Thursday 4th May Gulet cruise day! I got up early so that I could go into town and burn photos to Cd before meeting at Compass Yatching at 10am. I was the first to show up and you can imagine my surprise (and dissapointment) when I learned that there would only be 6 people on the cruise, three of whom were over 50 (including Doris, 79) and the other 3 being myself and Mike and James (who i shared room with). There goes my vision of late night partying etc!
The boat itself is really nice, its equipped to sleep 12 plus crew (the captain, his wife and another deck hand), and has a neat cushioned sundeck. Bonus of there being only 6 of us is that I get a cabin to myself. I feel a little outnumbered though - Mike, James, Gordan, Adrianne (brother and sister) and their mum Doris are all New Zealanders and are making fun of me for being a 'dingo'. I haven't heard this term before but apparently it means aussie. We have 3 nights and 4 days on the gulet, and i'm glad I bought several books, it doesn't look like i'll be needing the vodka though!
It was quite windy and choppy today so I didn't feel like going swimming even though we were moored in a beautiful little bay. While we were there a small dingy came up to us, fast food Turkey style, the lady on board was cooking pancakes and selling them. It was really cute. The food on board has been relaly good so far (courtesy of the captain's wife) - we had cinnamon cake for afternoon tea, and dinner was whole grilled trout with potatoes, salad and rice -very yummy.
Friday 5th May Today we sailed on after breakfast, I slept really well even though it was a bit rocky. We moored at Kas around 11.30am to have a look around. I wandered through the markets and shops a bit, bought another journal and some postcards. Kas (pronounced cash) is really pretty. I walked up the hill in search of the Lycian tombs mentioned in the guidebook. I couldn't find them and was rather put off by a nasty experience with a Turkish guy up there. He was walking behind me and slapped my butt, when I turned around he grabbed my arm and was pinching me. I left rather quickly as there weren't many people around.
After Kas we headed to a bay where we anchored for the night, the sun had been shining so I felt warm enough to go for a swim - my first in the Mediteranean!
Saturday 6th May The weather was really bad when I woke up this morning. Its cold, windy and raining which totally sucks - no sunbaking or swimming today! I spent most of the morning reading in my cabin, until we got to the Sunken City. This is some ruins on an island which are almost completely underwater because of an earthquake. Its really cool because you can see the walls and steps underneath the water!
We then went to a small fishing village which we can't find out the name of (lost in translation!). Its really quaint with no roads or cars and a castle (or chateau) at the top. Apparently you had to pay 5tyl to go into the castle but no one accosted me to pay on my way up, so I didn't! It warmed up a little in the afternoon and the boys went swimming, but I wasn't game! They have been pretty amusing all trip, always trying to catch fish (big ones are non existent and they only have bread or cake for bait). At thbe place we moored for the night we spottee some deer, next thing Mike and James were off venison hunting for dinner! This was unsuccessful I must add.
We played cards after dinner, a game called stop the bus and one called Aggravation which is similar to rummy I think. James and Mike kept slipping down to their cabin to drink (we're not supposed to bring our own alcohol on board) and they ended up pretty drunk; it was well amusing!
Sunday 7th May Well today is the last day of our gulet cruise, we reach the dock at about 1pm and then we have a transfer to Olympos. Thankfully it was a bit sunnier today, I managed to go for my last swim off the boad - refreshing is all I can say! Getting ashore in the dinghy was lots of fun - not! We had to practically throw/lower our bags down the ladder and this was especially difficult for me seeing as I can barely lift my pack at the moment!
It was a very scenic, but slightly scary drive to Olympos. It was a cliff/coast road (very James Bond car chase) and it was quite windy and our driver went considerably faster than I would have liked! On the way we passed a local village kind of festival where they were doing oil wrestling. I've read about it in a guidebook and all the men get together, oiled up and wrestle ... we wanted to stop and watch but our driver wouldn't.
