Mainly doing nothing and The Lycians

There's been much talk in previous blogs of the Lycian coast so I thought I'd do a bit of a blog on the Lycians. But before that what have we been up to? Mainly nothing, our achievements over the last few days have been far from legendary. As planned (that makes a change!) we left Kas to go to an area called Kekova Roads (Roads are bodies of water sheltered from currents, spring tides, or ocean swell where ships can safely anchor), a short stretch of water between Kekova island and the Turkish mainland. It is beautiful and peaceful, other than the unavoidable trip boats. There is a small village on the Turkish mainland side of Kekova called Ucagiz which is idyllic and very much off the beaten track. It remains the same as when we were last here 6 years ago. Here's a map of Kekova roads, where it is in Turkey and a few piccies of Ucagiz. (pronounced oochaz).

We've been camped out just outside of Ucagiz for 3 days now, just having a proper laze. We've been at anchor, which is easy around Kekova as there are loads of safe anchorages. We've only got off the boat a couple of times to have dinner and a look around, mainly utilising the taxi service provided by the friendly restaurant owner Hassan. Hassan is the best chef in Ucagiz. Meet Hassan.

So what of the Lycians? They were around between 1250–546 BC on the Turkish coast between Mugla and Antalya. They had their own language, Luwian and generally did pretty well until 546 BC when they were 'incorporated' into the Achaemenid Empire (the first Persians) after which their language and culture pretty much disappeared. There are lots of archaeological sites along the Lycian coast, mainly consisting of rock tombs and sarcophagi. There are rock tombs well worth seeing at Dalyan and Fetihye, but as you go further south and east there are more and more sarcophagi. At Ucagiz the hill behind the village and the village itself is literally littered with them, they are so common they get used by locals as garden ornaments and last time we were here we even saw one being used to dry carpets (the picture of it is in Milton Keynes unfortunately)! Kekova was the site of the Lycian city of Simena, the sunken remains of which can still be seen today (an earthquake in the 2nd century lowered the land between Ucagiz and the castle at Kalkoy, creating the sunken city). Some piccies of the sarcophagi at Ucagiz.

We've moved on to Gokkaya at the eastern end of Kekova Roads. Yet another beautiful spot. We're currently anchored in about 3.5M of crystal clear water, there will be swimming off the back of the boat as soon as I've finished this. I've added a long line ashore for extra stability which is in itself a bit of a phaff, but worthwhile as we may be staying a couple of days I suspect, . Two final piccies of the anchorage and the long line (you can see it under the outboard).

Serefe!