Author: Merro

We are in Fethiye, waiting to see if Beneteau is going to arrange warranty work for us. It is very hot. I would say August in Southern Turkey is not for the heat averse. We now fully regret our mocking laughs at yachts with air conditioning. Last night we had a block of ice in front of a fan, tonight we will try wet sheets in front of the bucket of ice. Yes,yes, I know our life is so glamorous.

Ok enough of the chat, we went to a small but perfectly appointed museum, with air conditioning, in Fethiye yesterday. Most of the finds, are from the Lycian, Hellenistic and Roman periods and there are beautiful and fascinating pieces in this tiny museum. The lovely extra seems to be the photos on the wall of where these antiquities have come from and drawings showing you how they used the various altar stones. Imagination injections as it were. I will rely heavily on the museum notes, because they give the details in italics. If you are coming to Fethiye, be sure to visit.

Back in the ancient times of the Greeks, the Lycians were a small city state federation between Fethiye and Antalya. They were matriarchal. Herodotos noted: “They have customs that resemble no one else’s. They use their mother’s name instead of their father’s. If one Lycian asks another from whom he is descended, he gives the name of his mother. And if a citizen woman should cohabit with a slave, the children are considered of free birth; but if a citizen man, even the foremost of them, has a foreign wife or mistress, the children are without honour“.

I love a reference I saw on lycianturkey.com, that the Lycians most resemble the Swiss, hard-working, wealthy peace-loving nation, but fierce if attacked. It does give you a sense of who they were.

The Lycians had their own language and one of the most exciting finds in this area of Turkey has been the trilingual stele from Letoon.  Each of three sides had inscriptions in Greek, Lycian and Aramaic.  It was the Rosetta stone for the Lycian language, allowing scholars to interpret the Lycian inscriptions.  It also shows that Lycia was a melting pot of merchants and traders, a cross-road between East and West.

As to what important message was carved into a monument like this? They were creating an altar and setting up a new cult to the mythological King Kaunos and Artemis and who the new administrator was.  You thought I was going say taxes, didn’t you?

The angel is appropriate as my cousin Carol De Angelo is celebrating her Golden Jubilee as a Sister of Charity. Our love and congratulations to you, Carol.

Happy birthday to Nancy O’Brien, Sean Waters and Blake Johnson. Hope it is a good day for everyone.

The dreadful heat pushed us into port and the wonderful thought of an air conditioned room.  No one had slept well for about three nights, but Fethiye promised to bring us bliss: air conditioning, cool drinks and a lovely pool with shade umbrellas.

On Tuesday, our energy recovered, we decided to  take a taxi to see more Lycian tombs. We saw an air conditioned cab and he took us up the hill to see first the castle, a very ruined site that may have been used by the Crusaders and then up to the Lycian Tombs. The tombs are at the high point of any given towns so the souls have an easy journey to the heavens.

The biggest tomb belonged to the once rich or famous Amyntas or Aminthas, because there was an inscription to identity him. This tomb is circa 4th century BC and is carved from the local rock in the shape of a temple portico. It is about the equivalent of 6 or 7 flights of stairs to reach the tomb, which is intact except for damage mainly caused by rain seepage and graffiti.

Then we went to the Fethiye Tuesday markets, vibrant with food, grains, spices and  cheese. The stall holders are men and woman with the gift of chat and cheek. They are entertainment which has stayed the course of time.

There is also a market full of clothing and hand bags, mainly fakes. But to Blue and James, the most important market was the fish market.  Fethiye has an interesting take on seafood.  You go to the bustling fish, fruit and vegetable market and purchase the seafood of your choice then go to the nearby restaurants for them to cook the fish in consultation with your preferred method. Talk about expert advice, they will even go with you to purchase the fish.

This is not the place to come for a quiet evening, no romance here.  The noise levels are stratospheric, the TV soccer is playing over the head of the Anatolian musicians.  It is a long time between courses but that is ok because we are able to speak to the Turkish friends on the next table.  In fact, despite Ivan’s best advice, they talked the poor Aussie innocents into trying Raki.  Shot for shot, laugh for laugh, we had made new friends. Sherefe!

We left the gorgeous D Marin in Gocek, after a lovely dinner at The Breezes, which ended with Rene begging a young woman to model one of Nat’s gorgeous evening vests. You will see a photo of the vest later. All of you with children know that as parents, godparents or aunts & uncles, we will nurture our young charges and help further their careers and creative endeavors, but not many do as much to assist as Rene does to help Nat. This includes taking an impossibly small sample vest around the world, talk James and Blue into sailing close to glamorous gulets, super yachts and modern ribs for fashion shots.  She also accosts young woman in restaurants, who are so small they might actually be fairies or elves, to try on said glamorous top.

Back to all the bays, we left Gocek to go to the beautiful area called 12 Islands en route to Fethiye. There is Ruin Bay, Tomb Bay, Wall Bay with the lovely Wall Bay cafe, 22 Fathom Cove and Deep Bay, which had lovely moorings, and Cleopatra’s Beach with Baths.

Having shopped at the wonderful Gourmet Garage, we had a rib eye roast and lamb cutlets to barbecue so we were off to bays so deep, we could only just set an anchor and then tie our sterns to the shore. In Deep Bay, on moorings, we could  open the swimming platform and jump in every 30 minutes or so because the temperatures were 40 plus. You can’t barbecue until after 8PM, because the wasps love meat.  We have found a solution: take Turkish coffee and set it alight in a small ashtray or tin can and the acrid smoke sends most of the wasps away.  For the one or two that linger, we use the Malcolm Levy approach and employ the electrified tennis racquet.

We stayed one night on the pontoon at Wall Bay Cafe, which had Anatolian musicians and a beautiful outlook under the pine trees and stars.  The food was lovely and simple, there was a cooling breeze and yachts and gulets with lights on shining all around Wall Bay and the nearby bays.

The heat has been dramatic, we have tried sleeping in the cockpit and on floors. We think we will make our way to Fethiye and a nice hotel with a pool and air conditioning.

A few people have asked what we do with Richard, if he starts stressing too much. We don’t want you to worry, we take Richard out to buy Turkish cotton shirts. Rene and I don’t mind because the shops are air conditioned and Blue now has quite a collection. Still we have a naughty corner, if he gets too out of control.