If you want to get up close and personal with Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, there’s no better way to do so than by boat. You can stay in a town such as Fethiye, Kaş, Kalkan or Antalya, and take daily boat trips from there, or better still, you can hire your own boat and spend a few uninterrupted days out on the water. This is what we did last weekend and it was nothing short of lush.
Turkey’s western Mediterranean coast, stretching between Marmaris and Antalya, was once the domain of the kings of Lydia. Nicholas Courtney tells the story of how Francis Beaufort’s epic 1812 survey of this coastline not only put it on the map, but also sparked a treasure hunt of its classical sites, in Cornucopia 27. It is undoubtedly ‘one of the most dramatic of coastlines’, as Barnaby Rogers wrote in Cornucopia 10, when he off in search of the enchantment described by Freya Stark in her seminal work The Lycian Shore. ‘There are not so many places left where magic reigns without interruption,’ she writes, ‘and of all those I know, the coast of Lycia was the most magical.’ Sailing around only a fraction of its stunning bays, I concur. There’s something mystical in its beauty.
Sailing away from Fethiye
Our boat, Lilac, rented from Lila Yachting, was very comfortable for six people. The crew, a captain, a cook and another young boy who did odd jobs, was competent. The captain was a bit of a grump, but the two young boys were friendly, respectful and helpful. The chef cooked some of the best food I have tasted in Turkey. His father owns a kebab joint in Gaziantep so cooking is obviously in his blood.
Turunç Pınarı (photo: Turunç Pınarı Restaurant)
After some logistical issues, we set off late Saturday afternoon from Fethiye’s port. The bright sunshine was gone and the light breeze was most welcome after a scorching hot day. After about 30 minutes, we arrived at Turunç Pınarı, a well-known place among sea travellers. The 6,000-square-metre bay is owned by an elderly couple, Osman and Tülay, who also own and run the restaurant and guesthouse on shore. The natural beauty is almost an eyesore: the mountains are covered in lush greenery, the water is tranquil and crystal clear, the gentle music coming from the restaurant is soothing. After a long swim, it was almost time for dinner. That evening, Can the chef, prepared a simple meal of perfectly grilled levrek (sea bass), deniz börülcesi salatası (seaweed salad), fasulye (beans) in a Gaziantep-style spicy sauce and a few other delicious mezes. We washed it down with Aegean rose and nibbled on fruit for dessert.
The next morning we visited a tiny bay nearby for a swim and breakfast. We saw the goat farmer on shore get into his fishing boat and go off to (presumably) get supplies from a bigger town. Goats in an array of colours – white, brown, black – and sizes stared at us as they chewed their breakfast and we ate ours.
Then, it was onto the main event: we were sailing to Manastir (Cleopatra) Koyu, where swimming in the waters could make you look five years younger, as our 17-year old and 22-year old crew boys attested (for whom ageing is clearly not a concern). The setting, as these photos attest, is nothing short of exquisite. The air is heady with the fragrance of pines and the see-through water covers Greek monastery ruins. An hour’s hike inland leads to the ruins of ancient Lydae, which features tombs, agora foundations, statue remnants, bits of Corinthian columns and inscribed pedestals from the Roman and Byzantine eras. It is rarely visited and would have been worth going to but alas we were in our bathing suits and too concerned with swimming and relaxing.
The bay is nicknamed Cleopatra because legend has it that Cleopatra visited it twice, in 46 and 32 BC, the latter while honeymooning with Marc Antony. She is said to have bathed in these waters. The fine sand on the small beach is unique to Turkey – again, legend says that Marc Antony brought it for his bride especially from Africa. It’s a nice story and whether it’s true or not is irrelevant.
In the afternoon, we visited a bay that a modern art lover such as myself gets particularly excited about. The Bedri Rahmi Koyu is named after the important 20th-century artist Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu (1911–75). It is named after him because of the above fish painting, which the artist painted in 1974, one year before his death. As we were looking at the black, red and white tribal-inspired work, my Turkish friend searched for its story online. Apparently, Eyüboğlu visited this bay (he was one of the first people to experience the ‘Blue Voyage’) with a bunch of friends – which included intellectuals such as his brother Selahattin Eyüboğlu and the author and archaeologist Azra Erhat, who all went on to write about the beauty of these bays – and saw a large bare rock that was calling out his name. He painted a piece that at first looks like a giant fish, but on closer inspection reveals six other animals. I could only spot four.
The artist left an extraordinary body of work besides his paintings – ceramics, calligraphy, glass, mosaic, sculptures and even poetry – and he left it in some of the most unusual places. The real attraction of the Özlem Et butcher shop in Karaköy Square, for example, is not the good-quality meat but two works of art by Eyüboğlu.
There’s also a 2003 version by ‘Mavi Gezi’ on the next rock…
…and a 2004 version by the contemporary artist Sena.
Nearby, there are Lycian remnants: ones we could see from the boat such as an embroidered gate and pigeon-hole tombs carved into the face of the bedrock (which date to the 4th to 5th centuries BC and belong to the ancient city of Crya, located up on the hill), as shown above – and others that we had to find.
A few minutes inland, we came across some more ruins, including the one above with trees growing out of it, calling to mind Angkor Wat.
The landscape here is gorgeous, not only because of the staggering mountains peppered with Lycian ruins, but also because of the bold flowers in dizzying arrays of pink and magenta.
On the final day, we visited an underwhelming bay, spending way too long there for anyone’s liking (the captain had a toothache), before sailing somewhere nearby to Katrancı Adası (above), the wildest place we visited, which although it is only an hour from Fethiye, feels remote and removed from the other bays. There were more goats on the hillside, we spotted a huge turtle and a bevy of wasps joined us for late afternoon cocktails. Wild.
The sunset that day was spectacular, casting an ethereal glow on the mountains and the water, and painting the perfect picture of the Lycian coast’s mystical beauty.
All photos, unless otherwise stated, are by Daniel Salinas Conejeros.