Thursday: Goat milk ice cream and the building blocks of Simena Castle.
The sunrise was super saturated and dramatic this morning. Kekova Island looked as mysterious as ever.
I haven’t said much about this boat. It is, by far, the biggest, most elegant vessel I have ever had the pleasure to bring our guests on. La Mia Stella is a 108-foot long Turkish Gulet, a traditional 2-masted sailing vessel popular on the Turkish Coast. They used to haul goods around the Mediterranean, but now they are the heart of the “blue cruise” trade, bringing tourists to popular spots along the Mediterranean coast. La Mia Stella boasts enormous deck space and lounging areas, 2 dining spaces, 3 bars, and well appointed guest cabins. Spectacular and excedingly comfortable.
Morning scenes from the decks of La Mia Stella: Simena castle, lit on the hill in the vivid sunrise, Cynthia in silhouette, Kathy in a rare moment of repose before she leaps into the water well ahead of the morning swim.
We woke to a magnificent sunrise and those glassy water conditions we had last night, and plotted a 25-minute swim to our west, along a craggy coastline with plenty of stuff to look at underwater. Wait, we ate crepes first. And did a little yoga. Then we swam.
Hopper leads some pre-swim, post crepes yoga / pilates on La Mia Stella's spacious bow.
I led Marianne on a heads-down power cardio no-stops swim. She did great! - HP
We hung around this calm little bay until after lunch (stuffed eggplant to die for), when we headed to Simena Castle. Before you even step ashore here, you can see a half-sunken Lycian tomb (remember that this whole land area has dropped several feet through the centuries due to tectonic shifts), and the ruins of a Roman bath complex. Lots and lots of stairs lead through the lower part of town, and if you look closely you can see the building blocks of earlier forms of the castle strewn about, re-used, some with ancient Greek inscriptions. The very early building materials seem to be made of the same stone that the hill is made of, and those blocks are big, like 3x4x6 feet. I imagine many of these fell over during the period of earthquakes here between 200 and 500 A.D. As years progress and the castle was rebuilt and repaired, the stones seem to get smaller and the use of mortar becomes more common. To the east of the castle is a grove of olive trees with scattered Lycian tombs.
The layers of building materials from three different empires greet us at Simena Castle.
Ancient Lycian tombs dot the green hillsides.
The owner of You Are Here cafe and his BRILLIANT marketing routine: He has a courtyard below filled with photo friendly set pieces. But the real genius stroke is his use of a mirror to LIGHT the subjects for a high key, studio lighting effect. As a photographer, I was thrilled with the look achieved and blown away by his cleverness. See our Simena studio portraits below! - HP
On the walk back down to the shore from the castle, we pass through the little village that rings it, where the residents serve the tourists trade with ice cream shops, flowing garments, dried herbs, and fresh squeezed orange juice. I picked up a jar of sour cherries with loose plans to get them into a cocktail. We ate ice cream at a place called You Are Here, owned by a guy with excellent marketing skills and a totally instagrammable patio. We lounged on red cushions, then found our way to another spot down the hill a bit for beers and lemonade on couches. Cats stole the show, a common occurrence when traveling in Turkiye.
Cats cats cuddly cats!!
I caught Mustafa's stellar smile in a selfie with me as he dinghied us back to La Mia Stella. - HP
Our anchorage for the night was in a new cove for us, with a maze of rocks that was great for exploring. Heather got inked by a squid while Kathy, Katie and I checked out some caves up on the hill.
Look closely and you can see Hopper, Kathy and Katie scrambling up this hillside to check out the caves above. They turned out to not really be caves but a fun adventure scratched the itch!
The bay gave us mazes of rocks and caverns, rooms and slots. And yay for a kaplümbağa (that’s turtle, in Turkish!) appearance!
Running low on liquor here, as expected this time of the trip, but enough for a round of Negronis. Steak dinner with whole fish for those preferring something different, along with the 4-5 other amazing Turkish dishes that aways come out with these meals.
Tomorrow, we leave the Kekova area and head back to Kas for a final day of swimming closer to our port. This place is such a swimmer’s paradise.
Hopper
Video recap! XO