there it was a bit of an effort to climb up to more ruins of the city including the main entrance gate, and around the area was by far the biggest number of ancient sarcophagi we ever seen in our time in Turkey. It is truly a DEAD city!






We returned to the restaurant after our exhausting walk back and the much anticipated icy cold beers were ready and waiting, and went down a real treat.  We had a great chat with this lovely family; mother, 17 year old son and 12 year old daughter.  Soon the papa arrived in his speedboat with his trendy headwear flapping in the wind, and to our surprise gave his wife a passionate kiss and fervent hug – not normally seen in this conservative Muslim country!

After much hand shaking and a few more beers we decided that the ambience was so good we would stay for dinner.  Our table was on a square-floating platform extended out from the dock, and the table was beautifully set with white table cloth, fine dining utensils and stunning wine glasses! The sensation is just so hard to convert into words!


The view of the whole narrow bay from our table, combined with sumptuous grilled seafood, tasty chicken, vegetables and salads and a good local wine just made the night so beyond expectation.  We all agreed we can always eat onboard TOMORROW! (..............as John says “Tomorrow Never Comes”)

22 Jul 2011
It was a hot sunny morning, not even a hint of a breeze! After breakkie we set off to discover the well-known sunken city located at Kekova Adasi. No landing, no diving, no anchoring were permitted here! Totally different from several ruins we had visited at other locations, it was just amazing to see the ruins of what was obviously quite a large community just disappearing into the sea.


We then went to the small hamlet of Kale Koy and anchored off the town.  It was a quaint aquatic village with a huge crusaders’ castle on a hill right in the middle of the island. Shops were positioned layer on layer up the slope, looking like a shape of sweet corn,  all very pretty.  John took Derek and Blake ashore in the dinghy to explore the island, while Woei Haw decided to swim across for coffee with the new water-proof bag! Alas tragedy happened! His phone was drowned as the bag was not properly sealed! Bugger!


Later, we motored back to Polemos Buku for a swim and spent a quiet night with a meal onboard

23 Jul 2011
Another roasting day!  We motored to Ucagiz Limani which was in another bay behind Kale Koy, and anchored for an hour.  It was indeed another nice little town, and unlike Kale Koy which can only be reached by boat, there were several tour coaches parked at the wharf.  The town stretched from the east where Lician tombs were dotted in the water, to the west that was full of restaurants at the sea front. Facing towards Kale Koy it forms a great little bay that is favoured by many yachties for its extremely calm conditions. 
  

After some window shopping we returned to Awatea, and motored along the coast further eastward and found this unnamed bay which was very well protected.   We decided to drop anchor and tie up stern to, and the water was so crystal clear we could easily see the bottom and while swimming catch sight of our keel and rudder.  

We had fabulous steaks for dinner - contributed by Blake, who brought two large New Zealand Rib Fillets all the way from Godzone.  What a treat! They were so good and everyone was enjoying the night so much we got in the mood and did a heap of damage to our alcohol inventory.  Bummer!


24 Jul 2011
After a debauched night of booze, all of us were found sleeping on the deck and were awakened by the heat of the sun. After a simple breakkie (where’s MacDonalds when you need them), we motored around some other islands and returned to Ucagiz Limani for a nice simple lunch. Woei Haw was busy topping up his fishing lure collection while Blake was busy finding a place to watch the Formulae 1 racing and it was so enjoyable that we spent several hours whiling away the time.
The wind started building up in the late afternoon so we returned to Awatea and actually sailed back to Polemos bay! It was a nice sail between several super yachts. 
IIn the evening Derek was cooking up a special curry and the aromatic smells from the galley stirred our appetites and awakened our groggy heads - it is always so nice to enjoy his meals! Yummy.


25 Jul 2011
It was quiet and calm last night and we ended up being the only folks in the bay after 3 super yachts further down the arm left very late evening.
We followed in the footsteps of other yachts heading along the coast towards Kalkan. Woei Haw introduced his new fishing lure but no luck once again, which is rather disappointing as we all had high hopes!.


Motored most of the time to Kalkan and tried to sail a bit when the wind was right. This is just so Turkish! Either it is too much wind or just too little wind!


Kalkan is not an appealing place from the sea, but once we got closer we were blown away by the setting.  A tiny harbour that we had to motor so slow to get into, hundreds of sun-worshippers and swimmers at the right of the narrow passage protected by a long line of swimming buoys, and hundreds of Mediterranean  style houses built layer upon layer up the hill. It is just stunning!




What was even more exciting is the shops and restaurants ashore - numerous sophisticated restaurants with different themes and decors and really good menus.  The shops here are also very different from any other place we have visited in Turkey all beautifully presented with a vivid colour decoration contrasting with their white premises. It just so artistic, and we all love the place so much we have decided to spend few days here!



We wandered around the town for the next two days, and found this extraordinary restaurant named “White Table”.  They had a unique menu based on gourmet burgers and Blake and Woei Haw claimed that were the best burgers they ever had.  They were served in clever packaging and accompanied by an award winning Rose wine – another enjoyable dining experience.




There was a mega yacht trying to get into the tiny harbour the other day, and John managed to get a short video clip!
  

28 Jul 2011
After analysis of the weather from several sources, we decided to leave the harbour at 4:15am in the morning when the forecast conditions were good and the sea was expected to be at its calmest. Blake decided to experience taking Dolmus (local bus) and to catch us up in Fethiye at our favourite base – the classic yacht hotel.  It was a new experience heading off in the darkness; we had to switch on navigation lights and monitored the instrument panels closely in the dark of the morning. It was also very cold and we had to dust off our jumpers which were needed until the sun rose.

It took us several hours to return to Fethiye. That evening we decided to have the farewell dinner for Blake at Boutique Classic Hotel.  Blake will be leaving us tomorrow and plans to spend some time in the Greek Islands. It is always wonderful to have guests onboard and explore different parts of Turkey together. Thanks to Blake for being part of the adventures of Awatea, and entertaining us with his selfless sharing of his life adventures.

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