We're on a motherf**king boat yo! Its finally the day of our Blue Cruise, so we got up, had breakfast and packed our bags and set off in a minibus to Demre. Upon arrival at the otogari, a random guy on a scooter showed us where the tour office was (by kidnapping Ryan) and then we walked over and waited for the rest of the cruise people.
Our 4 other boat companions arrived after 15 minutes, and then we were off to the harbour. Our traditional gulet is called Alaturk 2 and we have a crew of three, captain, deckhand, and other captain. They all also work as expert chefs. As it is early in the season two of the crew are on their way to other boats, hence having two captains onboard. The deckhand is also about to become a captain, so we are in capable hands.
First stop was the Sunken city, which was a little disappointing as it was cloudy so we couldn't see that clearly through the water. Could really only make out some crumbled walls and general shapes. What was exciting is when we were sailing along we saw a huge family of turtles and the captain was yelling "Turtles! Lots of turtles!!" And about 10m away we saw them bobbing around as they swam and one popped its head up! We then went to Simena Castle for a walk - pretty amazing view from the top and it was even better because Ryan found a mulberry tree and we just stood there stuffing our mouths with ripe mulberries. There were many locals selling touristy stuff, but we found this old lady and bought some dried carob from her which Ryan shared with everyone and we found out it is known as 'natural Viagra' in Turkey haha.
Kekova island is close by so after sailing around we anchored and stayed there for the night. There were many goats all along the rocky mountain side and one poor goat had lost its mum so was bleating for ages. We also found out how amazing the captains were at cooking. The food was delicious - and this continued for 3 meals a day for the whole trip.
On day two we travelled back to Kas!! We stopped for 2 hours, but we didn't get off the boat. We moved on to another spot for lunch and some swimming, but the weather was overcast and cold so we didn't stay out too long. Dinner was delicious, chicken, greens, pasta, and of course some bread. Desert was popcorn and fruit! Jackie is teaching me some Cantonese but I'm really bad, can't remember anything.
Day three the crew woke up early at 5.30 and started sailing to Butterfly valley. We paid 5 lira to walk up the valley to the waterfall which was okay. Nothing that amazing, but perhaps its more for the atmosphere there as we saw lots of hippies camping on the beach and there was a poster for some kind of music festival.
Afterwards we sailed to Blue Lagoon and usually the boat would stop there but the water was a little choppy so they found a good spot which was kind of a beach and we did lots of swimming.
Then we sailed to St Nicholas island and anchored there for the night. During tea time the captain taught us backgammon and we all got very into it. Played for about 2 hours.
The next morning we sailed to a beach close by to Fethiye and did some swimming before having lunch, then docking in Fethiye for disembarking.
Overall we had an amazing time, swimming, eating the amazing food, sailing the Mediterranean.
As soon as we got off the boat, we headed for the local bus terminal and got a bus to Pamukkale. It took around 4 hours and when we arrived we found a hotel and got dinner before crashing in bed after an exhausting 4 day cruise, ha!
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