Friday 7 June

We made a last minute decision to take the car ferry from Marmaris to the 80-kilometre-long Datça peninsula. This wouldn’t really save us a great deal of driving but it would give us a chance to explore some beautiful scenery and give us a lands-eye view of some of the area would sail past. First we had to visit more ruins of course.

Knidos was a shipping stronghold in the 4th century BC. Once home to 70,000 people the ancient ruined harbour was destroyed by earthquakes, conquest and looting – the good old British Museum has some of the booty.

We joined a handful of other tourists to scramble over the ruins of the huge sea-facing amphitheatre and admire the basilica arches. So much of the city must still be buried all over the hillsides. It was well worth the detour but eventually we had to head for Marmaris and a one night hotel stay.

Marmaris is unashamedly a tourist resort. The bustling sea-front housed a fleet of tour boats and gulets along with the mega yachts of the rich and famous.

We found a harbour-front restaurant and had front seats on the upstairs terrace to enjoy a fabulous evening meal and watch the world go by.