Sailing Calista23 April 2024 – 25 April 2024
After a few fun days in Cappadoccia it was time to move on, and we had a leisurely drive down to Antayla where we were staying for the evening. Antalya is a Turkish resort city with beaches flanked by large hotels. It is the gateway to Turkey’s southern Mediterrean region known as the Turquoise Coast for it’s blue waters.
Anyone for bagels ?
On arrival into the city the traffic was bedlam as it was a public holiday “Independence Day”. Google Maps suggested a short cut and strangely it took us through the hospital grounds until we came up to some boom gates and unable to go any further. The guy at the gate advised us to turn around and go back the way we had come. We got back onto the main road and joined the queues heading to the beach. With patience we finally arrived at our destination and found a space to park the car nearby.
The hotel “Pearly” overlooks the beach reserve and boardwalk. The skies were still hazy from all the Saharan dust that had been over much of Turkey the last few days.
We ate in the restaurant at the hotel and enjoyed an eye fillet steak complimented with a bottle of Turkish red wine. The grilled steak was cooked to perfection.
Our room was on the fourth floor with views out over the bay.
The following morning we checked out the boardwalk and beach before leaving Antayla to drive around the coast.
It was a pleasant three hour drive from Antayla to Finike. We passed numerous townships in amongst fields of green house tunnels. From the top of one of the mountain ranges we could see vast numbers of them spread over a large area.
Arriving in Finike we headed down to the marina to find somewhere for a coffee stop.
There were some modern housing built up on the hillside overlooking the marina.
We wandered around the marina and then headed across the road to the hotel where we went up to the top floor for a coffee.
After our morning tea we left the quite town of Finike and continued to drive towards Kas.
We were surprised to see more extensive areas of green houses.
It was a lovely scenic drive around the coast.
We approached Kas and descended down into the small seaside town on the Mediterranean coast in southwestern Turkey.
Kas is popular with diving, fishing and boating. The marina is located in a protected bay with islands nearby giving shelter from the winds.
The streets were cobblestones and the buildings seemed to be all whitewashed with terracotta roofs.
We drove out on the penninsular for a short distance then turned around to drive into the town in search of some accommodation for the night.
The beach was pebbles hence wise people took their beach chairs to the beach.
We stopped off at the Kas marina. It appeared to be a thriving marina with lots of restaurants overlooking the boats. We checked out one of the restaurants and ordered some kebabs to share. It was huge plate so we wouldn’t need dinner that evening. It was still relatively quiet and not many tourists about.
At the far end of town we found some accommodation overlooking the bay.
Over the road from our hotel was pebbly beach, but it was desserted. The beach bars weren’t open yet, all the tables and chairs were still covered up. Perhaps the opening season would be 1 May …
Leaving Kas the next morning, we drove onto Fethiye and Gocek. We somehow missed the turnoff to Fethiye so we continued on to Gocek.
Arriiving in Gocek we found a car park spot then wandered down to the marina and saw on one of the pontoons, another Amel 50. We stopped for a coffee then walked onto the pontoon as the gate was open.
The boat was “J Encore” whom we had met the owners in Greece several years ago. No-one was on board even though the flag was flying off the stern. We think the yacht is for sale. As we were heading back up the pontoon Security came to see what we were about. Nothing was said as we were just leaving.
Some workmen were repairing sections of the path and filling in areas with pebbles.
The canal was under camera security and security personnal and there was no access into the area.
We wandered around the lovely town and stopped for a gelato before returning to the car to continue on up to Pamukkale, about another three hour drive.
