A Whale of a Day

Gullet: Day 4. Our boat starts out early this morning, and I am in my usual spot --up front, right side, on the deck. The other four are back in the rear talking and reading. The mist is thick this morning, and we are moving through it silently. As it happened, when I was packing for this trip, I grabbed my small notebook from a spirituality weekend I went to five years before. I was rereading Chuck Lofy’s thoughts. Chuck envisions our inner self, not as a single point of light, but as a whole landscape of hills and valleys, some lit, some dark. If we are to really know ourselves, we must examine both the good and the bad. Just as I was reading these notes, we enter Butterfly Valley. I watch the mist lift inch by inch – unveiling a beautiful valley of high hills and crags, some sunlit, some dark. How appropriate. What was totally in mist, is now in light.

Jim, Beth and I choose to explore the valley. It's filled with flowers! A few butterflies alight. It is still early; the valley is quiet, tranquil. A bohemian set of folks camp at the base of the valley. “Quiet” signs are posted, “meditation in progress”. Jim and Beth continue up the valley to the top and find a waterfall for Beth to “shower” in. I can view the waterfall, but find a place lower down that says, “Here is good.” I sit and listen to the silence. I fall in love with this valley.

Unfortunately, as we return to the boat, we find that tour companies have poured in. The boats crank up their music, the bohemians hawk their crafts, and the spell is broken. I am grateful that we arrived with first light – and experienced a morning full of awe.

We left Butterfly Valley and headed for Rabbit Island. Along the way, a few of us were in deep conversation, when I spotted something big move in the water. I turned to Jim and said, “I just saw a really big fish.” We looked – and there were two whales. We begged the captain to stop and turn around, and we watched the whales swim, spout off, dive and surface. We followed them, or they followed us, for about 15 minutes. We were all thrilled. Jim, being Jim, immediately googled “whales of Turkey” and decided that what we had seen were “pilot whales.” None of us was expecting whale watching as a part of this gig. Cool!

We stayed that night at Rabbit Island. The best part of our mooring spot was a small, semicircular sea cave. Mark, Beth, Jim and I each took turns swimming through the cave. We sat up long into the night; Beth asked us to list our favorite highlights of the day. We had many!