From Kalkan to Finike



Kalkan bay

On 20^th October we left Gocek and continued our journey east along the Turkish coast. After a rolly night on a buoy in the bay at Karacoren we sailed on down to the resort of Kalkan. We had planned to spend just one night here, but when we crept out of the bay the next morning we were met by 30 knot winds on the nose and big waves that sent water over the deck, so we turned round and headed back to the harbour! Several other boats were about to leave, but when they heard why we had returned they decided to stay too. We soon got talking to our neighbours and found that three boats either side of us were booked into the same marina as us in Finike for the winter, and we were formally introduced over drinks on Carole and Ian’s boat, Maximillian.  

Kalkan, the torrent begins

 

The flood water in Kalkan harbour

 

The following day we had thunderstorms, and the day after brought torrential rain and flash floods. We were in the top of the town shopping when the torrential rain started, and when we tried to walk back down to the marina we saw that the road down the hill to the harbour had turned into a fast flowing river. Soon the water in the harbour turned from clear blue to a muddy brown as the red earth was washed into the sea. It was slightly worrying to see the water level in the harbour rapidly rising, but fortunately the rain stopped before it reached the top of the quay.

Kas square decorated for Independence Day

We finally escaped from Kalkan on the 26^th October and had a rolly sail downwind to Kas where we treated ourselves to a couple of nights in the well sheltered, upmarket marina while the last of the thunderstorms blew through. The town is in a very pretty setting in a large bay that faces the Greek island of Kastellorion.  While we were there they were busy decorating the town ready for Turkish Independence Day and it was lovely to see the main square hung with so many colourful flags. I also walked over to the Roman amphitheatre on the peninsular beyond the town, and was disappointed to find that it has been ‘reconstructed’ to the point of making it look thoroughly modern. But the seats at the very top of the theatre do still give you a wonderful view of the bay.

The Roman Amphitheatre at Kas

Our next sail was down to a beautiful area known as Kekova Roads, an enclosed channel protected by the 4 mile long Kekova Island. We anchored at the far western end in the almost deserted bay of Polemos Buku and dinghied ashore to walk across the peninsular to the remains of the ancient Lycian city of Aperlae.

Lycian ruins at Aperlae

 

The city was built on the shores of the bay, and some of it is now underwater. When we first reached the shoreline most of it was hidden from sight, but as we walked further along we began to see half submerged sarcophaghi and then the remains of the ancient city walls. Finally, the city itself towered above us on the hillside, now partly lost in a tangle of scrub and thorns. We could also see more ruins submerged in the water and wished we had brought our swimming gear with us, as it would have been a great area for snorkelling. We were completely alone in this vast, overgrown city and it felt quite magical as the thick stone walls glowed in the late afternoon sun.

Early morning in Kekova Roads

 

The next morning we weighed anchor and set off for our final destination, Finike, which is a small market town about 75 miles from Antalya. It was a quiet, windless day and after three hours on the motor we finally moored up in Finike marina. This is where Sandpiper will spend the winter while we are back in the UK. The marina is home to a wonderful mix of cruisers of all nationalities and offers a great social life with coffee mornings, BBQs, walks, drinks and all sorts of clubs. Unfortunately, the long list of tasks we had to complete before leaving on November 14^th meant we could only attend a few social gatherings, but we are looking forward to getting more involved when we return in March.

 

Finike marina

 

Sandpiper having her bottom washed in the yard

Tlos and Kayakoy

The Lycian tombs below the Ottoman fortress at Tlos

 

While we were in Gocek we decided to hire a car to explore the area. Several local Brits had recommended the site of Tlos, which sits in the foothills of the Akdaglar mountains, overlooking the beautiful Xanthos valley, so that was our starting point. Then we saw that the Saklikent gorge was nearby, so we added that to our list, and finally the abandoned village of Kayakoy near Fethiye, which  was the inspiration for Louis de Bernieres' novel, Birds Without Wings.

You can see Tlos long before you get there, as the acropolis stands out on a high, rocky bluff with a honeycomb of impressive Lycian rock tombs below it.  This started as one of the oldest and most important cities in Lycia, and continued to be occupied right through until the 19^th century when a Turkish chieftan lived in the fortress that had been built by the Ottomans over the acropolis.

The Roman amphitheatre at Tlos  is still being excavated

We climbed up to the acropolis to look at the rock tombs and admire  the view of the towering mountains on one side and the wonderfully green Xanthos valley on the other. Down below we walked through the remains of the agora, baths and a roman amphitheatre.  The site has not been excavated until recently, and in 2011 it hit the headlines when several impressive sculptures of Roman emperors were uncovered near the theatre. Standing beside the slightly overgrown remains we imagined what it must have been like to have found the statues, and added a visit to Fethiye museum, where they are now exhibited, to our ‘to see’ list.

Next stop was the Saklikent gorge. It was nearing lunchtime, and as we drove through the small country roads to get to the gorge the owners of roadside restaurants tried to flag us down by running into the road waving and shouting at us. When we eventually arrived at the gorge we were disappointed to find that you could only see a small section of it unless you waded upriver through the rapids which were quite deep as there had been heavy rain the day before. I had an injured ankle and wading through rapids was out of the question, so we turned back and focused on lunch. This, at least, was a success, we found a lovely restaurant with traditional seating built out on wooden decking over a trout stream and had a tasty meal of fresh local trout.

Relaxing in the traditional restaurant in Saklikent

After lunch we drove back down towards the coast to visit the abandoned town of Kayakoy near Fethiye. Until the turn of the 20 century the town (like Fethiye and many others in the area) was mainly populated with Greeks.  Then, after the Turkish War of Independence, it was agreed that an exchange of populations should take place and the Greeks from Kayakoy were sent to Rhodes and then onto Athens. In fact, once I started to research the history, I discovered that many of the Greeks had been forced to leave the town long before this, as the fight for independence led to atrocities on both sides. A few Turkish people stayed on in the town, but they too left when it was devastated by an earthquake in 1957.



The abandoned town of Kayakoy



Today the site is an official historic monument, and over 2,000 stone houses stand abandoned on the two hillsides. It looks and feels like a huge cemetery, and as we walked through the narrow streets between the empty, roofless buildings we agreed there was an unsettling presence – it was almost as if you could feel the ghosts of the long departed residents.

Statue of Emperor Hadrian from Tlos

The next day we caught the bus for a hair-raising ride on the mountain road around the coast from Gocek to Fethiye, where we had lunch by the harbour then went in search of the museum. We eventually found it in a back street on the outskirts of the town, tucked between two schools.  It was worth the visit as it has an interesting collection of finds from Tlos and other nearby sites. We also got to see the five, impressive statues that had been unearthed at Tlos of the Roman emperors Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, and Antoninus Pius, plus his daughter Faustina Minor and the Goddess Isis.

 

Umbrellas shading one of the pedestrian walkways in Fethiye

 

Skopea Limani and Gocek

Kapi Creek

On 5^th October, after a long motor-sail through sloppy seas, we finally moored in Kapi Creek in Skopea Limani, a gulf near the town of Gocek. We had spent a week on a chartered yacht here with our friends Melanie and Derek in 2008, and we think it’s one of the most beautiful areas in the Eastern Med. There are twelve wooded islands in the gulf and a wonderful choice of sheltered anchorages. We had often imagined sailing our own yacht in these waters , so it felt good to finally be here.

We arrived in the middle of Kurban Bayram, a four day religious holiday, so the anchorage was full of Turks. The odd thing was, their yachts were flying the American flag. We were puzzled by this until our neighbour explained that most Turks now register their yachts in America to avoid paying local taxes!

Tersane anchorage

We spent the next two nights on Tersane Island. The island is craggy and quite austere, but the water in the deep, narrow creek is crystal clear and the bay is bordered by Byzantine ruins. Tersane means shipyard, so it’s likely that boats were once built here. Today, the only inhabitants of the island are Yasim and her family, who have a farm here and run the small restaurant in the bay.

The former Byzantine church is now used as a stable

We were anchored between a Swiss and a Dutch boat with lines tied back to the shore, a technique that's useful if you need to anchor close to other boats. It’s a stressful business sorting out a shoreline with just two of you on board: once you have anchored, one person has to stay on the helm and try to prevent the boat from swinging onto neighbouring yachts (which it inevitably does if the wind is on the beam) while the other person rows like mad for the shore to tie  a line to a rock or post.  On this occasion we were lucky, the man from the Dutch boat jumped into his dinghy and kindly offered to take the line to ashore for us.

The bay is supposed to be one of the most sheltered in the Gulf, but on the second day we had a thunderstorm and the wind suddenly increased from 5 knots to over 30 knots, blowing us straight towards the rocky shore.  Our anchor was holding, but others weren’t, and we had an anxious couple of hours watching other boats arrive and then panic, dropping and dragging their anchors right over ours.

A wild tortoise

Once the storm had passed we went ashore to explore the ruins. We found that Yasim had made good use of the Byzantine Church, which now houses sheep that are lambing! We were also very excited to see our first wild tortoise, apparently these are quite common in Turkey.

The peaceful bay of Boynuz Buku

We had two more peaceful nights anchored in Boynuz Buku, a fjord-like bay covered in pinewoods, before heading up to the town of Gocek to replenish our provisions. Gocek has become a fashionable resort that’s popular with yachtsmen, and there are six marinas in the area, including two that are exclusively for super yachts!  The town has a big selection of supermarkets, but we were keen to visit the Saturday market which we’d heard was good for fruit and veg.

Cooking Gozleme at the market

The market turned out to be excellent, with an impressive choice of fresh produce. We spent a very pleasant hour looking at (and sampling!) the many different types of cheese, olives, nuts, fruit and vegetables before buying as much as we could manage to carry back to the boat. Our last stop was at a stall that offered delicious Gozleme (thin pastry cooked on a griddle and stuffed with savoury or sweet fillings) served with as much Chai (Turkish tea) as you could drink. We had ours stuffed with spinach and goats cheese, and it made a very tasty lunch for just 6TL (£1.60) each.