I'm on a Boat

NB - Posting a few days late due to slow Wifi.

You know those movies? The ones set in locations where the water is the kind of turquoise it must be digitally enhanced? Welcome to the Kas coastline. The last two days were spent sailing these waters on a Turkish gulet boat. The gulets look beautiful due to their traditional design complete with masts that are seemingly useless as the boat is motorised!

It made for a basic but comfortable ride. The cabins were much too hot to use so most activity, including sleeping, took place on the deck. I could get used to waking up to that kind of view.

Both days were much the same. We would lie around on the boat then stop for long swims that were followed by some seriously beautiful fresh food. There was a small BBQ on the side of the boat that was used to cook fish and chicken. One of my favourite lunches was the most amazing dish of beans and rice - all was prepared lovingly by the Captain and his crew member (with a tiny bit of help from us!).

The first night after the sun had gone down, the Captain offered to take us for a little excursion. The group was split in two and one group at a time was taken off the gulet onto a motorised dingy. Speeding through the sea with only the light of the moon and the stars and the occasional flash of a torch to guide you is an exhilarating feeling. We approached the rock face and the Captain turned the torch off. He guided the boat slowly in complete darkness. And just as we began to feel like we were participating in a scene from a horror film, the Captain turned the torch on to reveal an absolutely magnificent cave. The colours of the rocks and the coral were incredible. Even in the limited light you could see the green and purple hues. Then suddenly the lights were out again and the Captain showed us how in complete darkness, if you splashed the water it sparkled like there were millions of diamonds moving across it’s surface. Reading about it later, this is due to either phosphorus in the water or light producing organs called photophores or something equally as confusing. In hindsight, I think the Captain was on to something - when asked what was producing the lights he said “ I don’t know. Just splash!”.

That wasn’t the only bit of magic. Being mostly from the southern hemisphere, as we made our way back to the gulet most of our group was looking up at a sky that that was entirely unfamiliar. Being on the ocean and away from the city lights, not only were there more stars that we would ever usually see, but we could actually compete to spot the highest number of shooting stars!

The next day in between swimming and eating, we visited Semina, a village built around a castle set up high on a hill with spectacular views. We at homemade ice cream (peach, banana and hazelnut). We sailed past the ruins of an ancient sunken city. And we shared the water with giant sea turtles. After another night sleeping on the deck of the boat, we rose with the sun and prepared to leave. While the experience was more than amazing, we were all rather sticky and salty and left very much looking forward to a shower. Unfortunately we had 10 hours of bus rides ahead of us before we got one - but I wouldn’t change our experience for the world.