It turns out that the first few days are going to require us to put in some serious miles early in the day – both to allow us to do some activities and to try to beat the very strong winds that come up later in the day. That meant a 6 am departure for Dalyan and, while we weren’t required to get up for this movement, sleeping next to the chain locker was as good as any alarm clock! Once again, we sought out a cove early in the day and found a good one – although it was quite a distance from the ancient city of Kaunos (more of that later). A “water taxi” picked us up for the 1 hour ride to the Kaunos River and on to the ancient city. Our boat driver was a charming man named Durali who, in addition to piloting his boat, has beehives all over the waterfront and sells local honey. The trip to Kaunos was uneventful, but very interesting. When approaching the river from the sea, there is a big transition over a sand bar and then you enter what looks to be a cross between the Everglades and the Mekong Delta – lots of water grasses and inlets that are traversed by dozens of these covered water taxis. The boats carry people both to the ancient city and a nearby beach.
The story of Kaunos is an interesting one. The mythological story of Kaunos involves unrequited, homosexual incest where one of two twin princes falls deeply in love with his brother who shuns him and leaves to start the city of Kaunos. When his brother follows him, he is once again shunned and cries enough tears to create the Kaunos River. The water was sort of salty, so who knows?! The city itself probably dated from the 4th century BC, but grew through the Hellenic and Roman periods. It ultimately became quite lavish with a large Roman bath, an amphitheatre, a few temples, and a bustling waterfront. There are a lot of theories about why Kaunos died, but it appears that the silting and formation of the sand bar ultimately caused the end of their lucrative trade business and there is also some evidence that malaria and other diseases swept through the city. In any regard, we really enjoyed touring the ruins of the city, along with a few other people and a whole lot of goats. We then walked down to the modern town of Dalyan to catch our water taxi. On the way, we stopped and bought some fresh pomegranate juice (much better than what we get on the shelves).
When we got to our water taxi, we thought we were heading back to our boat, but we ended up going further down the river and discovered the bustle of the Dalyan waterfront – lots of water taxis whizzing by and loads of waterfront hotels, restaurants, etc. It turns out that Dalyan is quite a destination, whether for the beach, the old city of Kaunos, or what was above it in the cliffs – a series of elaborately decorated tombs carved into the cliffside (a regular Petra on the river!). The graves have long since been robbed and you can’t even go up to them anymore (apparently, they became a popular place to commit suicide), but they are absolutely beautiful. We stopped at one of the restaurants and had lunch. When we started back to our boat, the winds had come up and we had around 3 foot seas. The boat driver did a magnificent job of getting us back safely to our gulet and even gave us a jar of his local honey. Nice! The rough seas were an omen of bad weather to come.
Once back at anchor, Deb decided she wanted to do a little fishing. At first she caught a minnow, but then she yelped that she had a big one. For the area, it was good size, but when the crew saw it, they told her not to touch it – it was a poisonous fish! It turns out that it is a relative of the puffer that they get fugu from. Not only is it potentially poisonous if you don’t clean it right (i.e., you knick the poison gland), but apparently the skin is toxic to the touch. Anyway, the crew quickly dispatched the fish with a knife and sent it into the briny deep. Exciting!
That night we had a thunderstorm with hard driving rain. This was when we found out that our windows, hatches, etc. leaked! The crew ran around putting a tarp over everything to stop the leakage. Very exciting! Anyway, it looks like rain and high winds for the next few days. Ah well!
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
