Thursday, September 4, 2008

Holy Mackerel...... Its a Fish

We awoke to a stunning day, perfectly still and glassy calm, after another night set in concrete. The plan was for a lazy start and breakfast then move on down towards Kale Koy the fortress town opposite Kekova. Rosco had continued to catch fish and we felt that we needed to get onto the points table one way or another The hot spot seemed to be the pass as we came into the secluded landlocked bay so after breakfast on route in the search for more sunken ruins we made the run. We were using local kit. a handline bought for 15 YTL's about 17 bucks. It consists of a small cheap bibbed minnow set with small trebles and a sort of orangey silver. It is the terminal tackle with a set of 6 small hooks lashed with a single white feather forming a teaser chain higher up the line. The local swivel ensuring that how ever you use this rig at what ever speed it winds and tangles unbelievably, so leaving it out is the preferred option as to retrieve it means a half hour of untangling mono. we slowly made the run and within a few minutes Fletch had hooked up. we were well pleased as the relentless crowing from Sojourn had become hard to bear. What Rosco had been claiming as small tuna we discovered were probably small mackerel but they were fish and we had broken our duck on the .fishing front.

Half an hour later from the same piece of water I had a second smaller fish so mission accomplished we turned for the bay as the sun climbed into its full act for the day.

On the landward side of the island is at first one very small bay, Tersane by now packed with Gulets and day boats and inhabited by a new breed of hawker that we really hadn't been exposed to up till now. These hawkers all kids are really quite aggressive and could teach the worst of Kuta in the old days a trick or two. They have an answer for everything and are well honed manipulators of the full range of human emotions. Gend in an effort to put them off as we swam in to the beach happened to mention the word "later". Big mistake they watched and waited and then when she was swimming back to the boat a flotilla of skiffs appeared and tracked her to the transom with a hopeful vengeance. Out of luck as she scampered aboard and left Paul and me to suffer the attack.

It is incredible that the island of Kekova once such a hugely busy trading port had sunk several metres into the sea in what must have been quite an orderly fashion. the effect is that the whole dwelling covered hillside has just descended into the sea at its base. Stair ways disappear nonchalantly into the blue waters, floors of rooms set level with the lapping waves, yet no demolition of the stone walls and architecture higher on the hill. it must have been a spectacular look judging from the scale of the city evident from the spread up the steep rock slopes, traced out still by the climbing pathways.

Tonight was to be the last for Don and maureen so we were all dining on Ocean Free. Fletch stood off and we shot ashore in the dinghy to get some potato and charcole for the boned out lamb leg Bar B Que.


Kel koy is a bustling little town with a cheeky in your face attitude. the shore line is smothered in docks and touts waving you in. the next zone back is restaurant allied to the dock, so once docked you get clipped in the restaurant. behind that it deteriorates very quickly and the store as such that we visited in our quest was little more than a slum dwelling. No light a very low roof and in the darkness just the basics in fact no charcoal or potatoes.

As luck would have it one of the girl restaurant tout who to survive usually have the best english picked up on what we were after and quickly saw that if she couldn't score us for dinner she could at least sell something so we retraced our steps to the restaurant. it was mid day no clients, all the old women of the family just finished the prep for the night and cooling in the shade. the deal was struck they produced charcoal from under their grill and 8 potatoes and 4 tomatoes. we ran the gauntlet of pareau sellers with a strict eyeball s to the ground policy as one single flick of our eyes at any merchandise would produce such hope in the seller that your protests not to buy would be just too hard.

Dinner was a great success. the lamb boned out marinated,.. seared, some time in the oven and then delivered to the keeper of the coals...Fletch.

It was finished beautifully on the bar b q and rested as we enjoyed the fishing spoils from Sojourn, small sweet sticks of meat prised from the flanks of these fast fish, washed down with beers and the local white wine.

It was a fun hectic talk fest night reminiscing over the big night before and the adventures and sights of the days before during Don and Maureen's stay.


Amid the hilarity Don stood and snapped a quick shot of the table as a grin spread across his face. in his hand the canon camera that he had taken swimming all those days earlier. He had given it the gin bath as the available option and had since been baking it under the dodger. The water from inside the lens barrel had gone and ostensibly it was operational. We laughed but acknowledged its long term success was likely to be short but as far as a back from the dead story goes it was remarkable.


Tomorrow we plan a full look at Kel Koy. Its a compelling look. the castle sits atop the rocky ridge with the sprawl of the shanty town below. The castle glows with a palette of reds and ochres and a Weta workshop look to it that screams, crusaders and advancing hordes being repelled down the steep side.

It will be a day of many sarcophagi, much haggling in the heat and trying to keep dehydration at bay. Can't wait.

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