Dalyan – 29th July

It was a day of fun on Saturday 29th July on another Princess of Ekincik boat trip to welcome Annie back to Dalyan. By 10am we had set sail as we drank our morning brew with a cookie. Onboard we had a nice eclectic mix of people;
Jackie & Chris, Viv, Linda, Adele, a Turkish couple, a Dutch couple, Annie and me. We had a great BBQ lunch and some amazing swim stops and we even got to do something I’d never done before.

Adele asked Captain Ismail if we could moor up near to The Rock so that, those who wanted to, could swim around it. Adele, Annie, Chris and I managed to swim around it in the fairly choppy sea and it was really lovely. We had a laugh with the Turkish guest who was rather big and hilarious at getting himself on and off the paddle board. On another one of our swim spots we were warned very clearly by Ismail to stay away from the sea urchins. The Dutch guy, who had never been to Dalyan or a boat trip before proceeded to ignore this and ended up with six spikes in his foot. Our Captain had to remove them with tweezers and the man was clearly in agony.

The food, as always, was incredible and I washed it down with a couple of glasses of rosé wine which were 100 lira (£2.98) for a decent measure. It was such a lovely day that I don’t think Annie, Adele and I wanted it to end. It nearly didn’t end well when there was a problem with the boat’s engine. Luckily, Captain Boris was due to pass and he helped tow us back to Dalyan.

The 3 of us plus Chris and Jackie decided to pop for one drink at Tez bar. Tez had a nice bottle of rosé wine for just 350 lira (£10.42) so Adele, Annie and I shared that. It was nice to sit and relax while deciding if we might go for food. After saying goodbye to Adele, Chris and Jackie, Annie and I popped back to mine for a quick shower before dinner. We had booked a table at Duble, one of our favourite eateries in the old market square. I’d not been there in ages so it was nice to visit and we had a veritable feast between us; cheese rolls, liver and onions, bread and dips to start followed by chicken shish and Adana kebab for our mains – all washed down with another bottle of rosé wine. Our meal with wine was a reasonable 700 lira (£20.83) each, it was amazing and I had leftovers to take home.
I’d loved my day and night out and it was brilliant to spend time with Annie who was due back again in a couple of months.