Hello from the Home of Harem Pants

We left Istanbul after a hotel car ride to the airport for our flight to Dalaman.

Small hiccup for the first time at security when they stopped the x ray machine, backed it up, asked me if I owned it and then returned it back into the machine. he asked several of the other guards over to confer then asked me. "What are the metal cylinder in your luggage please Sir" I thought hard then said " Ah two metal cylinders and they are oil filters!"

The relief was obvious as he grinned and said "very good so no bomba"

Dalaman is a large airport dropped into the landscape to service the whole region in terms of its tourist influx. outside the taxi rank must have the longest fares on the board of pretty much anywhere in the world. No fare is less than one and a half hours, there are simply no local trips as there is nothing there. they are all carrying people up or down the coast to the various resorts.

The drive from Dalaman to Marmaris is interesting probably more interesting in the way that we tend to try to explain or relate to landscape in terms of what we know and here it is no different. it at times looks like central otago with its braided dry river valleys and its scree slopes cascading down the rocky hills on each side and at the same time it reminded me of the High Sieras in the states, burnt to a cinder with heat and scraggy, stunted pine and buses clinging to the slopes.

in other places it looks just like Luggate with a Greek twist as we hurtled through the many 3 dwelling villages on the road side Many of the orchards had the trunks of the trees painted white, unsure of why whether its decorative or I suspect it has an anti fungal effect. i shall find out.This place is seriously hot and has the look of having not seen the rain in a long time. There are no rivulet patterns anywhere to be seen, just dry drifts of fine dust being scuffed about as you walk by.

Dalaman is a remote and spartan looking place not surprising as Sparta is just down the coast I guess.As the houses flash by I can't help thinking why do we constantly re invent the wheel simply every house has solar heating here, sun hour efficiency aside surely we could use the same ones with all this collective experience behind them back home. We drive across verdant plains dense with orchards and artesian water just running to waste. it has the look of an environment where you could grow anything.Everywhere the presence of the half finished house, permanently placing the owners in a more favourable tax bracket as their primary dwelling is still under construction. They seem to have developed this rort quite finely as I note a few unfinished reinforcing rod spouting pillars poking through roof tops complete with surrounding flashings.

I start to become aware of how excited I am feeling . this is it we have come across th3e world top go sailing with Don and Pauline and Ross and Jo and now we are here.
we are greeted by don and Paul slowly moving up the marina fairway in the RIB and it is good to see them.They have anchored off Marmaris town and we quickly settle into ship board accommodation and catch up with Ross and Jo who motor in a short time later.
After drinks we moved in to the dock and dine at Pineapple a restaurant right on the quayside and have the best and cheapest meal of the whole trip with great Turkish wine and a whole lot of catching up.
we walk back down the Bar Street and peer into the club scene bar happenings just starting to get underway as the night is young. This rave scene of western debauchery punctuated by the call to prayer and a sombre reminder to the bombing a short time ago here by Islamists. you can almost see their point and the similarities with Bali are a bit chilling.
We wake early and spend the next morning organising cell modems and retrieving some canvas work of Fletch's before motoring out to a Gulet packed bay to have our first plunge from the boat into the beautiful clear blue water and come up smiling at the heat and the high salinity making floating a breeze. At present underway down the coast to meet up with Blackmans and Robertsons at a bay for the night and then a trip up a river to view the antiquities, so I'm told tomorrow.