Fethiye

Approaching Fethiye

After enjoying the remote wilderness of Küçük Kuyruk we felt it appropriate to 'do' some civilisation as well. We haven't been to Fethiye before and so it seemed to be a good place to visit, especially as it was only 12 miles away. We had a nice sail across, picking our way through the islands in the Fethiye Bay, although it has to be said that the views were not as good as they should have been because the sky and the hilltops was covered in cloud. Lucy described the scenery as being similar to the views in the Jurassic Park films with sharp volcanic peaks and a tangle of trees and undergrowth clinging to them.

Lycian tombs above Fethiye    

We made our way into the harbour area of Fethiye admiring the Lycian tombs carved into the cliffs above.

There were also the ruins of a Byzantine fort on top of a small peak to distract us as we worked out where we would moor. There is a large marina here but we decided to anchor close in to the shore. Once secure we spotted that S/Y Ethel was anchored close by and recognised that she would be joining us for the cruising in company.

The story of Fethi Bey crashing his aircraft which prompted Megri to change its name to Fethiye    

When we took the dinghy ashore we also bumped into S/Y Emma B’s crew whom we had met at the annual CA dinner and got a few pointers about places to shop for food. Ashore we discovered why the town (ancient Telmessus) had change its modern name from Megri to Fethiye in 1914 and also saw one of the few remnants of ancient Telmessus, the theatre, which was in the throes of a complete refurbishment.

Nicky and I explored the fantastic markets which date back to ancient times (a success) and looked for some pirate fancy dress rig (a failure) whilst Alex and Lucy walked around the lively bar and restaurant areas. They even saw turtles swimming just off the quay. We met up again to make our way back to BV just as the heavens opened. Rain! .... we haven't seen rain for months and so Alex and Lucy instantly got the blame. We assessed it as some sort of training event to prepare them for returning to Manchester!

Fittingly we’d seen that one of the streets was completely decorated with brightly coloured umbrellas to make them feel at home. Overall though, despite the rain, we decided that Fethiye is a really nice place and well worth revisiting.

In the market we had got hold of some Turkish filo pastry and so once we were back on board BV we cooked a filo pie filled with local soft cheese, eggs, spinach and toasted pine nuts. Not fully authentic local fayre but jolly nice non-the-less.

Fethiye, Turkey