Sun, Sailing and Southern Turkey

Back in Turkey......

Tuesday 1st September
We arrived in Istanbul at about 6am and by the time we went through customs and made it back to the city it was 8am. But we couldn't sleep yet! Our hotel was in Sultanahmet on the other side of Istanbul to where we'd landed so there was another 40 minutes of tram/ furnicular/ walking before we arrived at the hotel. As usual we weren't allowed to check in until 1pm, but the lovely hotel owner said we could have breakfast in the hotel and use the common room. We met up with Josh and Elisha at breakfast and after a while our room was ready and we went to sleep and made plans to meet J & E for dinner. Before dinner we had one last look around the Grand Bazaar before meeting up with Josh and Elisha.

Wednesday 2nd September
Today all four of us headed out to the airport to pick Timmy up! We waited and waited.... and Josh found out the filthy car rental company wanted to charge us an extra 400 Lira on top of what we were already paying! But he found another much cheaper deal and cancelled the rip off one :)

Timmy's entourage waiting at the airport.
Timmy finally arrived and we headed off to begin our roadtrip!

Getting out of Istanbul was... interesting... after about an hour we hated the GPS lady and all her 'recalculating', after a two hours we were wondering if we'd ever get to Marmaris, let alone out of Istanbul! Outside of Istanbul we went round in circles for a while and did some slightly insane things including reversing through a toll gate, we finally realised we were headed to a car ferry (not into the ocean as we first thought) which made sense and we were on our way. We stopped for the night in a 'business centre' town which meant slim pickings for the hotels, and did we end up with a shocker! They did the 'ol room swap' and showed Timmy and I two relatively ok rooms but then when we came in with our bags and paid, they said 'oh someone just took those rooms' so you need to have these other rooms up stairs... which were really hideous. The sheets were clean but the bathrooms were putrid and had clearly not been cleaned since about 12 visitors ago...
'Have you seen fat cat??'

Thursday 3rd September
We started early and headed off for Marmaris! We had a brief lunch stop in Izmir and before we knew it we found ourselves winding down the escarpment to Marmaris.
We found our Pension, thankfully a vast improvement on the night before! When we arrived the Pension owners asked if we'd met the fat cat yet? 'No'... we say, 'show us this fat cat...' well, the old Granny brought out this MASSIVE cat that was laid on its back and while Granny clapped, the fat cat writhed around in a kind of 'dance' which horrified us all. There was also a cat there that was missing a tail which we think the fat cat may have eaten.
That night we headed out for dinner and to check out the Marmaris nightlife. It was quite funny how cheesy 'Bar Street' was...
but we made our own fun....
Smokey
Trying out my 'tough' face with a bullet belt on, in a sports and diving shop in Marmaris. I think this photo says 'I smelt something off' rather than 'Rambo'

Friday 4th September
This morning we headed out to check out our boat! We were super excited and had our fingers crossed it wasn't going to be a leaky rust bucket. And it wasn't, it was great!
We met up with the rest of our boat buddies (Jimmy, Dean, Liam, Ricci, Trent and Mel) while Tim and Josh dropped off the hire car. We all dropped off our bags settled into our cabins. We also met our other boat mates an American family: Wendy, Paul and their son Bobby who are building school's in Iraq.
Once on board and settled none of us could really contain our excitement and we all jumped off the boat while it was still moored in the harbour :)


the view of Marmaris from our boat.

We also met our Captain who was the spitting image of Super Mario, his mini-me son, an older guy who actually did most of the Captain-ing, and a young guy who did most of the cooking and cleaning.
We had our cabin was at the front of the boat which was good, except for first thing in the morning when the anchor was raised it would bump its way into the hold directly next to our heads!

Lazing on the Lilo & our boat- Zekioglu

Saturday 5th September
We headed out of Marmaris first thing in the morning after breakfast and travelled all morning. We arrived in a gorgeous secluded cove at lunch time and yet again none of us could wait for long and we all jumped in to enjoy the crystal clear water. We weren't there long before a man in a boat turned up to sell us overpriced icecreams. A few people explored the dry land while the rest of us explored the water checking out the amazing fish and the underwater views. We stayed in the cove overnight.

The Jimmy & Dean show

Zekioglu I

Our first evening meal at sea :)
Josh, his floatie, and Elisha

Sunday 6th September
This morning we headed out to another cove with fabulously clear water for a swim and some lunch before we headed to the town of Datca in the afternoon. While in the bay a few guys swam about half a kilometre to a beach shack that sold icecreams at actual market prices instead of the super inflated boat delivered prices.
The girls, having a chat on the floaties...

Later we moored at Datca and headed out to look around and pick up some refills to the chocolate stores; we also bought some blank CDs to burn some music for our boating adventure... lots of electro-funk for us and some Fleetwood Mac for Wendy and Paul. After dinner we hung out for a while on Datca and some of the guys had an interesting experience with a rather inflated bill from some cheeky bar staff.

Monday 7th September
We left Datca after breakfast and headed to yet another fabulous bay for still more snorkling and fishing and sunbaking.
This bay was beautifully green and lovely. Trent and Dean had a swimming race and the rest of us watched and felt like we'd had our excercise for the day.
Trent and Dean, preparing for the swim- it looks cold but it wasn't....

Watching the race, its hard work!

More overpriced icecreams delivered directly to us in a tinny... ahhh this is the life!

Tuesday 8th September
After sailing past a few Greek Islands we arrived in a really gorgeous bay today and were enjoying the beautiful scenery, swimming, exploring the land (well Tim and Paul did). Before lunch a few nasty grey clouds rolled up and by the time lunch was finished Kapitan was looking very nervous about the wind. As soon as everyone was back on board we sailed off to look for a more sheltered cove. Stormy weather...

We found one (or the Captain did) and it was a really cute little bay with lots of goats frolicking and more lovely water all around.

BBQ Night!! soo much fun!

Josh, Nicky, Jimmy and Dean

Jumping off the boat... backwardsUnderwater Nick aka Scuba Steve
Make love to the camera baby!

Wednesday 9th September
Today Kapitan wasn't feeling well and he headed off in the tinny for the 'hospital'. There was yet another swimming expedition which saw Trent and Dean venturing off to an Island across the water from us.

Playing cards with the boys in the afternoon...
The whole gang...
Top: Jimmy, Josh, Timmy, Nick, Wendy and Paul
Middle: Ricci, Me and Bobby
Front: Elisha, Trent, Kapitan aka Mario, Liam, Dean, Mel

Our last night away from port we slept on deck which was really nice and totally relaxing falling asleep to the sound of gentle waves lapping at the bow.

Thursday 10th September
Waking up with the sun was lovely. Timmy, Trent and I stayed up but Nick headed downstairs with sleeping bag in tow as soon as the sun came up. Kapitan headed us over to see the boatbuilding bay where most of the Turkish Gulets in the area are made. We had breakfast while we motored along towards our last bay stop before heading back to Marmaris. Our last stop was a wide bay with more than its fair share of tourist boats on day trips from Marmaris. Nonetheless it was beautiful and there were lots of fish to be seen.


Cruising back to Marmaris....
The beautiful boat next to us... Nick looks impressed.

We arrived back in Marmaris and we all dispersed to check emails, eat icecreams and have our feet back on dry land. There was a seriously dodgy boat moored next to ours, not dodgy in looks- it was a beautiful catamaran with a uniformed crew. But the owners were two hideously dressed Saffa's with blonde hair, overtanned skin, and gloriously disgusting brightly coloured clothing. They had two much younger model/dancer types who they were wining and dining (parading) on the back deck. It was all we could do to not laugh and point.
There were many other adventures throughout the night including a foam party, and waking up alone on deck in the rain :)

Friday 11th September
Disembarktion day :( we were all incredibly sad to be saying goodbye to Kapitan, mini me, the boat and our lazy days of swimming, sunbaking and little else... This sailing trip around the bottom south- west corner of Turkey was certainly a highlight of our trip! I'd made some new friends and turned some aquaintences into friends which was great.

But no time to linger in Marmaris we caught the 11 o'clock bus to Bodrum with Josh and Elisha, Timmy was off to Dalyman and Trent off to Olympos.
We spent the day wandering around rainy Bodrum in a slight daze had a slightly disappointing dinner then waved off Josh and Elisha who were off to Dubai.

Some interesting graffiti in Marmaris...

Saturday 12th September
Fly to London, England!