The "Great Escape" on Thursday

On Wednesday evening on my way back to my hotel, I detoured along the harbor to get a glimpse of the Halikarnas Disco which opens unto the seafront.  There is a wall surrounding it to keep out intruders (who haven’t paid the exorbitant entrance fee) so I couldn’t see all that much.  I came upon the moored ships used to take tourists on day excursions, and spoke with one of the ticket sellers.  He convinced me to come back on Thursday for an afternoon boat cruise that would take me to five different coves to swim in the sea, lunch included on the boat, 11:30 – 18:15 for 20 Turkish lira (10 euros). 

Having just returned from a long hot journey by bus touring ancient ruins, I had to push myself a bit to get excited about another tour, but the boat trip turned out to be great fun!

Our boat, “Great Escape” was decked out a bit like a pirate ship, and was something like the gullets, wooden ships with large flat hulls built exclusively in the Bodrum peninsula.

On our cruise was a large family group with three generations represented.  They were a fun, animated group of Scandinavians whose younger members were always the first to jump in wherever we dropped anchor. The rest of the passengers were an assortment of couples, a Dutch woman and her mother from Utrecht, me, three Turkish crew members, and the Turkish pilot and his sullen-faced girlfriend who smoked, checked her cell phone, and cuddled with the captain.

 The routine was to board the boat, remove your sandals or beach shoes, choose your mattress to flop on, lay out your towel and get comfortable.  The captain played an assortment of English and Turkish language dance music from a large speaker on the upper deck (where I sat and flopped along with the sullen girlfriend and a smiling cabin boy), as we motored out of the harbor and hugged the coast.  Once we left Bodrum harbor behind, and passed the last of the waterfront hotels and the boatyard, the coastal areas were rugged and completely undeveloped. 

The landscape here is dry and rocky, with mostly low hills covered with low but dense shrubs. The beaches here are not white sand beaches, but more like a fine gravel.  In many places there is no beach at all, but wooden docks have been built along the water’s edge.  These docks are also used for sunbathing and are perfect for diving into the sea. 

Our boat anchored first at an ideal swimming spot known as the aquarium due to the warm and relatively shallow water….6 meters deep.  The sea was a lovely turquoise blue.  Most of us swam to shore, rested briefly, then swam back to the boat.  Our next stop was for a swim and lunch.  We ate onboard, then after another swim, off we went.  The sea at each spot was a delight to swim in….relatively warm, clean  and calm waters, and such fun to jump on and off the boat each time. 

The final two stops were known as the diving platform, though the captain warned us not to dive from there as it is very dangerous, and a cave from which flows a freshwater stream.  We had to pay an additional 5 TL  (Turkish Lira) to swim into the cave and seek a supposedly cleansing mud that is said to have been used by Cleopatra to preserve her youthful beauty.  She is said to have spent two years hiding from the Romans in this cave.  Having been in the tiny cave, I find that quite unbelievable.  There was very little clay to be found in the cave, but I did smear a bit on my leg, only to discover its yellow traces there difficult to remove a few moments later.

By half past five, we were cruising home, and I took some final photos of the sun gradually setting over the Aegean, with music blaring, the day’s outing coming to an end, and Bodrum Castle dominating the little tourist town’s horizon ahead.