36° 12.110N 029° 37.900E
We’re back in Kaş after a week in Kekova Roads. We’re anchored in the bay opposite the marina. It’s a shorter and pleasanter walk from here into Kaş – though we have to row to the beach first. We also suspected that the marina had now started charging – which turned out to be true – and that we might need to stay several days.
Now that the sun is shining, and the days are long, we’re finding that the two solar panels and the new batteries are keeping the fridge going. Nearly all the lights are now LEDs, and in the middle of the day there is plenty of power to charge computers and suchlike. So shore power is less valuable and marinas less attractive.
While in Kekova Roads we anchored in Üçağız Limani (Limani means bay or harbour) which is a big, almost landlocked, bay which is itself off the sheltered Kekova Roads. (36° 11.563N 029° 50.430E) This is a perfect anchorage – big enough to swallow a fleet of ships, mostly shallow (less than 5 metres), with a village – Üçağız (we called it ‘Ooch’) – from which to buy basic supplies. Most people anchor off the village but you can go into the far corners to get some peace – there was a dredger making a lot of noise. There are also (new) pontoons with electricty for those who want it. The only negative is the water quality – we didn’t fancy swimming in it.
At the far end of this lake (as it would probably be called in England) there was a French boat which seemed to be having a Swallows and Amazons experience. The children sailed about in a spritsail-rigged wooden dinghy – a bit like a home-made Oppie. The parents also sailed it into Ooch most evenings – and once dropped the children off so they could find their own way back by walking round the shore and then using canoes.
From Ooch we dinghied over to Kaleköy – a small, picturesque, (and fairly primitive) village with ancient sunken harbour and overlooked by an imposing medieval castle. Kaleköy must be visited by a hundred trip boats a day, which circulate round the Roads visiting the ruins, which are everywhere. We also sailed round Kekova Island itself and tacked up the narrow channel – which turned out to be a hazardous enterprise given the huge number of trip boats and gulets all heading home at speed.
Kekova Roads is as far east as we decided to go. So a long beat back to Kaş and to a restaurant pier at the southern end of Bayindir Limani (36° 10.385N 029° 38.967E). This place had been recommended to us, and it was nice – a clean swimming area with a boom to keep the muck from blowing in, and good simple food. (After ordering our food we were a bit surprised to be asked “and when would you like it?” But in retrospect this would have been a good thing to establish in many a restaurant! In fact the food turned up quite quickly – beating our expectations.)
The plan now is to return to Fethiye, which starts with a longish leg north-west round the ‘seven capes’. The wind has been blowing from the north-west for the past week and we would prefer that to stop, or back south-west, which it is not forecast to do for several days. So a few days here perhaps …
Some pictures here.
