Sunday 31 August 2008

Week 21, Bodrum, Turkey

Dear Ethel, Family and Friends,

Our week started with the boat delivery. The company we did the bareboat flotilla charter with, asked us if we were interested in delivering a boat back to Marmaris from Orhaniye. The trip is the opposite direction than we did the flotilla trip. We were given a boat called Melisa, a 33 foot Beneteau, slightly bigger than we had before. The trip was fairly uneventful and we had light winds but mostly on the nose so didn’t get the sails up too much. So we motored for 5 hours each day. We stayed overnight at Serce Liman, which is a spot we stayed overnight with the flotilla. There is a boatman that will help you moor up using a lazyline on the bow and a shore line stern, so that we could sleep comfortably and not worry about an anchor. On Tuesday we had better wind as we were able to come back into Marmaris with the sails up on a nice broad reach... beautiful. The mooring back at the marina is a bit tricky as the waterways are very narrow, stacked with luxury yachts and have to reverse back into the spot. Got it on the third go, mission accomplished.

We had a rest day on Wednesday and took off again on Thursday to go to Bodrum. We took a bus into Marmaris and another bus to Bodrum, about a 200km trip. However as you leave Marmaris you climb 800m up to a great plateau where the city of Mulga is situated. It is the capital of the area also called Mulga which includes Marmaris and Bodrum.

We arrived in Bodrum about noon and searched for accommodation. The guide book says be careful where you stay as the nightclubs are very noisy. We found a reasonable hotel and it wasn’t until we looked out from our terrific balcony overlooking the bay that we say the sign for “Halicarnassus, the club”... only the biggest night club in Bodrum, maybe southern Europe. The guide book also tells us it has a laser light show that can be seen from Greece. Well I guess that’s what the double glazing on the windows is for. Louise put in her ear plugs and I think I felt the music rather than heard it.

Bodrum’s history goes way back of course and has a roman amphitheatre and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, from 2000 years ago or more, but more recently, (600years ago) has one of the great Crusader castles, The Castle of St Peter. The castle was built by the Knights Templar, using the stone from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. It sits in the middle of the harbour and is in excellent repair. It is now a museum of underwater archaeology. It hold some spectacular treasures, the best being the golden chalice (see photo), aprox 3500 years old, resumed from a shipwreck. We spent a full day wandering around the castle and it was well worth the trip.

Bodrum itself is a large tourist town, offering the usual attractions, Gullet boat tours, Jeep safaris, carpet weavers and more plus the waterside restaurants, pubs, clubs you name it, you can’t walk down the street without people touting for your business. Most are overpriced some display all their prices in Euros or Pounds so it makes it hard work to find a place to eat that won’t rip you off. The Turkish dollar has also gone up, now worth more than the Australian dollar, so we are finding it very expensive.

Next week we are off to Ephesus and Pamukkale and will spend the week travelling there and back to Orhaniye.

All the best for now

Ric & Louise

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