We left Olympos rather reluctantly but we did need to go as it was the kind of place that you could easily while away the days and before you knew it, it would be 2011! There was one Aussie chap who had been there seven years but he did have it pretty much sorted though from what we could work out. We decided on a three day two night boat trip on a Turkish gullet – there are so many of these boats doing the same trip up and down the coast that you’re spoilt for choice if you don’t get sucked in by the (very onto it) tour operators or tourist agencies. By far the best way is to work out what days the boats leave from which port, rock up, check out the boat, bargain away and get (and pay for) what you want. No surprises.
We had a brilliant group of people – 3 Americans, 4 Canadians and us (to start with) and we had a great time the first night playing cards, having a few beers and spinning the floss.
We’d just all packed off to bed at about midnight and the boat had just settled down for the night when the Captains mobile rang and the next thing we knew, the engines were starting, the boat was shaking and the wood joins groaning and we were motoring off somewhere in the dark. It turned out that we were heading back to port to pick up three others (one very amusing American chap who’d lived in Japan and China most of his life and two Russians who didn’t speak much English). All this was done between 1230-0200 hours and it just reinforced the fact that anything goes and you’ve just got to go with the flow on these boat trips.
The next three days consisted of motoring between bays, swimming, drinking, eating, sunning and generally having a ball.
One of the crew was the absolute epitome of a pirate though. He was even called Gengiz and came complete with long dark hair, a great sense of humour and flashing smile and eyes. Gengiz cooked for us, swam ashore with the ropes, climbed back up the anchor chain and generally kept us quite entertained. A thoroughly great chap to have around.
We anchored next to a family boat with a little boy on it who was setting a fishing line and happily chattering away to himself (an only child we figured – a lonely life for a kid at sea). He was so ensconced in what he was doing that after he’d set the bait on the hook, he very determinedly threw the wrong end over the side of the boat and down down down went the reel.
He just looked in horror then started yelling “Baba, Baba!” (Dad, Dad!) and our resident pirate came to the rescue. He stripped off his shirt and dived in after the reel, retrieved it
then climbed up the anchor with startling speed
and gave the reel back to the wee boy. Brilliant!
We had a fairly chilled three days really. Every time we moored close to a town or village, invariably there was a man in a boat who came round selling ice creams
The sunsets weren’t much but just after the sun went down was the best and we just missed a full moon
We stopped off at some lovely villages – this is Simena, a traditional Turkish fishing village that can only be accessed by boat
and a valley where there is some 130 species of butterfly that hatch there every year. You can camp on the beach, go starkers if you feel like it (we surprised one poor chap) and bake the day away. It was incredibly hot there.
It was OK being back on dry land (I think I lost my sea legs in London somewhere I’m ashamed to say) but we’d highly recommend a few days on a gullet off the Turkish coast. Wooden boats just have so much more character than fibreglass. They almost talk to you (sounds weird I know) and when the going gets rough you certainly hear about it!
Next stop is Pamukkale – home of the famous white travertines.
We had a brilliant group of people – 3 Americans, 4 Canadians and us (to start with) and we had a great time the first night playing cards, having a few beers and spinning the floss.
We’d just all packed off to bed at about midnight and the boat had just settled down for the night when the Captains mobile rang and the next thing we knew, the engines were starting, the boat was shaking and the wood joins groaning and we were motoring off somewhere in the dark. It turned out that we were heading back to port to pick up three others (one very amusing American chap who’d lived in Japan and China most of his life and two Russians who didn’t speak much English). All this was done between 1230-0200 hours and it just reinforced the fact that anything goes and you’ve just got to go with the flow on these boat trips.
The next three days consisted of motoring between bays, swimming, drinking, eating, sunning and generally having a ball.
One of the crew was the absolute epitome of a pirate though. He was even called Gengiz and came complete with long dark hair, a great sense of humour and flashing smile and eyes. Gengiz cooked for us, swam ashore with the ropes, climbed back up the anchor chain and generally kept us quite entertained. A thoroughly great chap to have around.
We anchored next to a family boat with a little boy on it who was setting a fishing line and happily chattering away to himself (an only child we figured – a lonely life for a kid at sea). He was so ensconced in what he was doing that after he’d set the bait on the hook, he very determinedly threw the wrong end over the side of the boat and down down down went the reel.
He just looked in horror then started yelling “Baba, Baba!” (Dad, Dad!) and our resident pirate came to the rescue. He stripped off his shirt and dived in after the reel, retrieved it
then climbed up the anchor with startling speed
and gave the reel back to the wee boy. Brilliant!
We had a fairly chilled three days really. Every time we moored close to a town or village, invariably there was a man in a boat who came round selling ice creams
The sunsets weren’t much but just after the sun went down was the best and we just missed a full moon
We stopped off at some lovely villages – this is Simena, a traditional Turkish fishing village that can only be accessed by boat
and a valley where there is some 130 species of butterfly that hatch there every year. You can camp on the beach, go starkers if you feel like it (we surprised one poor chap) and bake the day away. It was incredibly hot there.
It was OK being back on dry land (I think I lost my sea legs in London somewhere I’m ashamed to say) but we’d highly recommend a few days on a gullet off the Turkish coast. Wooden boats just have so much more character than fibreglass. They almost talk to you (sounds weird I know) and when the going gets rough you certainly hear about it!
Next stop is Pamukkale – home of the famous white travertines.
1 comment:
Wow, that water looks absolutely stunning, life certainly looks less hard than in the arrid deserts of syria
x
Ladi
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