Our final days in Turkey 2019

by Chantal & David · Published August 27, 2019 · Updated January 22, 2020

Having returned to Seaclusion all safe and sound, if a little tired from our amazing travels we finally left Marmaris heading westward, visiting some of our favorite haunts from last year.

We spent the 18th – 20th August at anchor in Ciftlik

On the 20th we had a genteel sail around the coast to a wonderful almost enclosed bay called Bozukkale where we tied up to the restaurant quay.

Having been helped to moor up by what appeared to be a very friendly turkish guy who we think owned the restaurant, we then went in later for dinner and were ushered to a table by the same guy, this time however, he was not so helpful. Having decided to have fresh fish we then asked him to price it for us, having told us it was 1kg, the price he quoted was the most we had come across in Turkey over the last two years by a country mile. We then asked him to weigh it in front of us and he put it on the scale and it registered 660 grams, some one third less than he had advised and tried to charge us for. His only comment was, ‘I must get the scales changed in the morning’, yeah right ! So we told him what we were prepared to pay and after a sulky few minutes he finally agreed. In the end it was a very good fish which we thoroughly enjoyed.. In the morning we purchased a loaf of fresh bread from the still sulking owner and left!

But not before Chantal went off swimming and was so lucky to come across a couple of turtles, one rising for air so close to her, she heard his intake of breath. When he saw her, he dived as quickly as possible to the sea bed and she hovered above him to see if he would resurface again, that was until she was “attacked” well nudged by a long skinny fish, which looked uncannily like a sea snake. It wouldn’t leave her alone, seeming to protect the turtle until she got the message, freaked more like!

The following day we headed off around the corner towards Bozburun and dropped our anchor with a long line ashore (with the help of an elderly local in his futfut boat) in the gloriously clear waters of Kizil Adasi where we spent 2 wonderful peaceful days and nights, only broken up by the periodic call of Icecream!

Next Stop was Sogut and the lovely Octopus restaurant where we had, funnily enough, Octopus, still the best in Turkey and Greece for that matter! But disaster had struck, well not a real one, but our paddleboard was looking decidedly flat, so sensing a puncture, we pumped it up again only to find that the air was coming out of the area surrounding where the winsurfing sail could be screwed into, so by no means an easy fix.. But it does mean that there will be no more paddleboarding for us both this season, we may have to get the kayak out now. Then to cap it all a 55ft yacht decided to moor next to us whilst we were downstairs, announcing its arrival with a massive thump, as we realised that we had been clobbered, fortunately there appears to be no significant damage, although we got the owners insurance details just in case.

On the 24th we returned to Bozburun late in the afternoon, dropped our pick just outside the harbour all ready to clear out from Turkey the following day.