The two week Cruising Association (CA) rally along the
Lycian Coast is over. It was a fantastic
experience. We had 6 days of sailing
covering about 130 nm and 6 days of land activities exploring some spectacular
ancient ruins. Now, the day after the
end of the rally we are feeling a bit melancholy leaving the company of the
people who rapidly became good friends.
However, typical of the cruising life, we are bound to bump into most of
them again on our travels through this beautiful land.
Wall Bay was the opening dinner with a roast lamb prepared
on the spit by our Turkish hosts at the restaurant.
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| Our dinner cooking in Wall Bay |
The next few days were based at a marina in Gocek where we
took a land trip to Dalyan River and the ancient ruins of Kaunos. Although we went to Kaunos in June with D
& T, this trip was quite different and we saw many new sites, the ancient
harbour and Agora, a trip through the marshes with sea turtles, traditional mud
baths and the inland lake with a sunken city.
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| Kaunos - reminds us of Ankor Wat |
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| Kaunos harbour |
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| Lizard amongst the ruins |
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| Donkeys playing |
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| Very Grotty Yachties at traditional mud baths |
The 55nm trip to our next marina in Kaş was broken up by a
night at Gemiler Adasi, an anchorage which magically changed from total madness
to perfect serenity. When we arrived in
mid-afternoon the anchorage was teeming with tourists’ gulets, drunken rabble
and loud music. We had to anchor with a
line ashore, something we had never done before, while the partiers were trying
to climb our anchor chain and board the boat! Then around 4 o’clock all the revelers left
and the CA boats had the anchorage to ourselves. We swam ashore and explored the 5th
to 12th Century monastery ruins then returned to the boat to watch
the full moon rise above the island – magic!
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| The CA fleet at Gemiler |
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| Monastery ruins |
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| View from the island |
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| The gang on decks |
We had three nights at Kaş Marina with coach trips to
Saklikent Gorge and the ancient Lycian sites of Patara, Xanthos and Letoon.
At Saklikent Gorge we decided to brave the
icy water and go up the gorge.
It was
very crowded being a holiday weekend at the end of the summer (Bayram).
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| Up Saklikent Gorge |
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| That water was cold! |
Patara is the best preserved ruins I have seen to date in
Turkey. It is the birthplace of Apollo
and St Nicholas. It was a major trading
port until its large harbour silted up, like so many of these ancient cities on
the Turkish coast. Just a short distance
from the ruins was a real beach with sand and surf! Unheard of in Turkey. Such a treat.
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| The parliament building Patara |
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| Amphitheatre |
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| Sheep amongst the ruins |
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| A real sandy beach! |
Xanthos had an eerie atmosphere as it was the site of mass suicide
of the citizens rather than submit to the invading Persian army in the 4th
Century BC. Many of the treasures of the
city were taken by Charles Fellow to the British Museum (and his back garden?)
in the early to mid 1800’s.
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| Xanthos amphitheatre |
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| A rather harassed dog with two puppies made her den in the amphitheatre |
Letoon was the side for the sacred cult of the Lycian
civilization and its settlement can be traced back to the 7th
Century BC.
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| Letoon |
So ended the first week of the rally – Lots of socialising,
lots of laughter and tales of travel and sailing, lots of sightseeing and some
good sailing – Delightful.
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| Songster in company with Bubbly Lady II |
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| Songster with Ellida |
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