Tuesday: The Lycian Crawl.

There aren’t many places in the world where you can swim down the edge of a bay with clear water, exit at a sandy beach, hike to a Roman-era castle, and swim back to where you started, in this case, our yacht. 

Along the hike to the castle, we plucked leaves from the trees and shrubs to smell them, and identified them with plant ID apps. Olive, Oak, and Carob are the dominant tree species, with lots of sage and oregano in the understory. Are these the descendants of the plants that once fed the people who lived here when the castle and surrounding village were active over a thousand years ago? I’d like to think so.

We could see swimmers Marianne and Heather from atop the castle, their swim buoys tiny pink and orange dots. We poked around the castle, guessing at when different parts of it were built, changed, destroyed. 

Back aboard La Mia Stella, the crew had been working hard at cleaning our rooms and making our beds, always nice to come home to that, as well as the cheesy egg casserole that we hadn’t finished before the swim. Simon continued to go over stroke videos with our guests. Sunshine. Gentle breezes. Limited suffering. 

We weighed anchor and set out for the shoreline of Kekova Island to check out the ruins of this trading village that dates back as far as perhaps 1400 B.C.  I can’t get enough of this place, almost a mile of continuous ancient history right in front of us as we slowly motor along the shore. The Lycians probably knew how to swim, and it’s possible they’d swim to a neighbor’s house for a visit, rather than walk up and down the many steps carved into the hillside. After we finished there, I read an archaeology paper about all the amphorae that had been found underwater there. They were from all over the Mediterranean, and from many eras over a thousand years. Mind blowing. 

Kaptan Seyfi pilots our gorgeous gulet, La Mia Stella, with expertise as we slowly crawl along the historic shore of Kekova Adasi (Island).

We’ve been eating a vegetarian lunch here for the two weeks we’ve been running trips here in Türkiye. I find I have more energy through the rest of the day. Naps and reading, tea and cakes at 4. Simon brought fellow Mainers Katie and Kathy on a long swim, Heather brought Cynthia, Kerry, and Susie on a medium swim, and Marianne and I worked on her breaststroke, freestyle, and butterfly near the little island we were tied up to.

We love this little bay I have named “Cold corner bay” because the far corner is so full of freshwater springs in one corner that it’s chilly and wild to swim through. The halocline - where the freshwater mixes with the salty sea - dazzles our senses with distorted vision. You can see examples in a few of the photos above that look soft and out of focus. - HP

The light got great and the mountain colors soft in the dim this evening. 

Rakki is the local liquor here, a more nuanced version of the Orzo from neighboring Greece, I think, but still has that rich anise flavor. Tonight’s cocktail: 

Lycian Crawl

1.75 oz Rakki

2 oz Watermelon juice

.5 oz lemon juice

splash of soda

Pour all ingredients over ice into a snazzy little glass and sip at sunset

Any weight we gained from the rice pudding we had for dessert was quickly melted away by our 4-song dance party, led by guest Kathy. The light changed a bit today, and you can feel fall creeping in. There are far fewer tour boats than we saw last week, and they have about half the people of last week’s. We’ve got this bay mostly to ourselves. La Mia Stella rocks us to sleep.

Hopper

A little video recap of the day!