Cleopatra's Baths and Lydae

The water was glassy smooth at Hammam Bay by Cleopatra’s Baths in the morning before breakfast.

The boat has a kayak and a standup paddle board. The guide said I could take one out before breakfast. I asked for the kayak. I spent about 25 minutes out on the water, it was really nice.

After a quick breakfast, we ferried to shore in the dinghy and had a minute to look at some Roman ruins called Cleopatras baths. There is no evidence that Cleopatra ever was here, but they are ruins of Roman baths.

We then started a hike up over the peninsula to the other side. This was the most strenuous hike on our trip, 4.3 km with 193 m of elevation gain. We had a great group that stuck together and helped each other out.

On the way up, I saw this tree which looks like a Texas madrone tree, but is called a false strawberry tree. They both are Genus Arbutus, so are closely related.

At the top we stopped to take some photos and catch our breath after the steep climb.

The hike passed a shepherd’s house where we stopped for sage tea and for some shopping. He and his wife live here and have raised goats, but there was a drought this spring and he sold off the goats. Their daughter is now living in the city and will go to university. He’s got a great covered patio to receive travelers and also sells wooden items.

There is an Ottoman era cistern that the shepard uses for his animals. It was quite large, but not very full. I can understand while he decided to sell off his herd. He doesn’t use this for household water, he collects rainwater from his house and has three large storage tanks for that.

After leaving the shepard’s house, we encountered the ancient city of Lydae, following the old Roman road from Lydae to the bay on the other side.

There are two bays that you see following the old Roman road down.

This is the bay beside the upper part of the road.

And this was our our ship in the bay by the lower portion of the road.

Notice how clear the water is. It was like this most places. The bottom drops quickly in most places as well, so a big boat can anchor fairly close to shore.

When we completed the hike, the captain quickly left as bad weather was coming and the wind may make sailing too unpleasant to attempt later. The sea wasn’t too bad to prevent lunch from being served while we sailed. The goulet is a heavy boat, so it doesn’t actually use it’s sails, but rather travels much quicker with it’s twin 450 HP Diesel engines.

We had some dolphins playing near the bow for a couple minutes on this trip.

We played Okey while sailing after lunch.

When we got to Dalyan, we were able to park in the bay and get in water again. The water was a bit warmer than the previous bay, and there was very little wind. Some people swam. I tried the stand-up paddle board, and Donna and some others kayaked.

The paddle board was under inflated, so it bent in the middle. I was able to kneel on it, but didn’t feel comfortable standing on it. They did put more air in, which made kneeling better, but not quite enough to make standing feasible.