Ölü Deniz

We left Kalkan headed towards Ölü Deniz, 40nm to the northwest, an hour or so later on Saturday 4^th October than we had intended as we had slept through the alarm. However, for the first couple of hours there was no wind so we motored close along the coast past the site of Ancient Patara, getting a glimpse of some of the ruins.

Ancient Patara as viewed from seaward 

Patara was the port for the Xanthos, which was once the capital and grandest city of Lycia (this area of modern-day Turkey). The port was particularly busy during the Roman era when, as well as providing a harbour for Xanthos, it provided port services for virtually the whole of the Lycian coast. Since then, however, what was the Patara’s harbour has silted up and all that remains are sand-dunes and marshes. Modern-day Patara is a place of beach holidays and sandcastles.

Butterfly Valley – a popular spot for lepidopterists and tourists alike but the beach is open to the prevailing winds from the west so not a great place to anchor overnight

Having passed Patara we had enough wind to beat gently along the coast for a couple of hours before it died again and, once more, we were reduced to motoring. The coastal scenery around this area is stunning with high hills and mountains and steep-sided valleys dropping to the shoreline.

Our destination was Ölü Deniz, a virtually land-locked lagoon with a lovely beach surrounded by stunning mountainous scenery. However, since the 1980s, yachts have been forbidden from entering the lagoon in order to prevent it from being polluted, so we planned to spend the night in the anchorage outside. Our pilot book says that the anchorage can be very busy with gulets and tripper boats but when we arrived there were only 2 gulets in the bay, both of which left before sunset, though another, very large, yacht arrived to take their place. We wondered if this was because 5^th October was the principal day of the Kurban Bayramı (Festival of the Sacrifice) holiday. Kurban Bayramı is the most important religious and secular holiday of the year in Turkey, commemorating Ibrahim’s near-sacrifice of Ismael on Mt Moriah. It is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians and, similarly, the holiday lasts 4 or 5 days.

While there may not have been many gulets in evidence (and as we left Kalkan there were no gulets taking tourists out there either), there were plenty of paragliders airborne, taking advantage of the good weather and the mountainous terrain. We must have seen over 100 paragliders land on the beach in the 3 hours between our arriving and darkness falling, though there were usually only about 10 visible in the air at any one time.

The following morning we went for a swim into the landlocked Ölü Deniz lagoon to enjoy the scenery from a different angle. You can easily see why it has been such a popular spot over the years. However, the raw natural beauty of the place is somewhat spoiled by rows of gaudy pedallos and all of the paraphernalia of the modern beach resort with a hotels, campsite and restaurants smothering the eastern side. It was pleasant enough but all in all the anchorage outside is probably preferable now in terms of the view. Whilst we were there, despite black clouds building over the paragliders’ launch mountain, there was still sufficient protection from the prevailing wind, though a swell entered during the night (perhaps generated by light katabatic winds off the mountain).

Ölü Deniz, Turkey