Our Gundogan Blue Voyage #6

Day Eight

Our next destination was Kale and Kekova. We found a lovely cove in the morning to breakfast in and had a swim. We sailed to the area called Kekova and sailed along about 20 feet from the coast viewing ruins of ancient Lycia. Steps emerge from the sea, wharfs, churches, houses, bath houses all from the cities of Aperlae, Termlussa and the ancient city of Simena founded in 5 BC and is located in today’s Kale.

Kekova, “the home of the sun” for some, “the island of the partridges” for others, is an island, as well as the name of a whole ensemble of picturesque islands, numerous bays and ancient cities. These bays provide natural harbors in all seasons, and yachtsmen particularly enjoy exploring the unspoiled landscapes. Along the northern shore of Kekova Island, earthquakes have disturbed the land causing some of the ancient houses to sink under the clear water, creating a sunken city. Kalekoy Castle (ancient Simena) offers a bird’s-eye view of the bays, inlets, islands and colorful yachts, sailing peacefully on the glassy water. Kekova provides an incredible setting with blue skies, orange sunsets, starry nights, playful dolphins, mythological mysteries, and the sparkling sea, all set in peace and tranquility.

We moved to another cove where we could lunch and swim again in the crystal turquoise water. Upon anchoring we were swarmed by hordes of young villagers in motor boats selling hand embroidered scarves. These scarves used to be all over Turkey when I was here 20 years ago and each trip back I looked for them unsuccessfully so I was thrilled that I had found them! We asked the four girls to board and they immediately began showing their wares – beaded scarves, crochet scarves, scarves with shells, scarves with beads. All handmade and unique. The girls tried to vie for our attention by showing us their favorites. They were beautiful girls – dark hair, almond shaped eyes of green and blue, smart as a whip and huge smiles. We chose our favorites equally amongst the four so that one was not favored over another. We readied to pay when we realized we were dealing with young girls with calculator brains. We tried to trick them paying half with dollars and half with Turkish Lira, but alas our prank did not work and we paid their asking price – no discount!

An hour or so later we were greeted by another boat, this time a rowboat, powered by a mother and her two young daughters. We met Daria and Hulya. Daria was a beautiful 9-year-old girl with green eyes and the biggest smile in the world. She took out her scarves and began adorning our hair, waists and necks – we were her Barbie dolls for the day. She’d dress us, step back and giggle with a sound that was music to our ears, adjust the scarves again and smile. We were under her spell. No wonder the stories of nymphs, sirens and mermaids originated here, Daria was surely a descendant. We bought more scarves. Hulya joined her mother in the rowboat while Daria made her rounds kissing us all on both cheeks to thank us. I knew I would miss her – I missed her already. As her mother paddled off, Daria blew us kisses from afar.

Kale is a very small village, very Turkish and isolated. The school has only ten children and the streets are footpaths that wind up the hillside past houses where you can peek in and see the ladies preparing food, while kneeling on the carpet covered floors. On the top of the hillside is a medieval castle that is thought to be Genoese. Surrounding the castle there are Lycian rock tombs.

We were led up to the castle by a young boy, Suleman, 10 years who was joined by his little sister and mother. He told us what he knew of the castle and the area. At the end of the tour our young Suleman expected our group to purchase one of the bracelets he was selling and when we bought from his sister he was very upset and ran away crying. We later found Suleman and groveled apologetically and tried to give him some money for the tour. He refused for several minutes, but finally accepted. He was a very proud boy, he didn’t want a handout – he wanted us to purchase his merchandise as a token of our gratitude. A lesson we learned and pass onto you.

We anchored out in the harbor, tied to the ancient remnants of 2500 year old Lycian building, for the evening. We slept on deck enjoying the cool breeze and shooting stars.