There has been a lot going on in
Çalış and at Poppy but I have not been good at keeping the blog updated. Now, as we start the 2012 holiday season –
first guests due this week – I am going to do my best to get blogging again. (I sort of thought nobody would notice but
have been given a telling-off by a few people!)
First, the end of the story of the wreck
for diving – which is actually just the beginning really. The boat was eventually towed all the way
from Samsun, on the Black Sea coast, along the
Black Sea itself, through the Bosphoros straits at İstanbul into the Marmara Sea,
through the Dardanelles straits into the Aegean Sea
and down to Fethiye. It took several
weeks – including two weeks or so of bad weather when the boat didn’t move from
İstanbul.
When it arrived in Fethiye, our
friends who were organizing the sinking had lots of work to do cleaning it out,
stripping it of any parts that might come lose and be a danger, then weighting
the hull with concrete and cutting extra ‘windows’ for the water to go in. The day of the sinking was quite an
event. I didn’t go but Cem went out with
Suntrap and there were a number of boats spectating, including one with
dignitaries and the town band and a Coast Guard boat there to ‘see off’ their
retired boat.
It sank with great style – taking
water slowly but surely until the hull sunk suddenly and the whole thing (all
42m of it) stood upright in the water, then settling slowly down – to the
strains of the band playing – to sit upright in about 26m of water. It will be a great attraction for experienced
divers, more so as it becomes home to all sorts of sea life.
The other great excitement in
Fethiye recently has been the filming of the new James Bond film. Apparently about 10 minutes of the finished
film will be from Turkey,
including scenes shot in İstanbul ( a very exciting motorbike chase on the
ROOVES of the Covered Market), Adana
and Fethiye and Çalış. Several of my
students have been involved as extras – one even got pushed out of the way by
Daniel Craig(intentionally, he wasn’t hogging the camera!) It will be very interesting to see whether
the scenes are recognizable as Çalış as they built a whole beach bar and market
(while paying the real beach bar to stay shut and the street traders to stay
away!) and Fethiye harbour has been reinvented as a Chinese port! Still, it has given us plenty to talk about.
Unfortunately this year we didn’t
get the publicity from the President’s Cup cycle race, the Fethiye leg of which
was featured last year on Eurosport.
They still came in to Fethiye, stayed the night and left the next day,
but with very little fanfare. I heard
that they asked for money from the council in return for the publicity they
were creating and the council declined.
If this is true, I think it is very mean as the council are also
‘hosting’ them and having to close roads, provide security etc.
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| Cem and Grant at Faralya in March |
So…to Poppy. We have been busy all this month with bits of
painting and repairs – general preparations for the season. The pool was regrouted yesterday and will be
ready to fill tomorrow and with a few weeks of sun on it it might even be warm
enough to get into! Kenny, who is
already in Marmaris, is due down here on Friday as are the first agency guests. The weather is lovely – such a relief after
the misery of winter – and the only thing missing seems to be my swallows who
for the first time in 14 years have not come to occupy the nests. Hope it’s not an omen!
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| The lizards -like me - have come out of hibernation! |
