Crews Letter #2002 12

The Tombs of Dalyan and the City Caunos

On the coast of Turkey about half way between Marmaris and Fethiye, near the town of Ekincik, is the mouth of the Koycegiz River. The river has silted in the valley. Depths at the Mediterranean entrance are less than a meter. There is a large saltwater marsh that looks a lot like the Gulf Coast at Lake Charles. Pirogues could work here.

Perception doesn’t go where the water is only one meter thick. Not intentionally, anyway. We anchored at Ekincik and waited a few minutes for the guide boat to come and suggest a trip. The next day we were picked up and taken on a river cruise. First it was up close and personal with the rugged shore line. This guy was a lot more confident of his boat, helmsmanship, and local knowledge than I ever am. We checked out some rock formations and a cave at arms length. Then, it was on to the river. We crossed the bar, curved in behind a barrier island and started winding our way up to the ancient city of Caunos.

Caunos is another ancient city that thrived as a port and died when the harbor silted in. The ruins are impressive and scary. That so much was built and stood twenty-five hundred years ago and then went out of style. One can only guess what Dallas will look like in 4500. Just think. Only two more millennium celebrations from now. How much of that glass and steel will still stand? What explanation will the tour guide give for the viaducts, stadiums or the airport?

Back to the cruise boat. Further up the river via a circuitous route and not far from the city are the tombs. These tombs are elaborate structures carved in the face of some cliffs. One can only wonder, why go to so much trouble?

A man I knew explained why there are so many rock walls in Kentucky, “Slaves had to do something to keep their strength up when the fields were too wet to work.” I guess it was cheaper than building a gym a century before last or 45 centuries ago. How will the tour guides explain gym equipment unearthed from the Dallas rubble?

Aboard Perception that night, my computer crashed and the generator stopped working. The computer we can cruise without. But not the generator. On hot nights or in noisy bays when the electric socket is out of reach, no generator means no air conditioner. No air conditioner means an open boat with little or no breeze, possibly mosquitos and worse yet, if the discos are going, lots of noise. Discos are popular in beach resort areas. Discos get started after 10 and usually go until 4 or 5. The white noise of generator and AC is far better than the BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM of decibel hell.

It’s a good thing that the noise will dissipate before the year 4500 and the tour guides won’t have to explain it. Unless they dig up a CD fragment and someone figures out how to decipher it. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, what does it mean?

The next day we beat back to Marmaris for some repairs.

Keep a Tight Luff,

Phyl & Fred

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