It was still impossible to imagine anything that could quite top the azure blues of Butterfly Valley – but we set sail, lying out on the deck to watch the world go by.
“Look,” Kaptan Nobi pointed at the sky, looming into view were hang gliders; a super popular activity in Turkey – doing this over the Blue Lagoon gives you unprecedented views over the naturally beautiful waters. I am WAY too much of a wimp to do this (I hate heights!) but a couple of people did it and could see turtles and other sea-life from the air. They were so close that as we pulled in towards the Blue Lagoon we could hear them cheering with excitement as they spun in the air.
You’ll need cash for the Blue Lagoon and you’ll likely have to either swim in or take a dinghy as boats are no longer allowed to dock there. This place was packed – it was beautiful, but I imagine it gets HEAVING in the high season.
We had a brief stop here under the sun and taking in the blue, it was soon time to head off again – this time to St Nicholas Island, where we would climb up the top of a cliff to view some Byzantine ruins and drink in a sunset…
The crew waved us off and we took one last glance back to familiarise ourselves with where ‘home’ was parked…
We arrived to two men stood cheering at a man in the water who’d caught an Octopus. “How do you catch them?” someone in the group asked. “It’s down to luck,” grinned one of the men, “Good luck for us, bad luck for the octopus,” he laughed, waving us off and inviting us to help ourselves if there were any left overs on the way back down.
But, talk of octopus luck forgotten, we set on our way up the cliff, determined to beat the sunset, stopping along the way to admire the last of the light lying on the ruins… 
… and to take a little look back at how far we’d come….
Before we knew it, we’d reached the top and the sun had held out just long enough to treat us to the most beautiful show – it dropped lazily behind the landscape as swallows busied themselves back and forth in front of the sunset.
Pictures will never be able to do this justice…
Before the dark settled in, we made our way back down to where our dinghy was waiting, drinking in the view from sea level…
As we stepped on to the boat full of the excitement of our adventure, we regaled our Captain with tales of Octopus left overs and the beauty of the sunset he’d witnessed from the deck whilst he busied himself with dinner
A perfect day, finished with fresh fish, a glass of wine, a few games of cards and ready to set sail on to the next part of our incredible adventure the following day…
Love,
Kate x
