Three's company

So what do you do when your girlfriend leaves you with her husband for a week?

Picnic at Arykanda - about time

First, you feed him. Plenty, and often. No bread or pasta fillers though. He's gluten-free. Think protein - eggs, cheese, meat, fish, yoghurt. Keep your fresh fruit and vege baskets topped up. Let him snack on nuts and dried fruit but on no account forget to give him lunch. Starved of solid fuel, he starts to splutter and on occasion has been known to grind to a halt. You can't run a man of Warrick's size and energy on camping rations.

It's interesting, isn't it, how differently our bodies function? Perhaps Alex and I have started to sync like girls who get their periods at the same time. We're skinny old chooks, the pair of us. Having Warrick on board reminded us of how big a part of our life keeping the fridge full used to be when we had five teenagers under the parental roof.

Emel makes a very fine espresso in her corner cafe at Ucagiz

Hassan - "best cook in the Mediterranean" - pours the Efes

Must be Efes time

Hoyran Wedre's pool is heavenly in 38 degrees C

Warrick is mad about food - he's a gourmet, and an excellent cook. So while I've been kept on my toes maintaining ordinary culinary standards on the boat, we've also eaten very well on shore, at Warrick's expense more often than not. He raved about the flavour of the local catch at Ikbal restaurant in Kas and at Hassan's simpler kebab and fish restaurant in Ucagiz (the village in Kekova); he did forensics on the home-made chutneys and jams at Hoyran Wedre (the country hotel which was to have been the piece de resistance in our itinerary for Robyn and Warrick - "the professor would have LOVED this", he said); he was never slow to accept an Efes beer (Turkish wine was another proposition altogether); and he was generous to a fault about my repetitive offerings (fresh and simple, as ever).

Panamas maketh the men

Girls can have one too

Faces at Myra

The lovely surprise of Limyra's ruins (and below)

King of Kalekoy castle - "total KICKASS", as he described it in our shipboard diary

Warrick plays Scrabble in the minor league

We left him yesterday on the dock at Ucagiz, bound by taxi for Dalaman and from there via Istanbul to Auckland, somewhat dazed by the sudden turn for the worse which the weather has taken. Settled weather, we'd promised. Well, not this Turkish autumn. Since Robyn's departure, we've had searing temperatures (over 40 degrees) and gale-force winds (over 35 knots) thrown at our little party of three.

We've coped. We've put in the sea miles, taken the winding mountain roads - and Warrick has taken the pictures. We've climbed Arycanda's steep terraced slopes, we've snorkelled over Aperlae's sunken ruins, we've tucked into anyone's and everyone's mezes and how often have we toasted an absent wife. Warrick missed Robyn. But that's how it goes on the Turkish riviera in September. We enjoyed his company.

Aperlae - the "other" sunken city at Kekova (and below)

Getting in amongst the snorkelling at Aperlae 

Enki parked among the crowd at the western end of Kevkova