Day 21: It's been 5 days in a turkish gulet on Mediterranean Sea

breakfast at Ölüdeniz

After finishing Biga Peninsula, I gave a break to follow the route to south and came directly to Fethiye to join to a blue voyage with a turkish gulet at crystal blue Mediterranean sea. I'm now sailing for a two weeks cabin charter starting from Fethiye till Phaselis and back. This blue voyage kind a trips are now my favorites for a beautiful break. You can swim as much as you want. Sleep at the deck at nights under thousands of stars. Wake up to a silent and full of nature morning and wash your face with clean blue Mediterranean water. If you haven't experienced it yet, you shouldn't die before it.

St. Nicolas Island

There are lots of islands and bays on the route. Some of the islands are untouched and you can only hear the songs of the birds, talks of the goats and donkeys and smells of olive, mountain oregon, sage and lots of other spices coming to your noise with the soft breeze. While sleeping on the deck anchored to one of these islands, you can only hear the sound of the sea beating the bottom of the ship softly. The other beautiful thing about being on board is also sunsets...

sunset at Gemiler Island

Other type of the islands are the ones with ruins of old time horbours, towns or cities belonging

generally to Byzantian or Genoese, The tour lets you to go ashore, do tracking around these ruins and turn back. Although it's late august, weather is incredibly hot and after a long tracking under the sun, the best thing is directly to jump to salty waters. The temperature of the water is around 25-28 degrees and ideal for a long stay in.

start from Fethiye

We started our journey from Fethiye last saturday. Generally all the ships start their routes at saturday. We are 11 people on board. 7 passengers, 3 stuff and me. I have a different category as I'm both a passenger and stuff at the same time. It is a barter I made with the owners.

evening at Turunç Pınarı

At the evening of last saturday, we reached to Turunç Pınarı Bay close to Fethiye. Stayed over the night, had a lovely dinner, swam at night and slept under the stars. These three activities became the most popular of all for the last five days. Next day we started sailing very early like 5am and were able to have our breakfast at Ölüdeniz. I won't write our swiming sections any more but here I also had a chance to climb the hill and took that lovely photo of Ölüdeniz beach...

Ölüdeniz beach and the lagoon

Around noon we passes to Gemiler Island, St. Nicolas with its old name. This island has the ruins of an old harbour center dating back to Byzantian times which was destroyed by a big earthquake. It has 6 churches, lots of houses and an unforgetable sunset from the top of its hill where everybody took their places to watch and applaud.

the ruins of the Byzantian tunnel at St. Nicolas

We stayed over night and passed to Yeşilköy Bay at Kalkan for the morning and of course another delicious turkish breakfast. Around evening we reached to Kaş, one of my favorite places at the south. I have been in Kaş many times but this was the first time going there from the sea.

Kaş from the sea

We spent nearly three hours in Kaş. During this time I was able to visit one of my close friends who lives in Kaş and have some delicious ice cream. For the night, we anchored to Limanağzı Bay very close to Kaş.

Limanağzı also has graves carved into rock

Our next stop after Limanağzı was the famous Kekova region. We stoped at the entrance of Kekova for breakfast and went to Kaleköy(Simena) which has a big castle and an area full of Lycian tombs. It was also time for me to do some small shopping. I bought two summer dresses.

Kaleköy (Simena) and the castle

Lycian tombs

For the night we passed to a bay where there were nobody but us. No boats, no lights, no houses, even no moon... Nothing! And of course at night we appreciated this and swam within yakamoz under the Milky Way. It was a night which I slept like a baby. 

where we woke up this morning

Through our route we came to Finike and will stay here for tonight. Tomorrow we'll go on for Olimpos. I also want to share a map of our route from Fethiye to Antalya.

Day 13-14: Küçükkuyu(Gargaron) and Ida Mountain

from Küçükkuyu harbour

Küçükkuyu is another holiday village between Assos(Behramkale) and Altınoluk. The most important things here are the sea, fish and olive. One of my relatives is living here. Because of this, during my visit I stayed at her house looking to the harbour view. Küçükkuyu is one of that crowded at summer, silent at winter villages. At summer times its population increases like at least three times of its winter one. Walking around the village takes only 40-45 minutes and it's enough to see everything about it. Mostly local tourists visit this village as it is the same for most of the villages, towns and cities around this area. But unlikely other places, it's very common to find lots of camping facilities around Küçükkuyu. The village has a long seashore where all the people do their evening walks, buy some ice cream or have a tea at the seaside tea gardens. The boats anchored upon the seaside reminding the winner of the village.

they are hanging fishes between buildings under the sun to dry them for winter

Küçükkuyu has a very old history. Its foundation dates back to ancient Greek times. Its name was Gargaron. It is believed that Zeus, father of all gods watched and directed Troia war from the top of Gargaron Mountain. Today at that point, there is an altar called Zeus Altar where lots of toursits and people all over the word visit to see and wish things from God.

Zeus Altar

view of east from the top of Gargaros Mountain

viewn of west from the top of Gargaros Mountain

Population of Küçükkuyu is formed from turkish people brought here after population exchange between Turkiye and Greek and turkish nomads who were brought here from the south of Turkiye to built the ships which conquered Istanbul.

The monument of population exchange at Kucukkuyu

Starting from the title of Küçükkuyu, I also want to write something about "olive" which is a very important and precious fruit presented to human beings by gods. Its story is also interesting.

There was a contest at Mount Olympos for the control of new city in Attica. Zeus promise the honour of naming the city to the one who presents the most useful gift for the humankind. Poseidon, the God of Seas struck the ground with his trident and a magnificient white horse appears. Athena, the daughter of Zeus, the Goddess of Wisdom prodeces an olive tree. Since olive is so vital for human life for various uses of its fruit, she won the contest and gave her name to the city of Athens. The history of the first olive tree dates back to 4000BC and its main land is thought to be East Mediterranean.

olives just picked from the trees

Every part of olive that you can imagine is used as something. Nothing left unused from an olive. I also want to share one year adventure of it...

starting from January as a tree and lasting at December as oil

While I'm in Küçükkuyu at the hillsides of Mt. Ida, it would be ridiculus not to visit it. So I decided to join to a daily tour to see the south part of Mt. Ida.

Mount Ida = Kaz Dağları

Although Mt. Ida, Kaz Dağları has a very wide area through inner part of the land, most of the historical and ancient settlements are at the south side, closer to the sea. There are lots of opportunities of tracking, camping, discovering the canyons, endemic plants and trees at the inner part. But it will be another route for me i guess. Maybe with a partner walking with me. This time, i chose to feel the historical part of the mountain. I visited villages Zeytinli, Tahtakuşlar, Güre, Kızılkeçiler and Adatepe. These are the daily names of these ancient villages. At ancient times, there weren't may settlement at the sea shore because of the attacks of prites and ships of other countries. For that reason, all the settlements were founded in the mountain where the village can see the sea but the people from the sea can't see the village.

 

Adatepe Village, the closest to Kucukkuyu

At one of the villages called Tahtakuşlar, there is an ethnography museum which is the oldest ethnography museum of Turkiye all about the daily stuff of nomads and shamans, animals of the region and lots of interesting information which was precious to visit.

a turkish nomad tent

figures of turkish handmade textiles

the second biggest turtle with ledder shell

There were also waterfalls, nice walking opportunities and great views from the top...

Sutüren Waterfall

walking to the waterfall

Lake Hasanboğuldu

Başdeğirmen: water is cold like ice!!

And the view...

Kucukkuyu harbour from the mountain

Day 12: Assos

Aristotle statue at the entrance of the village

Assos, Behramkale with its Ottoman name is an ancient settlement founded from 1000 to 900 BC. It is also a village where Aristotle opened an academy of philosophy and gave lessons. It is located to the sides of the hill where there are the ruins of temple of Athena. There are also the ruins of the ancient city down hill near the ancient harbour where the archeological excavations are still going on. The most amazing remains are the city walls, entrance of the necropolice and the amphiteatre.

temple of Athena

gates of the Necropolis

amphiteatre from web

Behramkale village is still active and the old small streets of it is full of toursitic stands selling handmade touristic stuff.

Behramkale village from the temple of Athena

touristic stuff hanged to the village walls following the route of temple

village square

Behramkale Hüdavendigar mosque from Ottoman times

There are lots of things to say and to see about Assos but it was a disappointment for me about my country and its attention to history. I walked around the ruins of the temple and the ancient city but couldn't find any information about what they are or why they were there. I was walking maybe at the streets of old houses or passing in front of a stoa but I couldn't even understand that. I had to buy a book about Assos to learn what is what and where and also learned that the stone relieves of the temple were given as a present to France by one of the Ottoman sultans. This also shows how important the history for my people. Anyway, if you will come to this part of Turkiye, you should definetely visit Assos. Maybe things can change at the future as I still have hope.

Day 11: Babakale; the most western point of Turkiye at main land

two lighthouses of Babakale welcoming the passengers of Aegean Sea
the land we see at the horizon is a Greek island, Midilli (Lesvos)

Babakale is a small fishing village at the very western point of Turkiye. As I've mentioned before, Gökceada is the western most border of Turkiye. You can read my blog post about Gokceada from here:Gökçeada. Babakale is the most western at main land because of the pysical shape of the land.

Babakale is at the south west of Çanakkale city

Through my journey, I wanted to feel being at this very west but also heard about its castle and delicious local calamary which gets caught daily by fishermen of the village.

Babakale Castle

Babakale is a village founded by Ottomans around 1723. Before the village it's said that one of the Ottoman generals of a navy ship died during they anchored in front of this cape and the soldiers had to barry him to this cape and after that they started calling this cape Baba Burnu which means Dad's Cape. In turkish culture the impression of a father is strong, protective, strict and also like a teacher. So it shouldn't make you feel odd to read the relation between a general and a father for the soldiers who left their lives to his hands. After this, because of the prite attacks to the land Ottomans decided to built a castle to this cape and called it Babakale which also means Dad's castle uniting the two names. The village founded after the castle. Today, most of the houses are rebuilt but there remained a hamam, turkish bath from that times which needs to be restorated immediately. The old ladies of the town told me that it was still working when they were little girls.

the Ottoman hamam needs a restoration immediately

As the village is very small, it is very easy to access to nature and have walks around the village at the afternoons. The days I was there were the hotest days of summer so I had to wait for late afternoon to walk around. First inside the village and then around it...

the beach is at the end of the harbour and the water is very clear

As they live beside the sea, they live with the sea. Because of this, fishing is the main living style here. Of course they all thank to the fertility of the Aegean Sea and Babakale is very famous with its calamary and octopus.

Babakale certificate

When you come to Babakale, at any place you eat or stay, they give you this certificate mostly as a memory of this beautiful fishing village.

Days 9 and 10: Bozcaada(Tenedos) and an island classical; bike again!

Bozcaada from ferry

From Çanakkale, you should come to Geyikli to pass to Bozcaada by ferry. The minibus journey lasts nearly one hour and the ferry half an hour. Despite Gokceada, you directly enter to the island's center at Bozcaada. It is more crowded, more modern and more small than Gokceada. Everybody around me who knows the island again told me that it's impossible for me to see everywhere without a vehicle. So an island classical I again chose to rent a bike. This time I have more condition and the island is smaller. But first, I had to find a place to set up my tent and leave my backpack. I went to the only camping place of the island; Ada Camping. It was a nice and chilled place but On the contrary of what I have thought it was full of families instead of young people. I guess the camping place's bungalows also help this. I reached to the island at the evening so for that evening I chose to see around the camping area and swim at the closest beach. I also had a chance to walk through the bay during sunset.

sunset at Habbele Bay

After an early night I woke up, had my breakfast, went to the island center, rented my bike and set on the road. It took nearly 5 hours to bike all around the island. I couldn't believe myself. This time I didn't even get off the bike at the hills. But I should add, Bozcaada hills are lower than Gokceada. Still I was able to visit nearly all the bays and the wine yards of the island. Yes! Bozcaada is also famous with its wines. It has lots of wineyards. The wind brings two smells to your nose. One is pine, the other is grape. It has a lot of wind but not so many trees. Still I won't forget these two smells of this island and the clear and chilled water of the sea.

Tuzburnu Bay

For me nature and sea are more important than wine yards. Because of this you'll find more photos of sea and bays here...

one of the most beautiful bays of Bozcaada; Aquarium Bay

The most famous beach of Bozcaada: Ayazma Beach and Bay

I've told you before, Bozcaada has very strong winds. Because of this there is a big wind energy station at the very south point of the island. Especially at winter, it's really hard to reach the island from the main land because of the strong winds.

wind energy station

Bozcaada has two names. One is Bozcaada, the other is Tenedos which comes from Greeks. Its population is nearly 3.000 and its architecture is generally formed from stone or wooden old style houses. Especially at the center of the island, it is very easy to observe and feel this feature.

Bozcaada street