Dalyan – 5th October

Captain Caveman and I had both been invited to a wedding on Thursday 5th October. Of course, Captain Caveman was in Italy and couldn’t make it, but he’d also got shingles and wouldn’t have been there anyway. I had accepted the invite and needed to take it steady as I had a ferry to catch to Rhodes early the next day. Our initial plan for my parents and I to meet Captain Caveman in Naples had been scrapped, not just because of the shingles. Dad was waiting for an eye appointment and didn’t want to be in Italy when it came. Instead, we had agreed to meet in Rhodes Town on Monday (9th), where we would all spend 6 nights in Rhodes together.
I worked for a couple of hours in the morning, packed for my Rhodes trip and then had some leftover food with rice.

The wedding of Bill and Jaxx took place on a boat so we met at Paradise Hotel to get on the boats, where there were some familiar friendly faces. When Bill arrived he was having the 2 dogs, Big Boy and Lucy, with him for the ceremony. He’d also supplied some punch for us to have on the journey to pick up his beautiful bride.

Jaxx looked like a beautiful little doll in her wedding dress and the 2 boats sailed together to a spot for the ceremony. I had a couple of the punch drinks which I was convinced was made from cherry and vodka but my fellow guests said they didn’t think it was alcoholic and had quite a few.
There was a female celebrant who did a rather unique service and speech which everyone enjoyed.

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful wedding, followed by a dinner and party back at Bill and Jaxx’s lovely villa, with the bar and garden kitted out for the wedding party. We had a great time and my plans to not drink too much went out of the window as the champagne was poured. Dinner was served quite late so I was rather trollied as we enjoyed the steak dinner followed by some gorgeous cheese. One of the wedding party even shared her port with us and I, of course, made some new friends who were absolutely lovely.
I vaguely recall getting in, after a lift in to town with my new mates, setting the alarm for 5.30am and hoping I didn’t sleep through it. Fikri’s taxi was booked to pick me up at 6am and take me to Ortaca so that I could get the first bus to Fethiye.