Sicak Bay

Sicak Bay cuts into the western side of the Sicak peninsula, in the Kekova area of Antalya province between Kas and Demre. It sits off the main day-boat circuit, which is exactly why crews use it: green hills on three sides, mud holding that never lets go, and a half-hour walk over the ridge to the ruins of ancient Aperlai.

Location and Geography

The bay lies west of Kekova island, on the peninsula that separates Asar Bay from the sheltered water in front of Ucagiz. Olive trees and maquis cover the slopes around it, and the surrounding hills keep the bay in shadow early and late. Two long piers run out from the shore to a handful of family-run restaurants and pensions, but those piers work the tripper boats coming across from Demre and Ucagiz rather than sitting free for visiting yachts.

Anchorage

Boats anchor in 4-8 metres over mud, which gives excellent holding. The bay is protected from every direction except the east, so an easterly is the one wind that will move you - crews then run round to Ucagiz. Summer sea temperature averages around 26°C and peaks near 29°C in August, and the water is clear enough to watch the anchor set. Sicak is a classic stop on a Kekova blue cruise itinerary, normally taken as the night before or after the run past the sunken city on Kekova island.

Walking to Aperlai

A rough path leaves the bay and reaches the ancient city of Aperlai in about 30 minutes. Aperlai was a Lycian port founded between the late fourth and early third century BC and lived in for roughly a thousand years, until pirate and Arab raids emptied this coast and the city was abandoned around the end of the seventh century AD. Earthquakes dropped part of the site below sea level: the city wall runs down the shoreline and carries on underwater, and Lycian sarcophagi stand among the scrub above it.

The city's money came from purple dye extracted from murex sea snails. The yield is brutal - experiments suggest something near 12,000 snails for 1.4 grams of dye - and the discarded shells at Aperlai still cover roughly 1,600 square metres of ground. Aperlai did not invent the dye, which was a Phoenician trade long before, but it was one of the substantial production centres on the Lycian coast.

The path forms part of the Lycian Way, so it carries the red-and-white waymarks of the long-distance trail. Take water with you: there is none between the bay and the site.

Around the Bay

The restaurants at the head of the bay work off what the boats bring in, and the guesthouses take walkers coming off the Lycian Way as well as crews who want a night ashore. Beyond eating, swimming and the walk to Aperlai there is nothing organised here - no shops, no fuel, no water on the piers. That is the reason people come. Sunset over the western ridge is the standard argument for staying the extra night.