MARMARIS

Our apologies to anyone who may have attempted to read this portion of the blog earlier.min our haste to find Wi Fi, we posted it it way too soon...here is the updated version!

We started the day off with a nice sleep in at the hotel in Pamukkale, then a laze around that sensational pool. We were then picked up by our same driver for the third day, and yes, we still never learnt his name. He had no English at all, and our words of 'cheers' and 'thank you' in Turkish did not seem to get us far. But he was a lovely man and very very humble. But off on the three and a half hour drive to Marmaris.  

The long and dry windy road finally made it to a point overlooking Marmaris township.  Marmaris is absolutely beautiful.  It appears to us to be the Turkish Riviera.  I say appears to be, because we haven't seen some of the other coastal towns down this way, but judging by the various marinas, and the many, many multi million dollar boats contained therein, I assumed we were correct in our assumption.  The place has a magnificent harbour, crystal clear blue as blue could be water and is lined with fantastic restaurants and shops.  This place has money dripping off it. However, we have been told the places we will see are even more so?  But, this is certainly lovely and we are soaking the place in.

When we arrived, it was stifling hot, 40 degrees, with a soft burning breeze.....They tell us the heat has only just hit, coinciding with our arrival.  Our hotel, 'Blue Bay Platinum', was very modern and very hip. Chock a block full of English hell bent on bar b queuing themselves, and the place was well catered for them.  With three large pools, a kids pool and play area and a portion of the main beach off its doorstep, there were numerous places to fry!  I can't believe in this day and age, some people still lather themselves in baby oil and lay in the sun. You could hear them sizzle! The first thing we noticed about the hotel was that they slapped a wrist band on both of us. Everything complementary! I knew exactly what that meant.  Free Efes!!!! Oh, and food etc.  The hotel is kind of run like a cruise ship. It has food available all day, alcohol is included and readily available, and various al la carte restaurants that cater for hotel guests.  Our kind of place!

Only one night at the hotel, but a very late check out and to our 'Gulet' (two masted and pronounced the same as 'bullet') sailing ship named 'Lady Cemre' (pronounced Chemra moored on the dock.  The boat is a six berth, and we have an Italian family of three (Paul, Christina and 15 year old Matilda - sorry Matilda, no Wi FI), a young couple from Singapore (Nicholas and Shufen) and a Dutch couple (Eric and Gerda-but that is NOT how you pronounce it...) all lovely people.  So we have one spare room.  As well, we have the skipper (Atil), the chef (Tunjai) and the guy who does everything (Azis)). I have carried out an inventory, and there is plenty of Efes.....Lets go sailing!!!

We had our first nights sleep on board.  A little uncomfortable as it was so hot and we were still on our marina berth.  But for the next four days, this is our sailing family! We set off from the docks and away we went to explore the beautiful Aegean Turkey coastline.

Day 2 

We were taken to a place called 'Dalyan'. Dalyan is a village on a fresh water river and very picturesque. The lakelands leading to the village a windy and marshlands, with long straw like reeds covering the area. Here the endangered Loggeheard turtles search for grasses and the blue crabs to feed on. They also mate here and lay their eggs in the hot dark sands of Turtle Beach, a beach where the fresh and salt water mixes. We saw turtles feeding and they are enormous. They live to two hundred years old.  Furhrer down the river, we saw the ancient carved cliff tombs, created by the Byzantines??. Then we moved on to the sulphur mud baths, fed by the hot springs.  They say a dip in the mud takes then years off your appearance. We were prepared to go in. Three or four times! Anyway, it turned out to be a lot of fun as the photos show! 

It had been a long day, and we slept on deck that night as it was far too hot in our cabin. For the rest of the trip, the deck of our ship was the place to sleep.  Every one of us were out there!

Days 3&4 were spent sailing from bay to bay, each one more beautiful than the one before it.  We did a lot of snorkelling, and actually swam with turtles!! Whilst endangered, they seem to be everywhere around these bays and inlets. But mostly, we layer around in the sun, ate, drank and dunked ourselves in the crystal clear turquoise or dark blue waters. God this is hard to take.

Our captain Atil, cooking dinner! When we stop, Atil takes every opportunity to go fishing, crabbing or diving. But he is in charge of the bar b q!

Day 5 of our cruise and we lost the Singaporeans and the Italians, as they moved on as we arrived in Fetiya.  Fetiya is quite a bit smaller than Marmaris, but this is the spot Jackie O'Nasis liked to come to and relax.  It is very private, but very Shiek. We had to wait in Fetiya port for a Turkish couple to come on board.  It was very hot, and your are not allowed to swim in the harbours, so we went looking for wi fi, air conditioning, a beer and Turkish ice cream (which are amazing!) Made on goats milk, the icecream is very thick, creamy and stretchy! The ice cream servers are quite entertaining, and will lift whole portions of icecream from their refrigerated buckets and toss it about like pizza dough. But the stuff is fantastic!   By the way, the Turkish woman has now been on the boat for 4 hours and she has had 3 different swimsuits on!!!

Days 6& 7

So the Turkish lady has 9 swimsuits with her! We have seen all 9 numerous times! We picked up some more passengers today, Roey (a Kiwi now living in Qld), Hanna and Jason (two school teachers from Warnanbool), Ashley and Daniel (from Christchurch), Emily (from Wellington) and Ashley and Farhan (a couple, her from Jamberoo and him from Singapore). We were on our way again, and not talking about the State of Origin.....We spent most of these 2 days going from bay to bay, swimming, eating sleeping, turtle spotting  and some Dolphins made an appearance. We have been flat out! And, tomorrow.....Greece!