Blue Cruise

After a long overnight bus trip from Goreme, which wasn't as bad as it sounds, we arrived in Fethyie at 7am, tired and hungry.  First stop was breakfast which was wolfed down quickly when a minivan showed up that would get us to our accommodation down the road at Faralya.  We dropped half the load just over the hill at Oludeniz, a real tourist town that had suffered at the hands of English package holidays, and carried on our journey on a road carved out of the huge rocky cliffs.  There was not much to Faralya and it was wonderful because of it.  Our hotel was family run and quiet and overlooked the incredible Butterfly Valley.

Butterfly valley

After a second breakfast and a bit of a snooze, we plucked up the courage to take on the rugged descent down the cliff to Butterfly valley.  The guidebook recommended caution and noted that an Australian tourist had died attempting the descent so that made me wanted to give it a crack even more!  It wasn't too bad, yes it was steep and as you can see from below there were sections where they had rope to hang on too, but it was more the fact that it was high and you looked out into a valley and another massive cliff that made it daunting.  We made it down without incident.

Steep 'track' down to the valley

Side of the valley from halfway down the track

Butterfly beach was nice but covered with tourists there for day trips from Oludeniz.  We had a swim and got on the boat to check out the tourist town.

One day cruise boat at Butterfly beach

On the ferry to Olundeniz

Beach at Olundeniz

Everything at Oludeniz was priced in sterling and there were sunburnt English everywhere, including in the skies as hundreds of them threw themselves off Mt Babadag like James Bond did in Skyfall.

Paraglider from Mt Babadag

We had a very funny dinner out at a family run restaurant down the road where we were the only customers and treated like kings.  The whole family was up to lend a hand in the kitchen and the food was wonderful.  We sat outside and watched the sunset as the family cat rubbed around our legs.  Then we found out the next day at breakfast why it was so quiet - breakfast AND dinner was included at our motel down the road....

Our private restaurant

The next day we took a day trip to Saklikent Gorge which threatened to be a bit of a waste of time early on when we were told we needed a guide to go up the gorge and in order to get into the main gorge you needed to cross a bit of a torrent - which was fffffreezing.  We could see that a number of people were coming back, seemingly unguided so I went across the torrent for a look before convincing Kelley it was worthwhile and I'm pleased I did, it was amazing.

Start of the gorge

It just kept going and going and we just kept walking up the creek.

Taking on a tough bit, which would turn out to be as far as we went

Snake - fortunately we saw this on the way back....

Near the end

Main entrance / exit to the gorge

The two days in Faralya were a little unplanned when we arrived and ended up being a real highlight.  We were very pleased we'd stayed out of Oludeniz which was luck more than good planning, but it turned out well.

Dinner - last night in Faralya

Sunset from the motel in Faralya

We were up and away early the next morning, after been woken even earlier again by the call to worship which rang out very early in the morning, as per usual.  We took the first minibus back to Fethyie and found the port and our boat, Ros.  After a quick wander around to buy a sunhat and a book (both were essential for the upcoming 3 days) we were off, chugging out of the harbour.  There were 9 of us on the trip (plus a captain and cook).  Normally they would take up to 16 but we were the first trip of the summer.

Our Gulet - 'Ros'

What followed was a reasonably set routine as follows:
- cruise to a quiet, calm, secluded bay
- swim
- read
- eat
- repeat

It was very relaxing.

A couple of times, we went for a walk around one of the islands.  It is fair to say that not all of our fellow travellers were in much of a hurry to get anywhere, and it was hot, so these were pretty casual wanders.  I went for a good run on one of the islands when doing not much got too much.  I almost stepped on a snake, chased some goats and was yelled at by a farmer in Turkish (I think he was being friendly) but it was a great run and finished off with another nice swim.

Poppies

Inside a water dome / well.

More of the same...

We all got on very well and had a couple of very funny evenings playing stupid games.  Everyone was of a similar age, mainly American and Canadian - one American couple worked in the military and were stationed in Turkey.  The captain and cook were great value, although for some reason our captain called in a substitute for the last night and left but that didn't matter.  They were all brothers anyway!

Parting shot, back in Fethyie.  It was a shame it was all over.

We had a few hours to fill in back in Fethyie before we flew back to Istanbul so we wandered up to the tombs above the town with an American couple who had a similar flight.

Tomb above Fethyie