Cruising on the Mediterranean

The view from our (average) hostel in Fethiye
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Today we jumped on a little minibus to the port of Fethiye, a five hour journey. Halfway through the trip, the conductor gave us all some sweet cakes and a glass of Coke, and then sprayed our hands with lemon scented cologne. Very funny, and nice, from our point of view, but something we'd learn was part of every long distance Turkish bus ride...

In Fethiye we stayed in a pretty crummy hostel, with Micko, Candise, John and Andy, three Aussies and a Canadian who had been at Atillas before us, and who were going on the boat cruise with us tomorrow.

...went to sleep on the deck, under the stars...

Our first stop on the cruise; avid fishermen hauling them in
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While waiting for our gulet (wooden yacht) to leave, we were puzzled by a small boy (maybe six or seven years old) on the jetty, walking up to people with his set of bathroom scales. We learnt that people pay him a lira or two (Turkish lira is roughly the same as the Aus dollar) to weigh themselves, something that is quite popular with drunk tourists!

The six of us from the hostel, a Danish couple, an American student, another Aus backpacker, a weird, older Turkish couple and the crew of three boarded the yacht, the Mad Life, and we set sail (well, not really. We used the motor...) and headed out in to the Mediterranean. We stopped for a swim in very picturesque places, and kicked back and enjoyed the scenery as we passed. We were fed really well, and stayed up chatting. After getting to know each other, we got changed in our cabins and went to sleep on the deck, under the stars...

Our sleeping, and sun baking, arrangement
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We started the next morning by jumping off the boat for the morning swim, before having Turkish breakfast (tomato, cucumber, olives, white bread, boiled egg). The girls got into position to ensure maximum sun exposure, and we headed off. The seas were a little rough, Hannah got quite sea sick. We stopped in the town of Kas for the afternoon, checked out the ruins of an old theatre and got some groceries before jumping back on the Mad Life and heading off again. We stopped for the night and had a swim and then dinner. Another yacht form the same tour company was anchored nearby, and some of the guys and girls rowed over in the little dinghy. We stayed up most of the night, playing very funny drinking games, including Aliens and the hand game...

Turkish sunset
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The next day (after our morning swim, of course!) we cruised by the Sunken City. Around the fourth century BC, when an earthquake severed an inhabited island from mainland Turkey, a city was submerged underwater. Sadly for us noone is allowed to swim or dive around the ruins, but we did get a good look as we cruised by. After lounging around on the deck for a few hours, we got picekd up by a water taxi to take us to a 'disco'. The dozen of us were the first to arrive, and the place was hardly going off. We busied ourselves making a bonfire, and bought a few drinks at ten lira each! Eventually some people form other yachts in the area joined us, and the place filled up. Some people stayed longer than others, and we were dropped back at our boat. We went to bed, again under the stars. Very cool.