Day 3, Phaselis & Koprulu Canyon National Park and back westward again!

Our final day with the car saw us up early again in an attempt to try to beat the heat a little. We headed westward, this time passing the Taurus Mountain range to a placed called Phaselis, described in our pilot book as, “One of the most picturesque sites along this coast. On the headland and isthmus between the 2 anchorages lies numerous ruins, part of a Roman aqueduct, a harbour street with dwellings, shops and a pleasingly little theatre”.

You ask why we didn’t stop and anchor there with Seaclusion, however one of the 2 anchorages is said to be “rock bound at the entrance with perhaps a 10m wide channel clear of dangers with a little over 2m of depth”. It would take someone a lot braver than us to try that! As for the second anchorage, take note of the last picture of Phaselis below and you will surely understand why we didn’t!

Phaselis

Our next stop was a little more refreshing!

Koprulu Canyon National Park

The main feature is the Koprucay River that winds its way down from the Taurus Mountains, forging its way through a number of striking canyons, the flow is fed by underground springs, becoming a mighty river that eventually empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Thankfully at this time of year, it wasn’t so mighty, allowing us to don a shortie wet-suit, life jacket, helmet, shoes and swim as far up it as we could. It was cool, refreshing and absolutely stunning. However despite purchasing a water proof case for my iPhone we have very few photos of our own to show you as the moment the phone touched the icy water, the battery died, apparently a well known glitch of iPhones, said the lady who sold me the cover in the first place, I wonder why she didn’t tell us that when we went to purchase it! Suffice to say the internet has allowed me to top up so to speak.

David, despite the smiles, clearly didnt want to be caught on camera with a helmet on!!

It was a mix of swimming, climbing and clambering over boulders big and small, as well as the occasional rope-ladder, but Chantal did manage to do a GI Jane, by getting herself to a rock at the bottom of a waterfall, where the torrent of water would push most people from getting there, but not our intrepid Chantal.

What a fabulous experience, although the cold did get the better of us, even after walking back to the entrance, David still had to take a few minutes to thaw his hands out before he could drive us back to Antalya.

The view of the canon as we walked back to the entrance.

Our final excursion was to take a small cable car up to the top of the nearest mountain to Antalya to take in the views, which were stunning and well worth the trip. I will let the photos do the talking….

We later dropped the car back, had a wonderful meal out in the old town and taxied back to the boat for a good night’s sleep!

So now, having well and truly “done” Antalya, we set sail to make our merry way back westward again, stopping at a lovely anchorage before leaving the Antayla Korfezi, where turtles happily lazed about and David finally took to the paddleboard, very successfully I might add, despite me standing poised with my zoom lens to snap him falling in. Sorry guys, even when a speed boat went past he looked like a seasoned paddle boarder.

Just for you Simon…

Next stop was back to Gokkaya Limani for 2 more days chillaxing and with the exception of a somewhat risky 5 mile round trip in the dinghy no less, to Kale Koy to pick up some provisions, (we did actually take our handheld VHF with us and there was someone to call if we got into trouble), we didn’t leave the boat for 5 days, just did lots of swimming, paddleboarding, and reading.

Kale Koy by dinghy!

We finally tore ourselves away from the seclusion, excuse the pun and set sail, tacking along the coast and through the numerous islands off Kas to get back to Kas Marina and provision up ready for our next guests on board, Danie & Mark on the 2nd August.

And one last giggle before we end this chapter…. spotted in Kas Marina

1st August 2019