It was early in the morning at that time following dawn when the sun begins to blanket the sea with bleary rays of light. The water shimmered in silver with patches of turquoise and blue awaiting the full rise of day. The water at that time is a flat sheet and the sounds of lapping waves the only music in the still and silent morning.
My uncle drove over to pick me up in the car that would carry us many miles in the next two days. Our starting point was a stretch of sea a couple coves down from Akyarlar on the southwestern coast of the Bodrum peninsula. On any given day the white houses of the Greek isle of Kos are visible; and on especially clear days a hazy silhouette resolves to a view of our destination: the Datca peninsula.
In recent times Bodrum has been civilized in the most modern sense with shopping malls and megamarts forming an integral part of the landscape. Still, a nostalgic, old-fashioned aura persists in many places, especially in villages like Guvercinlik, where we went for breakfast. It was still early enough in the day that even the breakfast proprietors were only just beginning services as they drowsily watched us approach. Here, we fortified ourselves with a simple but extensive meal with cheeses and olives and jams and bread, and washed down with a standard helping of tea.