Sailors, swimmers and saints

Elounda, on the northern coast of Crete, is a typical small fishing town, set in one of the coves that zigzag around the island, with mountains at its back and the turquoise Aegean stretching out in front.

Boats bob around in the harbour, tavernas line the streets and shore. Palm trees and low buildings give it the touch of North Africa that's in its history ...

... it's only a hop across the Mediterranean, after all, from here to the coast of Egypt and Libya - though I wouldn't want to do it in one of these fishing boats.

A short drive along the sea-road from Elounda is the much bigger town of Agios Nikolaos, meaning Saint Nicholas ... that hard-working saint who is (whatever the Dutch additionally credit him with) to Greeks the patron saint of sailors

... making him a very important personage in these parts. 

There's a stretch of sandy beaches and clear blue sea here that is perfect for swimming

or enjoying fabulously fresh seafood with a  view. 

On the inland lagoon in the centre of Agios town, small boys were fishing and messing about on boats ...

watched by curious geese

and girls itching to join in

Driving inland from Elounda or Agios Nikolaos means negotiating hectically winding roads, with hairpin bends and precipitous cliff-face drops, into the island's mountainous interior.
Spectacular sea views are exchanged for inhospitable-looking hillsides covered with olive groves, and seemingly more churches than houses.

Here we found the village of Fourni
which, despite being tiny, has two churches

one with Byzantine frescoes

There's an air of dereliction about the old homes and stone walls

but a thriving extended family life

In the village square we sat under a giant plane tree at the family-run Platanos kafenion, for delicious mezze and traditional Cretan dishes.

Later in the evening guests began filling the square, tables were pushed together in a long line, and three generations sat down to celebrate a wedding under the stars - what a perfect setting.

In Crete this summer

 ... there were bold primary blues

and reds

a whitewashed villa with a deep terrace to protect from the fierce Meltemi wind

steep, stony hillsides dense with olive groves

winding roads dipping down

through tumbledown villages

narrow alleys overrun with climbing bougainvillea, jasmine, spreading vines

cheery geraniums, plumbago and pansies, orange trees and foraging cats

ancient ruins in beating sun, a din of clicking cicadas, the sound of summer

all paths leading to the sea

where a table at the edge of the water

always seems to be waiting

at any time of the day

Crete, July 2013

Aegean blues

A gulet is a traditional masted sailing boat, similar to a schooner. They are built in the region of south-western Turkey, in Bodrum and Marmaris. 

We hired one for a day, not far from these places, at the pretty harbour in Fethiye ...

from where we sailed out into the turquoise blue Aegean

with these views

from my toes

and nothing much to do besides a lot of this ...

Could life get any better at this point?
Well yes ...

Our lovely crew of three burly sailors made sure we were fed, watered and generally pampered 

and dropped anchor in the prettiest coves

where you could dive off the boat and swim to your heart's content in the clean, cool, impossibly blue Mediterranean sea

sheer bliss

We shared a gulet with a few others for a day only - enough to seriously tempt me back for a longer time next year 

Who wants to join me for a week of leisurely island-hopping, skinny-dipping Aegean blues? 

Check it out here and tell me how you could resist.

Boats, turtles and an ancient river

The Dalyan river flows from Lake Köycegiz in south-west Turkey down to the Mediterranean sea ...

If, like me, you like knowing the bigger picture, A marks the spot - the Dalyan delta on the Anatolian coast - where it flows out into the Aegean. With Syria and Iraq, just off the map to the right, these areas were pretty much the cradle of Western civilization.

Our 21st century river pilot was the divine Captain Mehmet, who entertained us with stories about the region while ferrying us smoothly downstream. 

Mehmet trained to be a teacher but left the classroom for a boat and this life on the river - and who could blame him ...

Mehmet gave us a close-up view of these extraordinary Lycian tombs, visible only from the river, that were carved into the stony cliff face around the 4th century BC. 

The Lycians, who also developed one of the earliest democracies, apparently believed that the souls of the dead would be transported to the afterworld by winged creatures, and so built their tombs along the coast and on high cliffs. 

The largest, as you can see, is unfinished - were they interrupted by invading civilizations maybe? The Persians, Greeks and Romans all had their day here.

Not much further on is where the Dalyan river meets the sea, at Iztuzu beach, which happens to be a breeding ground for loggerhead sea turtles.

We pulled up alongside a group of colourful boats to watch and wait, while crabs were dipped into the sea as live bait to encourage these shy giant creatures to the surface ...

The Captain (below right) and his mates enticing turtles to make a showing

And voilà, they appeared - these magnificent pre-historic creatures have been around for an amazing 40 million years, which rather puts the human history of this ancient region into perspective. 

The attachments you see on the turtles' shells are tracking devices.

A crab probably qualifies as a pre-lunch amuse-bouche, considering that the largest of these creatures weigh in at 450 kg (1000 lbs).

Sadly, they are an endangered species worldwide. But here's a story with a happy outcome ...

Right here at Iztuzu beach, in the late 1980s, developers muscled in with plans to build a luxury resort on the turtles' breeding ground. Not surprising, considering its natural beauty. But conservationists raised an international storm and after a year-long battle, Prince Philip, Duke of E., stepped in (it seems he has some uses after all) and negotiated a moratorium with the prime minister of Turkey. 

The area is now a protected conservation site ... a fact that made my girls very happy indeed ...

And more treats were in store for us, as Captain M revealed his very competent cooking skills ... while we swam in the cool clean water, he grilled fresh fish (sea bream, mullet and bass all swim upstream here) on a tiny barbecue hung off the back of the boat and rustled up some amazing mezze and salads.

Photo credit: fish heads bottom right artistically photographed by Nicholas B.

Finally, chugging back up the river, we paid a visit to the communal mud-baths (this region is volcanic with natural thermal springs) that 'guarantee' to take ten years off one's age ... what can I say, I am a sucker for cheap promises. 

Not quite the spa experience I'd hoped for (think river mud and an overpowering stench of sulphur), it did at least offer some comedy. Ten years younger? I wish.

Later in the evening we took our rejuvenated selves out for dinner on this deck with a view across the river to the tombs

Beautiful Turkey.